High court gets mayor’s
brief on resign-to-run case

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By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.com

The "plain and unambiguous language" of the state Constitution did not require Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris to resign from office last year, a lawyer for the Harris campaign argued.

In a 10-page reply brief filed yesterday in state Supreme Court, Harris campaign attorney Robert Klein said the state's resign-to-run constitutional amendment requires Harris to step down when he files his nomination papers in July and not when he filed his organizational papers last May.

"Filing campaign-spending reports does not make a person capable of being elected," Klein said. "Only by filing nomination papers can someone seeking public office become eligible to be elected."

Harris is appealing Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna's ruling last month that he should have resigned last May when he filed an organizational report with the state Campaign Spending Commission.

The ruling came on a lawsuit filed by Russell Blair, a former state District Court judge and state senator.

Klein argued that members of the 1978 Constitutional Convention who drafted and voted on the resign-to-run amendment did not intend that the legislation require candidates to step down once they filed an organizational report with the Campaign Spending Commission.

Harris, who has suspended his campaign for governor pending the appeal, has said he will resign as mayor on or near July 23, when he files his nomination papers.

Harris, who plans to run for governor this year as a Democrat, has urged the high court to expedite its appeal, saying it affects other elected officials such as City Council members John DeSoto and Jon Yoshimura, who are considering campaigns for higher office.

The Supreme Court -- which has agreed to an expedited briefing schedule for Harris' appeal -- has not said when it plans to rule on the matter.