Colleen Hanabusa is now threatening litigation to keep from definitively losing to Brian Schatz on Friday. Hawaii's Senate primary remains open in two precincts hit hard by Hurricane Iselle on the Big Island of Hawaii's far east tip. The elections office has scheduled this Friday to finish the election and bring closure to the outstanding races.
Nothing sums up the contrast between Brian Schatz and Colleen Hanabusa than this Honolulu Civil Beat story:
On Monday, Schatz was in Nanawale Estates, one of the hardest hit areas in Puna. He refused to talk to the media, instead focusing on delivering goods to residents.
Her [Hanabusa's] campaign would not tell Civil Beat where she was, although spokesman Peter Boylan did release a statement voicing displeasure with the Office of Elections decision to settle the election delay with walk-in voting on Friday.
One candidate does real work for his constituents. The other, from an undisclosed location, complains and threatens lawsuits.
On Friday, those of 8255 voters in two Big Island precincts who haven't already voted will choose between Schatz and Hanabusa. Schatz holds a narrow 1635-vote lead. Mathematics suggests that it'll be hard for Hanabusa to overcome that lead in those two precincts. So do demographics - Puna is home to Punatics and Dennis Kucinich supporters. Hanabusa faces a steep challenge of reaching voters, persuading those on the fence, and getting them to the polls in the next 72 hours; but waiting another week or two isn't going to make her math easier. The Washington Post's headline sums it up: Colleen Hanabusa hasn't lost yet, but she almost certainly will.
I'm proud to have played a role in helping Brian Schatz garner a 1635 vote lead and, I hope, the nomination. The group that I cofounded, Climate Hawks Vote, hired organizers on the ground to make over 2000 phone calls on behalf of Schatz. We signed up 50 new and mostly young voters over a few days. We hosted debate watch parties, talked up the importance of voting climate at a Honolulu conservation conference, and tweeted and facebooked and social media'd the race. We did all that because Brian Schatz understands that climate change is not just another Democratic political issue, but rather the greatest challenge facing the next few generations of humanity. Climate Hawks Vote is focused, like Brian Schatz, on working hard to achieve real results. And we're thrilled that he'll probably be tackling that challenge in the Senate. Colleen Hanabusa needs to stop obstructing elections and give up with some dignity intact.