LATE tonight: as in, polls close at midnight Eastern Time and I’ll probably find out whether my prediction* was true or not in the morning. I wasn’t really planning to stay up late enough to find out, honestly.
Moe Lane
*Honestly, it’s a crapshoot at this point. Nobody knows from the polling how this is going to go down.
Alas, I’m doing so because of, well, racism. Or at least a highly unseemly racialist awareness of the candidates on the part of Hawaiian Democrats:
If U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz falls short in Saturday’s Democratic primary in Hawaii, it will be despite the support he has lined up from a slew of boldface names who are backing his candidacy.
Prominent Washington Democrats ranging from Al Gore to Elizabeth Warren to Harry Reid have all gotten behind the incumbent in his race against U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa.
Most notably, Schatz earned the backing of the first commander-in-chief born in the Aloha State when President Obama endorsed him in March.
Still, it is another native son of Hawaii who truly looms over the special election, offering Hanabusa perhaps the biggest boost in her upset bid: the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, who represented the 50th state in Washington for half a century.
Continue reading I predict an upset in Hawaii’s Democratic Senate primary on Saturday.
Mind you, both the state Obamacare exchange AND the governor deserve it.
The state Obamacare exchange for not working, and the governor for contributing to the general lack of function. For those who missed the original story: Hawaii, like many other Democratic controlled states*, produced its own state exchange. And, like many other Democratic-controlled states, the exchange has crashed, burned, exploded, sunk below the waves, and then exploded again. Just in time, I might add, for the 2014 election cycle, which amusingly enough is a midterm – which means that most of the governors’ races are taking place this November. Continue reading RGA slams Hawaii’s state #obamacare exchange, Neil Abercrombie.
Democrat Mufi Hannemann, former mayor of Honolulu, will be running as an ‘independent.’ That is excellent news for the GOP, giving that incumbent Neil Abercrombie is doing poorly in the polls already. A third candidate taking votes from the Democrat is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Interesting, and a pity: “Former U.S. Rep, Charles Djou, a Republican, officially announced today that he is running for Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District seat.” It’s a pity because while there weren’t that many ways to take advantage of the gutter war in the Democratic primary between Brian Schatz and Colleen Hanabusa, Charles Djou was pretty much the biggest Republican name that could run who wasn’t running for something else (Hawaii doesn’t have much of a Republican presence*). Unless Linda Lingle is ready to run again, that’s pretty much it… Continue reading Charles Djou running for Hawaii-01, NOT Hawaii-SEN.
As in, he’s endorsing Schatz over Colleen Hanabusa.
RT @jbendery: Scoop: Obama to endorse Brian Schatz over Colleen Hanabusa in heated Senate Dem primary http://t.co/GOTp0iaOpY
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) March 31, 2014
Continue reading Barack Obama may be giving Brian Schatz the Kiss of Death in Hawaii-SEN primary.
And by ‘interesting’ I mean favorable:
If the Hawaii News Now/Star Advertiser poll checked the Senate race, it wasn’t reported: based on the numbers, I’d guess that Hanabusa would be ahead of Djou and that Djou would be ahead of Schatz*. That is… remarkable news: particularly if the Hawaiian primaries turn nasty. After all, Djou won his Congressional race because Ed Case and… Colleen Hanabusa… both adamantly refused to accept the results of their primary race. Obviously, the Hawaiian Democratic party is as aware of this as I am: the question is, will they be able to keep whichever Democrat loses in line?
Interesting days ahead.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*You might be forgiven for thinking that this poll suggests that hao… ahem, ‘Caucasians’… may end up having a somewhat thin time of it in Hawaii this election cycle. Mostly because I’m thinking it, too. I don’t know what to do about it, though.
No, no reason: I just like to let Sam know from time to time that somebody on the mainland actually remembers that there is a Republican party in Hawaii – and a Republican in the state Senate there. Sam Slom‘s been the Minority Leader there since 2010, because he’s also been the entire Senate caucus there since 2010. I assume that the job is as lonely as all get-out.
Don’t know what the heck we’re going to do over there when Sam retires, tell truthful. I wonder if Hawaii Democrats are being similarly thoughtful…
“…most distasteful in view of the fact that the sheep was under 18 years old.”
No, I never thought that I’d have the opportunity to write that out, either. But apparently this is the world that we live in, now:
Hawaii senator Brian Schatz involved in simulated sheep rape rituals
U.S. Senator Brian Schatz once led a fraternity that got into trouble with the law and animal welfare groups for threatening to sodomize a sheep.
Continue reading Senator Brian Schatz (D, Hawaii): did you have carnal relations with that sheep?
Just as a thought experiment: imagine what would happen if the following scenario played out…
The question before the board is, Just how big would the resulting media firestorm be, anyway? Large enough to detect from orbit?