Norma Wong, 40, easily one of the most competent officials from the previous administration of Gov. John Waihee, has offered to help the Harris campaign.
She is a Kamehameha Schools and Wellesley College grad and a former state House member who worked in a variety of executive positions for Waihee. Wong watched over state-federal relations, helped brief Waihee on federal issues and was involved in negotiations over ceded land claims.
Wong strikes you as the sort who is rarely surprised because she has already done all the homework. Today she is an assistant in the local office of the national law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, which also hired Waihee.
She is working on business issues for Pacific Basin clients who are involved with the federal government.
Wong downplays her local political involvement, warning observers not to make too much of it. While she has no specific role in the campaign and is not representing Waihee, it isn't likely that she would be coming on board the Harris campaign if Waihee opposed it.
The mayor's supporters see Wong and her former associate, Harry Mattson, who is also assisting Harris, as grass-roots specialists.
As such, Wong and Mattson deliver the ability to do precinct-by-precinct breakdowns that are crucial for planning campaign strategy, according to one Harris supporter.
The information plugs a hole in the Harris campaign, which, after operating in the shadow of former Mayor Frank Fasi, was unable to develop its own extensive grass-roots network.
Wong says her help probably won't bring a lot of troops to the Harris campaign, not like the steady help from a coalition of labor leaders who have pitched in, but she does offer a sign for Waihee's own network.
For instance Chuck Freedman, another capable Waihee aide, now a vice president with Hawaiian Electric, is supporting Harris.
"I plan to vote for him and go to coffee hours. I think because of the city ordinance on city business I have to limit what I can do, but I can say I am a supporter," Freedman said.
He got to know Harris when Fasi and Waihee were working together to get federal money for rail transit. Although they got promises of lots of money, a local financial plan failed before the City Council and Honolulu didn't get its rail-transit system.
THAT sort of networking is starting to pay off for Harris as he is plucking off supporters like mangoes from all sorts of political campaigns.
Supporters of former state senator and erstwhile Harris opponent Ann Kobayashi and former Sens. Tony Chang and Gerald Hagino are also joining the Harris campaign.
Another key Waihee executive, Bob Fishman, is city managing director and involved with the campaign.
All this, of course, is preliminary. The big shoe to fall would be if Waihee himself came out for Harris.
That might not be an outright blessing, because of the problems with the last years of the Waihee administration, but Waihee's administration today has more staying power at City Hall than across the street at the State Capitol.