RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM D.G. "Andy" Anderson talked on the phone yesterday at the convention.

Candidates jockey
as convention opens

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By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.com

Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' decision to cash out of the governor's race already is paying off for his fellow Democrats in the gubernatorial race.

But those in the now-defunct mayor's race said they may seek a smaller office or may not run at all.

Heading into the state Democratic Party Convention, gubernatorial hopefuls Andy Anderson, state Rep. Ed Case and Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono said they are beginning to get calls from former Harris campaign volunteers who want to join their camps.

They also say the union commitments and political money that had been locked up by Harris are beginning to come their way.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Mayor's race handouts like these from Mufi Hannemann and Duke Bainum became obsolete Thursday.

Walter Heen, Anderson's campaign manager, said Anderson's office received a number of calls from Harris campaign volunteers. While it is difficult to estimate numbers, Heen said that his office spent much of Thursday on the telephone fielding calls from potential supporters.

Case, meanwhile, said his campaign is reaching out to many of Harris' supporters.

During his organizing efforts earlier this year, Case said, he spoke with several Harris supporters who said they would back him but were already bound to the mayor.

Anderson and Hirono, who receive significant support from organized labor, said they also expect to see additional commitments from the local unions as a result of Harris' decision.

The political money also is beginning to flow their way. According to his January filings with the state Campaign Spending Commission, Harris has raised more than $1 million for the governor's race, or more than double the amount raised by Case, Hirono and Anderson combined.

(Harris has up to four years to return the money to donors if he does not run for a new office.)

"It's going be considerably easier for us to raise money," said Heen.

It is a different story for the mayoral hopefuls.

Although Hirono has jumped back into the governor's race, City Councilman Duke Bainum and former City Councilman Mufi Hannemann have not ruled out running for other offices, although both stressed that they have made no decision.

Former City Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro said he will not run.

Bainum, Hannemann and Kaneshiro said they were extremely disappointed by Harris' decision given the effort that their teams put into the race. Hannemann and Bainum had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in television, print and radio advertising before Thursday's bombshell.

All three also had done considerable grass-roots campaigning and printed up large numbers of bumper stickers, posters, T-shirts and brochures that are now obsolete.

"If (Duke) runs for anything else, we'll have to redo everything," said Andy Winer, Bainum's campaign manager. "We had volunteers ready to do all kinds of things. We were all ready to go."