Politics

Special Elections in Hawaii and Pennsylvania Are Litmus Test for Midterms

By Lauren Seifert

April 19, 2010 / 5:34 PM EDT / CBS News

November may be 7 months away but special elections in Hawaii and Pennsylvania are getting the spotlight as pundits and analysts say its results could be a sign of things to come in the Fall. On Monday's "Washington Unplugged," John Dickerson got the latest on both races and the woes facing Florida's Charlie Crist from CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder.

Hawaii has a unique format for its election, a "winner-takes-all" format, meaning an open race without a primary and runoff - the candidate with a plurality of votes wins. Two Democrats, state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and former Rep. Ed Case are running against Republican Honolulu councilman Charles Djou.

According to Ambinder, "That could give the Republican Charles Djou a leg up in this district which since 1971 has only gone to a Republican once."

In Pennsylvania, the race if on for the late John Murtha's congressional seat. Murtha passed away in February and a special election will be held on May 22nd.

Breaking down the candidates Ambinder notes, "Tim Burns, Republican business man who has plenty of money and plenty of support. Then you have Murtha's District Director Mark Critz who is running essentially to continue to Murtha legacy."

The district has been held by Murtha for over three decades.

"It's a legacy of government largesse. This is a district that is very used to getting favors from government. Burns is running on the platform that suggests that all of that, 35 years of that was bad for the district," he said.

The reason why PA-12 is important is because should Tim Burns win, it would be telling as to voter sentiments nationwide on the power of big government.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist also faces the battle of his political career in the Republican Senate primary vs. Marco Rubio - and now the possibility of him running as a 3rd party candidate looks more and more like the solution to his "Rubio woes."

"Republican Party in Florida has essentially given up on him and there are signs that he's given up on the Republican Party," said Ambinder.

Watch Monday's "Washington Unplugged" above - which also features the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin on Defense Secretary Robert Gates' leaked memo on the lack of an effective Iran strategy and "Behind the Scenes" during Republican Sen. Scott Brown's interview on "Face the Nation".

"Washington Unplugged," CBSNews.com's exclusive daily politics Webshow, appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.