HI-01: DCCC Pulls Out

It's rare that a move likely to concede a seat to Republicans is the best choice for Democrats, but that may be the case here:

It's official: The DCCC will be pulling out of the Hawaii special House election, a free-for-all with two Dems and one Republican, because neither Dem will agree to pull out of the race.

DCCC spokesperson Jennifer Crider emails:

"The DCCC will not be investing additional resources in the HI-01 (Abercrombie-open) special election. Local Democrats were unable to work out their differences. The DCCC will save the resources we would have invested in the Hawaii special election this month for the general election in November."

With two Democrats and one Republican in the race, Charles Djou, the Republican, had shown narrow leads in polling, and for some reason the national Democratic party had elected to pressure Colleen Hanabusa, the more progressive Democrat in the race, the better fundraiser, and the one with the most substantial support from the Hawaii Democratic party and unions. Instead, the DCCC and the White House favored noxious former Rep. Ed Case.

Losing the seat will no doubt be spun as a loss far out of proportion with the actual empirical meaning of a Republican edging past two Democrats. But as important as narrative is, it's better to let the Democrats duke it out in a primary and have the winner unseat Djou in November than to have the DCCC pour money in on Case's behalf now.