MAUI Mayor Linda Lingle may be the Republican challenger for governor in the November general election next year. To face her, however, Gov. Ben Cayetano could first have to get by Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris in the Democratic primary in September. Prospects of Harris
bid for governorSome say Harris is itching to run. He didn't foreclose the possibility in his 1996 re-election race even though his opponent, Arnold Morgado, goaded him to do so. "No present intention," was the most Harris would say. That's a prudent answer because, like Mayor Frank Fasi in 1994, he would have to resign as mayor to run. The decision date is under 17 months away.
Things didn't turn out well for Fasi. Harris has to weigh that before he jumps. Since he is a careful man I don't think we'll see him resigning unless he rates his prospects as very good to excellent. He is young enough to wait until 2002, when Cayetano can't run again.
Cayetano is a gutsy big-picture man who leaves the details to others. Harris is a master of detail.
I have just re-read Cayetano's State of the State speech and Harris' State of the City address, delivered five days earlier. Both reported on two years in office. They told us they did well. There are facts to back up each contention but enough crime and economic malaise to tell us plenty remains wrong.
They each recognize the importance of dealing with crime, a need to bolster the economy through strengthening tourism while trying to diversify and to protect the environment.
The governor talked a good line on education, a state responsibility, as he did in his 1994 campaign. Budget crimps forced him into boasting this year that he had cut education less than other activities. He did, however, promise a stepped-up classroom building program, 3,000 new homes for native Hawaiians started before his first term ends, and limited new tax incentives for business. Since his talk he has added seven days to the school year.
On 1,000 extra prison beds, and the need for more care for the homeless, Harris nipped at the state. The governor's people later nipped back. Harris also proposed an exchange of state-county highway responsibilities for greater efficiency without Cayetano taking a stand on that either pro or con.
Point-scoring against each other will continue. But the best politics for both may be to do the best job they can, even to the point of cooperating with the other guy.
With Mayor Lingle threatening to raise the issue when she runs, I dare to hope Cayetano and Harris might be prodded to admit a major issue in the way public worker union leaders dominate the government structure, much the way the old Big Five dominated the economy.
Whether by legislation, confrontation or cajoling and buy-outs we have to get back from government unions some of the management rights they now usurp in ways totally foreign to private industry.
MY vote in 1998 could go to the candidate I thought had the best chance of changing this. A combination of Lingle, minority Republican legislators and a brighter media spotlight could force public management to the center as an issue. How I hope so!
Mayor Harris was swamped with union endorsements in 1996. How brave he will be is yet to be seen. But he has put together a fascinating coalition cabinet that brings in labor, business, developers and more. He has shown personal concern for the environment.
Could he try to bring change collaboratively instead of confrontationally? Or is he just building an army to march across Punchbowl Street from Honolulu Hale in 1998 to occupy the State Capitol?
The state vs. City Hall fault line is one of the major rift zones in Hawaii politics. The four years when Gov. George Ariyoshi and his former cabinet member, Mayor Eileen Anderson, were a congenial duo aren't commonplace.
More than 80 percent of the state's voters can vote for Honolulu mayor. No wonder the winner thinks about trying to move his forces across Punchbowl Street.