Hawaii Primary Results In Governor Neil Abercrombie’s Loss, Too Close To Call Senate Race


Neil Abercrombie became Hawaii’s first governor ever to lose a primary election with all but two precincts reporting results from Saturday’s (Aug. 9) election.

The Hawaii Primary results show that Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a first-term Democrat who used to be a member of Congress and has been a voice in Hawaii politics for four decades, lost to State Sen. David Ige, CNN reported.

“Hurricanes are rare in Hawaii. It’s even rarer when an incumbent governor or senator loses a primary election in the state. It had never happened before Saturday. Hurricanes Iselle and Julio left the state intact this week, but a Democratic primary election washed Gov. Neil Abercrombie from office. State Sen. David Ige defeated him and will face Republican Duke Aiona November’s general elections.”

POLITICO reported Hawaii primary results show the divide was 67% to 32% for Ige, with Hawaii voters sending a clear message that they wanted change.

Hawaii Primary results also showed that Abercrombie’s former lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate appointee Brian Schatz could be in trouble as well, with POLITICO reporting that he was up by less than 2,000 votes against U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa in his fight to win a term to the Senate.

“But the voting isn’t over. The two precincts outstanding weren’t open on Saturday, and the more than 8,000 voters in areas of the Island of Hawaii that suffered the most devastation from Tropical Storm Iselle late last week will have the option of voting by mail over the coming weeks if they didn’t take advantage of early voting. That could lead to a frenzied push by both camps to corral voters in those areas — though Hanabusa would have to win the vast majority of the mail ballots, plus any remaining absentee ballots, to catch Schatz.”

The Washington-based political website also noted that the election Schatz and Hanabusa find themselves in would only fill the last two years of the Senate term of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye.

As I reported Saturday, Inouye had told Abercrombie that he wanted Hanabusa appointed to fill his term following his death, but the governor instead appointed his running mate from 2010 to fill the Senate seat.

It is unknown if the decision to ignores Senator Inouye’s last wish was a factor in Saturday’s primary results, but it is worth noting that Abercrombie is not only the first governor to lose a primary in Hawaii, but POLITICO noted that he is only the second governor in the state’s history to not win re-election to a second term.

[Image via civilbeat.com]

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