Posted on 01/19/2006 5:12:36 PM PST by LdSentinal
HONOLULU -- Hawaii Rep. Ed Case is expected to run against fellow Democrat Sen. Dan Akaka this fall, according to sources.
Case telephoned Akaka earlier in the day to inform the senator of his decision, sources said.
"Our Hawaii has been served ably and with great distinction by generations of U.S. Senators, including Sen. Daniel Akaka. Like all of our Hawaii, I have the deepest aloha for Sen. Akaka and truly honor his decades of selfless service. But we all know that we are in a time of transition our Hawaii's representation in Congress and especially in the Senate. "This transition requires that we phase in the next generation to provide continuity in that service."
If both senators were to leave office at the same time he said, "we don't want to have all of 'their accumulated seniority over night." Which would leave Hawaii "vulnerable while we build it anew from scratch."
Case, 53, is halfway through his second term in Congress. He won a special election to the House when the late Rep. Patsy Mink died. Case was a state legislator and made an unsuccessful bid for governor. He lost to former Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono in the primary.
Akaka, 81, has been in the Senate since 1990 when he was appointed to replace Sen. Sparky Matsunaga, who died while in office. He had been in the House from 1976.
Both politicians face re-election this year. That means the Democrats will not have an incumbent running for the House seat that covers rural Oahu and the neighbor islands.
I tended to cut Fong some slack, given the state at the time. His ACU rating was close to 70 prior to Watergate (67-1971; 64-1972; 68-1973) though plummeted by half afterwards (38-1974; 48-1975; 50-1976) prior to his decision not to run again in 1976. Had he run again in 1976, he probably still would've eked out another win (Ford won HI in '76, IIRC) and would've had Hayakawa as a seatmate. Of course, Hayakawa was a fair Conservative with real cajones (he stood up to the anti-Vietnam War kooks, physically), but he wasn't a spring chicken (at 70, the same age as Fong) when he upended one of the biggest empty-suit liberals of the time, John Tunney.
Sadly, when Hayakawa stepped down (he was often smeared by the media with the moniker "Sleepy Sam" for dozing off during hearings with liberal Democrats droning on and on), realizing he didn't want to spend his twilight years in DC, it paved the way for the Pete Wilson dynasty... and we all know how that turned out.
Is Hawaii like Massachusetts...a one party state that habitually elects Republican governors?
No ANY Republican elected in Hawaii is an anomaly.
Patricia Saiki served as a Republican in the US House for one term in the 101st.
"I think we should look to a younger generation of Hawaiian Republicans to run for office."
Maybe you were thinking of Hawaii, thought of Oahu, and it came out Ohio. Or maybe you'd been drinking too much of "de wine" and it made you think of Ohio's senior senator. : )
"Is Hawaii like Massachusetts...a one party state that habitually elects Republican governors?"
While Ford did very well in HI in 1976, Carter beat him there by a bit over 7,000 votes, 50.59% to 48.06%.
Actually, she served two terms, being elected in 1986 and reelected in 1988. She ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in a 1990 special election, losing to Daniel Akaka by a 55% to 45% margin.
"Maybe you were thinking of Hawaii, thought of Oahu, and it came out Ohio. Or maybe you'd been drinking too much of "de wine" and it made you think of Ohio's senior senator."
Good one
"While Ford did very well in HI in 1976, Carter beat him there by a bit over 7,000 votes, 50.59% to 48.06%."
Ah, OK. I was too lazy to look it up. ;-)
That begs the questions if Fong had been on the ballot, would he have helped Ford carry the state ? Would Spark Matsunaga have even bothered to run if Fong hadn't, and if he had, would he still have defeated Fong ?
I know Hayakawa was helped a bit in up-ending Tunney because Ford did carry California.
"That begs the questions if Fong had been on the ballot, would he have helped Ford carry the state?"
I'd have called Fong a moderate with some post-Watergate RINO tendencies (if he had stuck around into the Reagan era, he might've moved back -- he was inching back up again by '76). If he had brought more RINOs to the polls in '76, why would they have not voted for the biggest RINO President in modern memory ? ;-)
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