Frank Fasi’s last
hurrah was more
like a whimper

Frank, I mean Mr. Mayor, say it isn't so.

After more than 50 years in Hawaii politics, Frank Fasi announced last week that he would run for office no more.

During those years Fasi has been written off more than most, only to rise again.

Perhaps his last victory in 1992, over former councilman and state legislator Dennis O'Connor was the sign unheeded, as Fasi only won in the early morning hours of the vote counting by 3,200 votes.

Fasi held the Honolulu mayorship longer than anyone else in city history. First elected in 1968, Fasi served until 1981. Then he was defeated by Eileen Anderson, who served one term and was defeated by Fasi. He served for two terms, leaving in the middle of his last term to answer his perpetual quest, the governorship.

Fasi ran for governor five times and in doing so, instead of making new partnerships, he alienated new groups of voters. Fasi, who was one of the founders of the modern Democratic Party, ran first as a Democratic alternative to the political machine of the old Burns wing of the party.

Later he ran as a Democratic populist and political maverick, giving a home to political newcomers and undecided voters, but driving off loyal Democrats who went with former Lt. Gov. Tom Gill. Then to avoid a rough Democratic primary, Fasi invented a new political party, The Best Party, to get him nominated and into a general election.

When that gambit also failed, Fasi ran as a Republican, with the shop-worn reason that "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, it left me."

Again Fasi lost supporters, as Democrats left his new Republican side. Finally, he ran against the GOP's Joan of Arc, Linda Lingle, and managed to whittle his support base into a cult following.

The campaigns, however, feed a sense of hope for voters that was at the core of Fasi's support for the mystical "little guy." Casting himself as the David against Goliaths ranging from John Burns and George Ariyoshi to the newspapers (especially the one you are reading), various labor union leaders and even businessmen who caught his ire, Fasi was always able to cast himself as the champion of the underdog.

Along the way Fasi reworked much of city government, reshaped downtown Honolulu and gave the city the parks and programs that are still defining the Honolulu experience.

While making Honolulu a better place, he was also installing one of the most effective political fund-raising machines in Hawaii's history.

The Fasi history is complex. While standing up for the little guy, Fasi also enforced a "pay to play" ethic with city contracts.

It was Fasi who bluntly said that if all things are equal, he would give the contract to his friends. Fasi's top-dollar fundraisers and the repeated allegations that he was using city employees to staff his campaign made it easy to run a "Clean-up Honolulu Hale" campaign against Fasi.

Now, as the 84-year-old politician edges to the end of his political career, he again tries for a little political spin, hoping that he can throw his supporters to Mufi Hannemann in the mayor's race. Perhaps he still holds sway with Honolulu voters or perhaps his 17,000 primary election votes were cast by people still undecided.

Either way, for a career of such passion it is a disappointingly amorphous final note.