Honolulu Lite
Mayor Jeremy Harris isn't feeling a lot of love from his own party these days. Ticket to a new dynasty:
Lingle-HarrisWhat should have been a walk in the park on his way to the Democratic nomination for governor now resembles a walk through al-Qaida territory.
He recently suspended his campaign after a Circuit Court judge ruled that a state constitutional amendment requires that he resign as mayor if he's running for governor. Harris wants to hear what the folks in the black muumuus, the Hawaii Supreme Court, have to say about the amendment before he resumes his campaign.
The court case was instigated by fellow Democrat Russell Blair, who claims he has absolutely no interest in sabotaging Harris' campaign, he simply wants candidates to play by the rules. Blair knows something about playing by the rules since after serving as a good little Democrat in the Democrat-controlled state Legislature, he was (surprise!) appointed a District Court judge.
But the court challenge is just the latest dissing Harris has gotten from his comrades. What apparently really set off the Democratic old guard is when Harris raised $100,000 for Al Gore's presidential bid, money that then-Democratic Party Chairman Walter Heen thought should have been put into state races. Some Democrats apparently believe that Republicans won more seats in the Legislature than ever before simply because the Dems didn't have Harris' hundred grand, not because voters simply were tired of the status quo. You'd think that a party that had been in power for so long wouldn't carry a grudge over a measly $100,000, but grudge carrying is one of the hallmarks of power politics.
Harris also has found himself embroiled in an investigation into illegal fund raising, which he attributes to a multipronged effort to sink his run for governor. The weird thing is that all the prongs lead back to his Democratic buddies. As much as Democratic Party power brokers deny any kind of vendetta against Harris, it's pretty obvious that it ain't the Republicans who are siccing judges, campaign spending investigators and former state legislators on Harris.
Harris ought to use his court-sponsored campaign timeout to consider his options. One of those is to tell his back-stabbing political party to shove it. He's officially nonpartisan anyway because the race for mayor is nonpartisan. Whatever deal he made with Gov. Ben Cayetano not to challenge Ben in the last gubernatorial primary in return for Democratic support in this governor's race is null and void.
Harris ought to run for lieutenant governor as a Republican on Linda Lingle's ticket. Together, they would crush any candidates the flighty Democrats could put up.
After Linda's two terms, Harris would be a shoo-in for governor. Amazing. A new political dynasty would be born out of the ashes of a measly $100,000 political argument.
Charles Memminger, winner of National Society of Newspaper Columnists awards, appears Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. E-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com