Dems in panic mode .. LOL
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Hawaii special has Dems in knots
By ALEX ISENSTADT & JOHN BRESNAHAN | 4/13/10 9:49 PM EDT
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has transferred $150,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, money that will be used to bash the GOP candidate in next month’s House special election in the Aloha State.
Inouye’s action complicates the behind-the-scenes struggle between Inouye and House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, over which Democratic candidate will get DCCC support in the May 22 election.
Inouye and Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) are backing Hawaii Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, but the DCCC is flirting with throwing its public backing to former Rep. Ed Case, who alienated the Hawaii Democratic establishment by waging an unsuccessful primary challenge to Akaka in 2006.
Case and Hanabusa are vying for the vacant seat of former Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who stepped down Feb. 28 to run for governor.
With the prospect of two prominent Democrats splitting the party vote — a scenario that would potentially enable Republican Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou to capture the heavily Democratic seat — party sources say national Democrats have offered quiet organizational support to Case. That effort has coincided with the circulation of opposition research within Washington targeting Hanabusa.
But Inouye’s contribution to the DCCC is part of a broader push from the powerful senior Hawaii senator and Appropriations Committee chairman to sway the party from backing Case, whom he has sharply criticized in the past.
The contribution marked Inouye’s first donation to the DCCC since at least 1998, according to an analysis conducted by the Center for Responsive Politics.
A spokesman for Inouye’s 2010 reelection campaign confirmed the $150,000 donation to the DCCC, but he did not comment on the use of the money for an anti-Djou ad blitz.
“The senator’s campaign has made a contribution to the DCCC for its use to support its programs,” said Dale Snape, Inouye’s finance director. “With respect to the upcoming election in Hawaii, while Republicans in Hawaii and Washington are very good at saying no, they have offered no innovative solutions and shown no ability to lead Hawaii forward during these difficult economic times. Sen. Inouye supports state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa as the best person for the job.”
Inouye’s campaign had more than $3.2 million in cash on hand as of Dec. 31, according to his latest disclosure report with the Federal Election Commission.
Akaka said that, like Inouye, he is planning to make a contribution to the DCCC, although he has only $86,000 in cash in his campaign account, according to his FEC report.
“It’s on the record that Sen. Inouye and I are supporting Hanabusa,” Akaka told POLITICO. “She has a great background.”
Jennifer Crider, a DCCC spokeswoman, said the committee “appreciates Sen. Inouye’s support, as well as everything he is doing in Hawaii to defeat Charles Djou.”
Inouye’s efforts, however, have not been limited to defeating Djou. According to Democratic insiders, he also had several phone conversations with Pelosi during the spring recess to pressure her to back Hanabusa, and the two were expected to meet Tuesday.
Inouye’s political team is also taking on an expanded role in Hanabusa’s campaign. Jennifer Goto Sabas, who runs Inouye’s Hawaii office, is playing an advisory role for the Hanabusa campaign and, according to a knowledgeable party source, has been tasked with ramping up the candidate’s outreach to party leaders in Washington.
Last week, the Asian American Action Fund, an organization that seeks to advance Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the political sphere and that counts Inouye as an honorary member of its board, blasted the DCCC for backing Case over Hanabusa.
“The DCCC should focus the party on uniting Democrats and keeping this seat blue, rather than dividing us and helping us defeat ourselves,” Gautam Dutta, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement.
“It is unseemly for party officials to step into a special election with more than one Democrat, particularly in a district where 58 percent of the population is Asian-Pacific-American. Imagine the disgruntled reaction were the DCCC to step into a contested special election in a predominantly African-American or Latino district.”
Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, has lobbied DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) to not come out in support of Case.
Democratic insiders say Pelosi has remained noncommittal in her discussions with Inouye and has expressed reservations about Hanabusa’s ability to win the seat. Party strategists say Hanabusa, as a state legislative leader, is particularly vulnerable to charges that she is a political insider who received pay raises during hard economic times in the state.
Yet the normally phlegmatic Inouye is clearly taking Case’s challenge of Hanabusa as an affront to his status as the kingmaker in Hawaii Democratic politics.
“The senator didn’t like the fact that Case ‘primaried’ Sen. Akaka,” said former Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano, noting that Inouye reportedly brought up the 2006 race at a recent fundraiser for Hanabusa. “That’s how strongly he feels about it.”
“I think it’s pretty personal because [Inouye is] behaving in a way that contrasts with the way he usually exercises influence,” added Neil Milner, a political science professor at the University of Hawaii. Milner said that Inouye had so far kept a distance from the contested Democratic gubernatorial primary. “I think this ticked him off big time and made him behave in an unusual way.”
Milner said the contest between Case and Hanabusa, and the outlook for the May 22 election, have “become chaotic now.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35774.html#ixzz0l2kNJkrJ
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Charles Djou, an officer in the US Army Reserve,
could use some help. Shake up Hawaii and the Dems!!!
http://www.djou.com/
So to keep her dream alive, Democratic candidate Colleen Hanabusa needs our "help" to SPLIT the Democratic vote in Early Voting.