Breaking News?

Via e-mail a few minutes ago: "Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris is expected to announce Thursday afternoon that he will no longer seek the office of the governor."

KITV 4 News and TheHawaiiChannel.com will have a live report on his announcement at 4 p.m.

Huh?

Comments

I just turned on KHNL and, well, there he was.

Pardon my language, but - WTF????

Non-Harris fan that I am, I actually know a couple of people who are campaigning for him... they must be sooo crushed to hear this. :(

More later.

I think Mazie is gonna have to repaint her van...

...but will she still keep her offices right next to Rock-Za? ;)

Aaron: I think Mazie is gonna have to repaint her van...

...as well as Duke Bainum and others who were seeking the office that Harris has decided not to vacate.

From the Advertiser: Harris blamed "bumps in the road" in his campaign and "a year of bad publicity" that hurt his campaign and placed him 22 points behind Republican gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle, according to recent polls.

In practice, though, that says nothing. Remember that Uncle Ben squeaked by Aunty Linda the first time. Don't know the extent that Lingle led then, but never underestimate the Democratic machine.

Then again, maybe the machine itself decided to chew Harris up and spit him out.

Whoever said politics in Hawaii was boring...

Well, I guess this website isn't needed any more.

(Not that I know anything about it. No sir.)

Um, Ryan, isn't there a line in Shakespeare: "methinks he doth protest too much?" Or, alternatively, "the guilty flee where no man pursueth."

Snicker.

Something isn't right about Harris' end to his gubernatorial quest. There's more than meets the eye about the development, but I can't even guess what that might be.

As my namesake pointed out in a previous post, Harris' claim that low poll numbers indicate he can't win doesn't make sense. Those kind of numbers are somewhat expected this early in the game.

The "bumps" from the campaign finance problems, City Council challenges and the lawsuit also don't seem to be valid reasons.

The "machine" didn't do it him. He controls one of the strongest political machines in the state. The Democratic Party has grown weak (disclaimer: I am a card-carrying Democrat) and in no position to dictate the mayor's political viability.

Going forward, Hirono and Case are the only legitimate Democratic contenders. Republican-turned-Dem Andy Anderson should have stayed faithful to his ideology and kept his GOP membership.

And I betcha good money that dozens of phone calls are flooding state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa's lines.

Oh, absolutely, Keith. The buzz is definitely that something's fishy here. Harris saying he's not carrying the torch for the Dems because he can't win is patently ridiculous — he was still hands down the best candidate against Lingle.

Two theories (my money's on the latter, but that's wishful thinking):

1. Playing it safe. Harris is a career politician, not a former businessman, a lawyer, etc. If he did officially and noisily put his hat in the race (again) today at the Democratic convention, he would've finally had to resign as mayor to run. At 22 points behind Lingle, though, he had a challenge ahead. And if he lost, he'd be out of a job with nowhere to go. Faced with a guaranteed current job until 2004, versus a 50/50 chance of being beaten in November, he decided not to take the risk.
2. Something's going down. Maybe Harris and his allies knew that something would happen in the next couple of weeks (it has to be soon, given how sudden his announcement was) that would have made his campaign moot anyway. An indictment, perhaps, if not of him, perhaps someone high enough to put him within splatter range (Ben Lee?). Rather than be a disgraced former mayor and losing candidate, he decided to just be a disgraced mayor. At least he'd still get a few more paychecks (especially if he takes a few plays from Andy Mirikitani's playbook).

What do you think?

Maybe seeing that funny cartoon in the current Weekly pushed him over the edge. :)

My good money's on "something's going down," and I predict that it will happen in the next few weeks.

Not that I would know, in spite of the fact that I do work with more than a few people - again, trying to be diplomatic here - who were, up until this point, actively campaigning for him. I've been told by a few people who do know him personally that he's not completely evil, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jeremy does get implicated in one way or another in something that'll ruin his career completely.

And to answer Panther's comment - wonder how John Pritchett is taking this piece of shocking news?

Van watch 2002 continues...

As of approximately 9 am, Mazie's van still hasn't been painted. Although just for kicks, I stuck a post-it note that said "Governor 2002" on Hanabusa's SUV.

Hmm...agitprop lives!

*News Flash*

I saw Mazie's van today on Piikoi...It says Mazie for GOVERNOR!!

Guess they didn't delay too long!

Of course they didn't.

Incidentally, I just overheard one of the astrologers at the "witch" store that I've been hanging out at talking about "something funny" having happened to the Harris campaign - partly because one of her friends was working at the Sheraton for the State Democratic Convention and noticed that Harris' people were withdrawing their reservations in large amounts.

(No, I don't think she has Jeremy's astrological birth chart or anything like that, but I dunno, maybe there was something in that way, too...)

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