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| U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka - photo from the Senator's Web site |
Hawaii’s nearly 5-decade-old political machine, headed by 82-year-old Senator Daniel Inouye, called in all of its political favors for the September 23rd Primary election, with a desperate plea to Hawaii Democrats to keep the liberal 82-year-old U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka in office.
Backed by every union in the state, virtually every well-known local Democrat politician, most of the American Japanese vote and the native Hawaiian vote, and Democrats who don’t want change in Hawaii, Akaka beat out his much younger Democrat challenger, 53-year-old Congressman Ed Case, with 128,927 votes (54 percent) to Case’s 106,968 votes (45 percent).
Akaka supporters rallied around their candidate as poll results rolled in, shouting "6 more years!"
They strongly oppose Case, who helped sweep out political corruption and bring a more moderate voice to his party’s extremely liberal bent, and by doing so gained many powerful enemies within his own party who don’t like his independence, his ability to work with people in both parties, his pro-business stance, his moderate views or his voting record in his 8 years in the state House and four years in Congress on domestic and foreign policy issues.
Case has taken on the Democrat Political Machine before. In 2002, he ran for governor but was beaten by a narrow margin in the primary election by Mazie Hirono, then the Lieutenant governor who was backed by the same groups who helped defeat Case in this Senate election.
In 2002, U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink died, and Case was successful in winning that seat with a large margin.
The groups that supported Akaka in his bid to win back the Senate seat for 6 more years disagreed with Case that Hawaii needed to begin transitioning from two 82-year-old Senators to the next generation -- and to representatives with more moderate views.
Akaka was rated the nation’s most liberal Senator in 1998 -- even over Sen. Ted Kennedy of Mass. -- and in 2006, as one of the nation’s 5 most ineffective Senators by Time Magazine. Those were pluses for the Democratic machine that frowns on independence and relies heavily on Sen. Inouye -- deemed “Hawaii’s walking economy” -- to be the strong voice in the Senate for Hawaii in terms of bringing home federal funds.
Though media and internal polls showed Akaka several percentage points ahead of Case as many as four weeks before the primary, Democrat strategists continued to recruit personal and group endorsements for Akaka up until the day before the election releasing a list of 28 more groups and individuals who were backing him on September 22nd. See "Twenty-Eight More Individuals and Organizations Endorse Sen. Akaka"
Inouye even used his influence in the Senate to recruit endorsements from national Democrat celebrities including Sen. Barack Obama, a Hawaii-born native who relocated to Illinois; Sen. John Kerry, a former presidential nominee; and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, another failed presidential hopeful.
Akaka supporters, who knew the power of independent and Republican voters from Linda Lingle’s 16,000 vote victory in the 2002 governor’s race over then Democrat Lt. Governor Mazie Hirono as well as Mufi Hannemann’s victory of machine-backed candidate Duke Bainum in the 2004 Honolulu mayoral election, wanted to make sure they didn’t fail a third time, especially in their bid to keep that U.S. Senate seat.
The Republican leadership also played a role in Case’s defeat, through encouraging Republicans with letters to the editor and statements to the media to cast their vote for Republican U.S. Sen. Candidate Gerald Coffee, even though Coffee had dropped out of the race several weeks before for health reasons.
See Republican oped: "Make Your Vote Count This Saturday"
Because Coffee won the primary election on the 23rd with 10,000 plus votes or around 4,000 more than his nearest challenger received, the Republican leadership will be able to select a replacement for him to challenge Akaka in the General Election in November.
Whether the Republicans have a candidate strong enough to beat Akaka, who has been in Congress for more than 3 decades, remains to be seen. Lingle has been considered a strong candidate for a U.S. Senate seat, but she is up for re-election for governor for four more years, and will not be term-limited out until the end of this term. She is expected to win re-election easily over Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Randy Iwase. Iwase, a former state Senator, has raised only $100,000 or so compared to Lingle’s $6 million war chest.
In Other Election News
Hirono beat out nine other challengers in the September 23rd Primary Election for the Democratic nomination with 24,385 votes or 20.7 percent of the votes cast to replace Case in the Second Congressional District. She narrowly beat state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, who had 23,586 votes or 20 percent of the votes cast.
Republican Bob Hogue, a state Senator and sports radio, television and print sports journalist, narrowly won his bid for the Republican candidate in the November election over former House Minority Leader Quentin Kawananakoa.
Hogue, who had only raised about $30,000, was able to defeat his primary challenger by a slim margin through a grassroots effort with 8,393 votes. Kawananakoa, who received 8,194 votes, said he planned to spend $1 million of his own money if necessary to win.
For the full list of candidates and results, log onto
http://www.hawaii.gov/elections/results/2006/primary/pdf/histatewide.pdf
Reach Malia Zimmerman, editor and president of Hawaii Reporter, via email at mailto:Malia@hawaiireporter.com
