Jeremy Harris vs. Arnold Morgado
Jeremy Harris vs. Arnold Morgado
That's how scant Jeremy Harris fell short from winning the Honolulu mayor's race and keeping his job outright this past weekend. Instead, the two-year incumbent must now reload and face surging archrival Arnold Morgado come Nov. 5.
Looking ahead to the next six weeks, both candidates said they intend to keep hammering on the themes they've espoused for the last several months.
For Harris, it means continuing to instill in voters the notion that there is no reason to look elsewhere for a new mayor, that he has done the job.
For Morgado, it means continuing to spread the news that Harris has been soft on crime and made little difference in other areas during two years in office.
Both men, at yesterday's Democratic Party unity breakfast, said they expect the runoff to focus more on issues and less on personalities now that Frank Fasi is out of the race.
Despite falling short of the Saturday sweep polls had predicted, Harris waxed optimistic. "We were thrilled, of course, to have such broad-base support from all around the island," he said. "It's very reassuring."
Harris got 94,846 votes on Saturday - 38,605 more than Morgado - but failed to capture the 50-percent-plus-one-vote requirement that would have precluded the runoff. He captured 49.3 percent of the votes cast in the election, not counting blank or spoiled ballots.
Morgado captured 29.2 percent of the votes, showing much stronger support than any poll had predicted. "I can't tell you how excited I am to be in this position," Morgado told jubilant supporters after Saturday's first printout. "We've got them right where we want them!"
With some polls showing him as much as 40 percentage points behind, Morgado achieved his goal of getting into a showdown with Harris, whom he lost to by 9,500 votes in 1994.
As for the man who has been called "Mayor Frank Fasi" spanning over four decades, this election could well have written the last chapter in a colorful political career.
Fasi, mayor for all but four years from 1968 through 1994, finished a disappointing third with only 20.1 percent of votes cast.
At 76, Fasi has now lost two straight elections and some are questioning whether he can, or even wants to, come back for one more fight. Fasi raised little money this year and relied primarily on a war chest built up over the years.
Fasi could not be reached for comment yesterday, but was expected to make a statement this afternoon.
Joyce Fasi said her husband has not yet decided what he will do now that he's lost. But she reminded a reporter of the former mayor's age-old comparison of himself to a rubber ball: "The harder you throw it down, the higher it goes back up."
Fasi said had he finished second, he would have expected Morgado to endorse him. Morgado said he likely would have.
Whether Fasi's votes will be transferred to Morgado remains to be seen. Harris said he doubts it.
Morgado will also get support from Gov. Ben Cayetano, who showed up at Morgado headquarters on election night and had a private talk with the challenger for nearly an hour.
Afterward, Cayetano dismissed speculation his support of Morgado reflects a wariness that Harris would challenge him for governor in 1998.
"If Jeremy wants to run or anyone else wants to run for governor two years from now, so be it," Cayetano said.
"I support Arnold Morgado because when I was 30 points behind in 1994, Arnold had just lost an election. I know he was disappointed, but he came out and supported me. Arnold's a man of integrity . . . and been a good public servant."
Cayetano said his endorsement of Morgado is "personal" and the governor said that he has supporters in the Harris and Fasi camps.
Meanwhile, former Gov. John Waihee, Cayetano's predecessor, spent time at Harris' headquarters Saturday night.
Like Cayetano, Waihee dismissed talk that he has placed his campaign apparatus behind a mayoral candidate.
"They never listened to me while I was governor, why should they listen to me now?" Waihee said.
Both Cayetano and Waihee, at yesterday's Democratic Unity breakfast, said while they have dueling preferences in the mayor's race, they have no serious qualms about the other candidate because they are Democrats.