PoliticsPoliticsColleen Hanabusahawaii-senate-race

Colleen Hanabusa Threatens To Sue To Stop Friday's Special Election In Hawaii Senate Race

Colleen Hanabusa Threatens To Sue To Stop Friday's Special Election In Hawaii Senate Race
Amanda Terkel
By 

Washington Bureau Chief, HuffPost

In this Monday March 17, 2014 photo, U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa gestures during an interview in Honolulu. Hanabusa, of Hawaii, says the way her competitor's allies have made age an issue in her run for U.S. Senate is insulting to voters. Hanabusa is running against Sen. Brian Schatz for the seat that opened when Sen. Daniel Inouye died in 2012. (AP Photo/Oskar Garcia)
In this Monday March 17, 2014 photo, U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa gestures during an interview in Honolulu. Hanabusa, of Hawaii, says the way her competitor's allies have made age an issue in her run for U.S. Senate is insulting to voters. Hanabusa is running against Sen. Brian Schatz for the seat that opened when Sen. Daniel Inouye died in 2012. (AP Photo/Oskar Garcia)

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) may take legal action to stop Friday's special election to decide Hawaii's Democratic Senate primary, arguing that it's too soon for two storm-ravaged precincts to get out and vote.

Hanabusa is challenging Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and the winner is expected to be the victor in November as well, given the state's strong Democratic makeup. The state held its primary elections Saturday, but because of a tropical storm that swept through, voting was canceled in two precincts in the district of Puna. Schatz currently has a 1,635-vote lead.

On Monday, Hawaii's Office of Elections announced that voters in the two affected precincts will get a chance to vote in person Friday, which is a state holiday. According to Honolulu Civil Beat, the results will be announced that same evening.

According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hanabusa wants to delay the election until residents can fully recover from the tropical storm. She would also like to give voters in two other Puna precincts the chance to vote Friday, and may go to court to do so.

"We're going to have to file something in court, because I feel that what's going on is really disenfranchising a lot of people," said Hanabusa, who told the paper she is still discussing her legal strategy.

Schatz appears to have an edge in the two precincts that didn't get to vote Saturday. An analysis by Hawaii News Now found that Hanabusa will need to "pick up about 65 percent of the remaining votes in those outstanding Puna precincts to beat Schatz. And she was not able to do that anywhere in the state, even in her old State Senate district along Oahu's Leeward Coast."

The race between Hanabusa and Schatz has been heated, with Hanabusa arguing that she is the one best able to carry on the legacy of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Schatz arguing that he is the most progressive candidate in the race.

Want more updates from Amanda? Sign up for her newsletter, Piping Hot Truth.

Before You Go

Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.)
AP
Before winning his congressional race, Bentivolio was a reindeer farmer, Santa impersonator and star in a low-budget 9/11 conspiracy movie -- as well as a veteran, auto designer and teacher.He is defending his seat against attorney and "foreclosure king" David Trott in Michigan's 11th District.
Republican House candidate Jake Rush
Rush, an attorney who is challenging Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), led a double life. Until late last year, he also went by alternative identities such as "Chazz Darling" and "Staas van der Winst" as a member of the Mind's Eye Society, a group of gothic-punk role-players who pretend to be supernatural beings like vampires. Rush defended his hobby, saying he's simply "a gamer" with "a deep appreciation for theatre."
Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R)
Getty Images
Grothman, who is taking on Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) in the state's 6th District, has advocated for a number of deeply unpopular policy positions, like making public employees work on Martin Luther King Day and reverting to a seven-day work week. He has also said Kwanzaa is a fake holiday that "almost no black people today care about."
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R)
AP
Bennett, who is running in the Republican primary to succeed Gov. Jan Brewer (R), threatened to leave President Barack Obama off the ballot in Arizona if Hawaii didn't verify Obama's birthplace. He made the threat a year after the White House produced Obama's long-form birth certificate.
Democratic congressional candidate Aaron Woolf
Campaign
Woolf, who is running to succeed retiring Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.), has an unconventional background as a congressional candidate: He is a documentary filmmaker who made the award-winning "King Corn" and the owner of an organic deli and grocery store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn called "Urban Rustic."
Republican congressional candidate Isaac Misiuk
Campaign
The 24-year-old Misiuk is an engaged father of one child and a second-year student at the University of Southern Maine. He is attempting to unseat Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and may be the youngest congressional candidate in the country.
Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R)
Associated Press
Ernst, who will challenge Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) for retiring Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) seat in November, gained crucial momentum in her primary by running an ad in which she proudly touted her background castrating hogs, saying she knows "how to cut pork."
Democratic Senate candidate Rick Weiland
Associated Press
Weiland, who is in the race to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), visited every one of South Dakota's 311 incorporated towns. When he finished his tour of every town, his campaign announced that he'd do it all again.
Republican Senate candidate Milton Wolf
Associated Press
Wolf is a a radiologist and tea party activist who is challenging Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). His campaign came under fire in February after it was revealed that he had posted and commented on his patients' X-ray photographs on Facebook in 2010. Some of those patients included fatal gunshot victims. Wolf has also compared his distant cousin, who happens to be President Barack Obama, to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R)
AP
LePage, who has been called "America's Craziest Governor" and "The Worst Governor Of All," is up for reelection in November. In one famous incident, he told the NAACP to "kiss my butt" when the group complained that he had refused to attend a Martin Luther King Day breakfast. He also said President Barack Obama could "go to hell" and told attendees at a fundraiser that the president "hates white people."LePage also once told students: "If you want a good education, go to private schools. If you can't afford it, tough luck. You can go to the public school."
|
Submit a tip

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot