HI-GOV: Hanabusa Announces

[Jeppe]

Hanabusa is the worst.

Not sure why people think she'll defeat him so easily. It'll be competitive, for sure, but she lost to Schatz in 2010 after he was appointed by an unpopular Governor despite having the endorsement of the legendary Sen Inoyue, so she's certainly not infallible. While I don't know too much about Hawaii politics, one would think voters in Hawaii would start to see through Hanabusa's opportunistic tendencies. And Vega raises a good point about seniority.

Obama endorsed Schatz in 2010 over Hanabusa. A severe tropical storm lowered turnout in a lot of the Asian-American heavy precincts in Hawaii. Even if Schatz was appointed, he was still an incumbent, and if I recall correctly, no incumbent Senators has ever been defeated in a re-election campaign before in Hawaii.

[Jeppe]

Hawaii are just the same old faces over and over. Beth Fukumoto!

I mean Fukumoto has always been pretty liberal, even when she was a Republican. I'd like her to run either for House or for Governor.

I believe Fukumoto's state house district is in Hanabusa's district, so she could feasibly run for Hanabusa's seat.

[Jeppe]

You'd think she'd primary Hirono instead, given her health issues...try to force her out of the race.

Hirono is much more popular than Ige, and Hanabusa has already been defeated by Hirono once before. They're also both devout Clinton allies, endorsing her early in both 2008 and 2016. David Ige has ran against Obama's most prominent ally in Abercrombie, but he was aldo the very last Democratic Governor to endorse Hillary in 2016.