Former Rep. Ed Case (D-HI), one of the two Democratic candidates in the HI-01 special election, has a new ad in which he ties himself to President Obama, the very popular favorite son in this state — and practically claims the White House’s endorsement in a race that could see the Dems lose a safe seat due to a split vote.
“Now Washington Republicans want him [Obama] to fail. And they’ll use Charles Djou to help them. Djou actually said he’ll be the ‘exact opposite’ of Obama,” the announcer says. “Only one candidate is strong enough to stand with the president — Ed Case. The White House believes Ed Case has the best chance of beating Djou, and moving America forward. Ed Case, President Obama — putting Hawaii first.”
Hawaii special elections for the House do not work like they usually do in other states, where candidates either compete in separate party primaries, or the parties select their candidates through an internal party committee process. Instead, a single-round election is held in which all the candidates appear together on one ballot, and the plurality-winner takes the whole thing. The election is being conducted entirely by mail, and will end on May 22.
The election has only one Republican candidate, Honolulu city councilman Charles Djou, with two Democrats, Case and state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa. As a result of the split Democratic vote, the party could very well end up losing a district that President Obama carried with 70% of the vote in 2008.
A DNC-commissioned poll has aggressively advocated Case as the party’s only chance to hold the seat, with him scoring behind Djou but well ahead of Hanabusa — the basis of Case’s claim of White House support in the ad. Nevertheless, Hanabusa has pledged to say in the race.
The TPM Poll Average for the special election shows Djou with 32.3%, Case with 32.0% and Hanabusa with 21.8%.
