That was one heck of a birthday party they put on for former Mayor Frank Fasi the other night.

About 400 of Fasi's closest friends, former City Hall associates (and a passel of kids and grandchildren) gathered to honor Honolulu's longest-serving mayor.

The actual 86th birthday is today, but the weeknight event was planned to better accommodate individual schedules.

In the past, an event such as this would have been fueled by hot political rhetoric, sharp-tongued remarks from Hizzoner and peopled with the architects, engineers, lobbyists and others who had to do business with the City.

This time, it was more of a family gathering, with lots of hugs, back-slaps and reminiscing.

Fasi is slowing down a bit and had only brief remarks for the crowd, saying poignantly at one point "My job's done."

This kindly fellow was a far distance from the guy once known, in the words of former city Managing Director Ed Hirata, as "the fearless one, the firebrand, the Don Quixote."

While most of the guests were former comrades in arms, there were a fair number of VIPs, including former Gov. John Waihee, Sen. Dan Akaka, U.S. Reps. Ed Case and Neil Abercrombie and Judge Ronald Moon.

Old-timers were laughing about the fact that this was one last "birthday party."

That's because for years Fasi staged birthday party galas to raise money outside of the regular political fundraising system for worthy causes and for his own political purposes.

From 1968 to 1973, he held one of these $100-a-ticket galas every year. While everyone understood the money was going into a political kitty, the pre-1974 Hawai'i campaign spending law did not treat them as political fundraisers.

Thus, corporations were able to give, and the money did not have to be reported as a campaign contribution.

All that changed in the post-Watergate 1974 session of the Legislature. The newly created state Campaign Spending Commission went after the mayor and issued a statement of "censure" for failing to comply with reporting and accounting standards of the new law.

Fasi accepted the slap on the wrist, but his lawyer at the time, A. William Barlow, declared that "the whole thing smells to high heaven" and that the law itself was probably unconstitutional.

But most of the law stuck. In fact, for one election cycle, Hawai'i even had limits on the amount a candidate could spend to run for office in addition to the ongoing limits on contributions and reporting requirements.

The spending limit was dropped after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such restrictions were unconstitutional. We were back on our way to multimillion-dollar campaigns.

But the birthday parties, at least until last week, were no more.

Reach Jerry Burris at jburris@honoluluadvertiser.com. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.