GOP Seeks Win in Obama's Hometown Hawaii District
Hawaii could elect its first Republican congressman in decades tomorrow -- and in President Obama's hometown district, no less.
Two Democrats are running against one Republican tomorrow in a special election to replace Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who stepped down from office to pursue a gubernatorial bid. The Democrats, former Rep. Ed Case and state Senate president Colleen Hanabusa, are expected to split the left-leaning votes, giving an edge to the GOP candidate, Honolulu city councilman Charles Djou. The election is entirely mail-in, which is atypical for Hawaii.
The win would be mostly symbolic for the Republican party -- after losing the special election in Pennsylvania's 12th district earlier this week, the party could regain some enthusiasm by winning the district in which Mr. Obama was born. However, the seat will be up for grabs again in November, when there will be only one Democrat on the ballot. The state is largely Democratic -- Mr. Obama carried it with nearly 72 percent of the vote in 2008.
The Democratic party, however, could not come together to coordinate an easy victory in the special election. The party has been hotly divided over whom to support, with some saying national party interference in the election has been racially insensitive or sexist. Publicly, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee focused on campaigning against Djou, but reports indicated the DCCC was supporting Case behind the scenes, even though Hanabusa had strong local backing.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), head of the DCCC, indicated to reporters Thursday that the committee was giving up on the special election, the Hill reports.
"We're looking at November in Hawaii," he said, adding, "I can confidently predict that the Democrats together will get a majority of the vote just like the Democratic candidate in November will get a majority of the vote."
The DCCC announced earlier this month it would stop investing resources in the campaign.
The election has generated a strong level of interest, the AP reports -- an estimated 46 percent of the ballots had been returned as of Wednesday, far higher than the 13.3 percent who voted at traditional polling places during the last special congressional election in 2002.
If the election results are close or there's a challenge to procedures used to validate ballots in the entirely mail-in election, the Hawaii Supreme Court will be responsible for a solution, the AP reports.