Saturday's Primary Results

Hawaii Senate
Senator Daniel Akaka (D) defeated challenger Congressman Ed Case (D) in this primary battle, 55%-45%. I thought it would be closer than this, but the power of a long-term incumbent over a relative newcomer to Congress was evident, and Case's relative conservatism didn't help him as much as he had hoped.

On the Republican side, Jerry Coffee picked up 41% of the vote despite having withdrawn from the race for health reasons. The Republican Party then selected State Representative Cynthia Thielen to replace Coffee, despite Thielen not having been on the ballot. They were free to select a nominee of their choice based on state law, but it made the voting process rather superfluous. Perhaps that explains why only around 25,000 people voted in the Republican primary for the Senate.

Hawaii Governor
Governor Linda Lingle (R) was re-nominated with 97% of the vote. The popular Republican will face Randy Iwase (D) in November, after Iwase picked up 66% of the vote in the Democratic primary. This is going to be an interesting race, because Lingle is a relatively popular Governor, but this is a heavily Democratic state.

Hawaii CD 1
Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D) was re-nominated with 79% of the vote. He will face Richard Hough (R) in November, after Hough beat challenger Mark Terry 57%-43%.

Hawaii CD 2
The race to replace Congressman Ed Case (D), who unsucessfully challenged Senator Daniel Akaka, was extremely close on both sides. For the Dems, Mazie Hirono picked up 21.83% of the vote (24,471 votes) beat out Colleen Hanabusa (21.09% / 23,635 votes). For the Republicans, Bob Hogue beat Quentin Kawananakoa by less than 200 votes (8,409 to 8,220). Either of these races could be subject to recount mania.