For the Honolulu district seat: Denise Matsumoto .
For the Leeward district seat: Ron Mata.
For the three Oahu at large seats: Dan Anderson, Lex Brodie and Thomas Kam.
The first round eliminated former Mayor Frank Fasi from the race, leaving Arnold Morgado to face the incumbent. Morgado has made up some ground in recent weeks, but still trails Harris in the latest Star-Bulletin poll. He has to hope that most of the large number of undecided voters will end up on his side and put him over the top.
The Star-Bulletin endorsed Harris before the first round and we have seen nothing since that would cause us to change our position. He is a capable, hard-working administrator who knows how the city-county government works and how to get results.
Having won the special election two years ago, Harris was immediately confronted with fiscal problems caused by the recession, which produced a dip in real property values and tax revenue. He has reduced the city's work force without layoffs through attrition and a hiring freeze while finding ways to maintain city services at roughly the same level - a major achievement.
In addition, he introduced automated refuse collection through much of the city with a minimum of disruption. He also launched a speeded-up process for issuing building permits, thereby reducing costly waiting periods for contractors.
In Waikiki, he got rid of the T-shirt vendors on Kalakaua Avenue, thereby ridding the tourist district of a major blight. He proposed a revision of the Waikiki Special Design District to encourage redevelopment of aging hotels and apartment buildings.
He has provided the police department with funding to train additional police officers to replace those who chose early retirement and lobbied the Legislature for more prison space to end the revolving door of arrest and release. He ordered more frequent cleaning of Chinatown's streets to make that district more presentable.
Harris' opponent, Morgado, has little to show for his years in the state Legislature and on the City Council. His main claim to fame is that he was principally responsible for killing the rail transit program, which could have eased Oahu's traffic problems. Instead he pushed through the Honolulu Public Transit Authority, an unnecessary addition to the city's bureaucracy.
Having no real answers to the city's problems, Morgado falls back on his "local" roots. Our endorsement goes to Harris.
As a deputy prosecutor attorney from 1978 to 1989, Carlisle prosecuted 55 jury trials and put 25 defendants in prison for life. He served as chief of the Felony Trials Division and director of the Career Criminal Unit. A loyalist of then-chief prosecutor Charles Marsland, Carlisle entered private practice after Keith Kaneshiro unseated Marsland in the 1988 election.
That doesn't mean that Carlisle would resurrect the shrill and divisive characteristics of the Marsland era. Police concerns about Carlisle's association with a Marsland investigative unit that went after organized-crime figures such as Henry Huihui and Ronald Ching are unfounded.
Carlisle says he recognizes the friction that unit created with the police department, which is responsible for investigating crime, and he has no intention of restoring the investigative unit. It was disbanded by Kaneshiro, who is leaving the prosecutor's office and will become head of the state Department of Public Safety.
The experience of David Arakawa, Carlisle's opponent, is much less extensive. Arakawa was a deputy prosecutor for less than three years, handled lesser felony cases and gained no supervisory experience.
Arakawa's chief support in the campaign is generated not by his experience as a prosecutor but by friendships resulting from his representation of politically prominent clients in private practice. Russell Okata, director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, said his union's endorsement of Arakawa was based solely on that friendship.
Political ties can be a plus for a politician serving in the Legislature. But the prosecutor should be independent, because he or she must enforce the law impartially. That is why the position was made elective, and the election nonpartisan.
Peter Carlisle would bring a wealth of experience and integrity to the prosecutor's office, with no political strings attached.
The Star-Bulletin endorses:
For the Honolulu district seat: Denise Matsumoto .
For the Leeward district seat: Ron Mata.
For the three Oahu at large seats: Dan Anderson, Lex Brodie and Thomas Kam.
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor