2014 Hawaii Senate - Cavasso vs. Schatz

While many people are aware of the eight major islands of Hawaii, few are aware that the state actually consists of 19 islands, stretching in a chain across 1,500 miles. A 20th, being formed to the southeast of the Big Island, will likely break water in the next 10,000 years.

When the Hawaiian Islands were admitted to the union, Southern Democrats demanded that Alaska be admitted as a more solidly Democratic counterweight to what was expected to be a pro-civil rights Republican stronghold. These plans went awry, as such plans frequently do. Alaska is now one of our most Republican states, while Hawaii is one of our most Democratic.

The death of Sen. Dan Inouye created something of a fracture within the state’s dominant Democratic Party. While Sen. Inouye’s deathbed wish was apparently to have Rep. Colleen Hanabusa appointed to the seat, Gov. Neil Abercrombie instead appointed Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz to the seat. This keyed off a nasty primary that Schatz won by the slimmest of margins. But with the primary behind him, Schatz is in the driver’s seat for the general election, and almost certainly has another six years in office.