On Politics
By Richard Borreca
Sunday, February 3, 2002
Both parties fracturing
during crucial campaigningHawaii is moving into the campaign season with a trembling anxiety.
You don't see it in the players' faces, but in their actions, it is clear that someone has lost the script.
The Democrats are amazed that as they stand just 10 months away from the general election, there is no clear-cut plan for a winning the governor's race. While Mayor Jeremy Harris is the front-runner, with the most money raised ($1 million), his campaign is under investigation by the city prosecutor and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. To complicate matters, Harris is hinting that it is forces from within the Democratic party that are pushing the investigation, because they want him out of the race.
This is not a race that the Democrats are willing to just leave to chance, with Republicans threatening to take over the state House for the first time since statehood, the majority party can not afford to have the GOP also occupy the Capitol's top floor.
At the Capitol, Democratic operatives are trying out different scenarios. There are questions about whether Senate President Robert Bunda or Senate Vice President Colleen Hanabusa might be viable candidates for governor. In the House, there is talk that perhaps Speaker Calvin Say would run for governor. None of those mentioned have expressed any public interest in the race.
Waiting in the wings is Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, who bailed out of the governor's race, saying she wanted to run for mayor instead. But Hirono won't say whether she would jump back in the race if Harris were unable to run. Some of her supporters have already moved over to Harris, so there is a question of how viable her campaign would be if she re-entered the race.
And there are already two other Democratic candidates for governor: D.G. "Andy" Anderson and Rep. Ed Case, who figure the skidding Harris campaign opens up a clear shot for them.
What has happened is that the Democrats have managed to have a front-runner in name only, so at the same time that Harris leads the race, others are trying to fill the perceived vacuum. And until July 23 when the candidate-filing deadline passes, Democrats won't know for sure whether or not Harris is in the race to stay.
To add some uncertainty across the aisle, the Republicans have launched a flanking action on themselves. Perhaps it can be traced back to Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment, that no Republican shall speak ill (publicly) of another Republican, but for some reason there is a great expectation for the GOP to hang together.
When Democrats announce they are running against each other, when a Democratic Party chairman criticizes the Democratic leadership, when the Democratic governor blasts the Democratic mayor, that is permissible.
But if a GOP House member even questions the leadership of the party chairwoman, a rift akin to the San Andreas Fault is imagined opening.
For instance, Rep. Bob McDermott complained that party chairwoman Linda Lingle was forcing campaign tickets down the throats of GOP representatives by scheduling a meeting with Micah Kane, executive director, in the Capitol. Kane denied that, but that isn't the real story.
McDermott, who is running for Congress, worries that Lingle isn't supporting his campaign against Rep. Patsy Mink. Since he announced it last year, McDermott has fretted over Lingle's control of the party and her attempt to liberalize the GOP. Lingle has endorsed McDermott, but also says that McDermott is giving up a sure bet of re-election to the House for a slim chance of beating Mink. Since then, McDermott has divided his time attacking Mink and Lingle.
All that is a twitch, not a tremor, in the GOP world, but the Democrats have seized upon that as a sign that the opposition is fracturing.
Even now, 10 months away, both Democrats and Republicans are having difficulty remembering the winners are going to be determined not by the politicians who get in the last word, but by those who can remember to keep their eyes on the prize.
Richard Borreca writes on politics every Sunday in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached at 525-8630 or by e-mail at rborreca@starbulletin.com.
