Gov. Linda Lingle would not have appointed Bev Harbin to fill a vacancy in the state House of Representatives had she known Harbin's failed auto repair company owed thousands of dollars in state general-excise taxes, the governor's chief of staff said yesterday.

Harbin, who was sworn in yesterday to represent House District 28 (Iwilei, Downtown, Makiki), acknowledged she owed about $125,000 in unpaid state taxes for her Kaka'ako company, Hon\Hawaii, and had paid a separate $6,000 to the federal government in back taxes. Harbin and her company, which went out of business five years ago, also had several financial judgments over unpaid debts.

"I was a product of a very bad time," said Harbin, a small-business advocate who blames her company's failure on a poor economy in the late 1990s.

Bob Awana, the governor's chief of staff, said in a statement that potential appointees are given background checks but the searches do not include financial records. KITV 4 News first reported Harbin's tax debts Monday evening.

"Had this information been disclosed during the interview process, Ms. Harbin would not have been appointed," Awana said.

Lingle bypassed recommendations from the Democratic Party of Hawai'i in selecting Harbin to replace Ken Hiraki, who resigned to become the governmental affairs director at Hawaiian Telecom. Several Democrats were disappointed because Harbin had only joined the party after Hiraki's announcement and had made statements critical of prominent Democrats in the past. The Republican governor was required by law to replace Hiraki, a Democrat, with another Democrat.

Yesterday, after learning of Harbin's tax problems, Democratic Party leaders faulted both Harbin and the governor.

"If these charges are true, they are not the conduct of someone who should be trusted with public office," said Brickwood Galuteria, the party's chairman, at a news conference. "Now, hard questions have been and need to be asked of Bev Harbin's finances.

"What we see here is a pattern of behavior from an administration whose PR hype pretends to be considerate of the needs and wishes of local people, to talk the talk, but fails consistently to walk the walk."

Doug Pyle, a state mental- health educator and the party's chairman in District 28, said residents now lack a "real representative." The party had recommended four candidates to replace Hiraki.

"I was disappointed that the governor chose to ignore a fine slate of highly qualified and distinguished individuals, and instead played the lowest form of politics," Pyle said.

Despite the reservations of some, other members of the Democratic leadership, as they did when Harbin's appointment was announced on Friday, were welcoming. "The governor made her choice, and I've accepted her as a member in good standing," said House Majority Leader Marcus Oshiro, D-39th (Wahiawa). "I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt."

In an interview, Harbin said some bitter Democrats were responsible for passing word of her tax debts to news media. "They are deathly afraid because I'm not going to be part of the herd," she said.

Harbin said she would not resign or get distracted from being an advocate for small business. She said the collapse of her company made her sensitive to issues from taxes and healthcare costs to workers' compensation. She also said she would attempt to repay the back taxes but had no specific timetable.

Harbin said she had planned only to serve out the remainder of Hiraki's term in 2006 but has been angered by the way she believes she has been treated by Democrats. "If they're mean to me, I'll run," she said. "Be nice to me and I'll retire."

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.