Mufi Hannemann
going for mayor or bust

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By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com

Former City Councilman Mufi Hannemann says he wants to be mayor or nothing, and if the office is not available this year, he will sit out the political season.

Hannemann -- along with Councilman Duke Bainum, former city Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro and Lt. Gov. Maize Hirono -- had been campaigning for mayor when Mayor Jeremy Harris had a campaign for governor under way.

When Harris pulled out of the race, Hannemann and several other candidates for mayor were left without an office to run for. But Harris will not be able to run for re-election in 2004 because of term limits.

Hannemann was the last of the four candidates to announce plans for the 2002 election season. Bainum and Kaneshiro both said they wanted to run for mayor and would not consider another position. Hirono originally had been running for governor but said she could not raise enough money and decided to run for mayor. She jumped back into the gubernatorial contest when the Harris campaign collapsed.

Bainum, who is continuing his radio commercials and also a low-key campaign for mayor, welcomed Hannemann back into the future race yesterday.

"He took a long time to mull over his options. I'm committed to run for mayor, and I haven't given serious thought to any other campaign. I enjoy the city issues and am interested in them," Bainum said.

Hannemann, at a news conference yesterday, said he also would run for mayor.

"Despite some other winnable and attractive alternatives to serve the public, the position that I genuinely believe where I can make the greatest difference and contribution ... continues to be mayor," Hannemann said.

Harris said he was closing his campaign because he was 22 points behind the Republican candidate for governor, Linda Lingle, former mayor of Maui. Harris denied that the ongoing investigations of his campaign by a federal grand jury and the city prosecutor had anything to do with his decision to withdraw from the race.

Neither Hannemann nor Bainum would speculate if they thought the criminal investigations would force Harris out of the race earlier than 2004.