It may turn out that the most interesting political contest of the year involves two folks who aren't even running for office.

That would be, in case you didn't notice, the political dance involving Gov. Linda Lingle and Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

Until recently, folks in the Lingle camp harbored the suspicion that Hannemann might challenge her for governor this year. That concern appears to be waning as Hannemann insists over and over again that he intends to stay in Honolulu Hale.

In fact, Hannemann says, if he has political ambitions, they are as likely to point to Washington, D.C., as to Washington Place.

Still, it appears that the governor and her people still wish to keep the mayor at arm's length.

Hannemann, meanwhile, is unhappy that Lingle appears to be winning the public-relations battle over issues ranging from who should collect the new transit tax to dealing with the homeless.

In a recent meeting with Advertiser editors and reporters, Hannemann was asked what he thought of Lingle and her reelection chances.

He managed to cough up some praise, saying she was obviously bright, well-spoken and has indeed managed to shake up what had become an inbred state bureaucracy led by generations of Democrats.

At the same time, Hannemann was fairly critical of what he claimed is an administration more concerned with public relations and image over substance. Were he a Texan, Hannemann might have argued that the Lingle administration is a classic example of "all hat, no saddle."

To be fair, that is the standard knock on Lingle. She is good at public relations and making her case over the heads of the establishment to the public at large. Those who are less successful at this game tend to default to the criticism that she and her administration are too much of a showboat operation.

Hannemann, meanwhile, insists he is less interested in good publicity than in doing what he thinks is right.

On the issue of the transit tax, he says, he offered a variety of plans that would make the tax a "Hannemann tax" rather than a "Lingle tax," if that was the problem. No sale.

But one of the more astonishing things the mayor said had to do with the homeless, and what city and state are doing about the problem.

He smarts from Lingle's claim that the decision to uproot the homeless from Ala Moana Beach Park represented a lack of mayoral "compassion." Hannemann says he spends more time listening to and understanding the homeless than Lingle ever will.

And in fact, Hannemann said, his decision to evict the Ala Moana people was made, at least in part, as a direct attempt to prod Lingle into action. She has been sitting on a homeless plan for nearly four years, he said, without any sign of action.

"The governor had a homeless plan on the books for quite some time," Hannemann said, "and it just seemed to me I needed to kick the state into action. Plain and simple."

So that's why the homeless were evicted in the middle of 40 days and 40 nights of rain.

You have to wonder what the mayor will force the governor to do next.

Reach Jerry Burris at jburris@honoluluadvertiser.com.