Posted on 03/20/2010 4:06:37 AM PDT by Palmetto Patriot
Hawaii's 1st district special election -- set for May 22 -- appears to be a growing problem for House Democrats. The Cook Political Report, an independent political handicapper, moved the race from "lean Democrat" to "toss up" on Thursday, citing the "low hurdle" that Honolulu City Councilman Charle Djou (R) must clear to win. (The Fix ranked Hawaii's 1st district as the 17th most likely district to switch parties in our latest Line.)
All three major candidates -- Djou as well as Democrats Colleen Hanabusa, a state senator, and Ed Case, a former member of Congress -- will appear on the same ballot, creating a scenario where Case and Hanabusa split the Democratic vote and allow Djou to sneak through to victory. (There is no runoff provision so whichever candidate gets the most votes on May 22 wins.)
Aside from the winner-take-all ballot structure, there are two other problems for Democrats. The first is that Case, whose name ID has made him the frontrunner for the moment, is widely disliked by much of the Democratic Party establishment in the state due to his decision to primary Sen. Daniel InouyeDaniel Akaka in 2004 2006. With little love lost between Case and the forces backing Hanabusa, the two Democrats are expected to go at one another viciously. The second is that Djou is already on television with an effective ad portraying himself as a dedicated public servant (and making no mention of his party affiliation).
With the Hawaii special election growing more competitive, the five day period between the Pennsylvania 12 special on May 18 and the Aloha State vote on may 22 is becoming even more critical to determining where the two parties stand in advance of the November midterms.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
This Special Election on May 22 needs our attention. It appears to be moving our way.
Its time to “do the needful” as some of my Indian friends say for Mr. Djou.
thanks for the post
This race looks more promising. It would be great if Djou were to win with an outright majority.
If he wins with 40%, I’ll be happy. If Djou gets 40%, Case 32% and Hanabusa 28%, it would set Djou up nicely for the November election for the full term, since whichever of Case or Hanabusa wins the RAT primary in September will have a hard time getting supporters of the other candidate to vote for them.
The Republicans will never win if they don’t start educating their ‘spokespeople’ on TV. The Democrats have talking points - most of them lies - the uneducated Republican just sits there. They should be able to strike back with the truth.
Example: the Democrats say ObamaCare strengthens Medicare. The truth is, this is a big LIE. The CBO says that would be double-counting:
“To describe the full amount of HI trust fund savings as both improving the government’s ability to pay future Medicare benefits and financing new spending outside of Medicare would essentially double-count a large share of those savings and thus overstate the improvement in the government’s fiscal position.”
page 2, last paragraph: http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10868/12-23-Trust_Fund_Accounting.pdf
Sorry, repeating this in the hope some GOP leader will see it!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.