Part of why you have to love Hawaii is the oddball nature of Hawaii politics. This year Hawaii is the congressional outlier, or the part outside the norm.

First, we have a congressional delegation that consists mostly of women and, I am sure, the only congressional delegation with a non-Christian majority.

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa is Buddhist, Rep.-elect Tulsi Gabbard is Hindu and Sen.-elect Mazie Hirono is also Buddhist.

Hawaii’s senior Sen. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, the only male in the group, is a Methodist, although he told the Christian-Israel Political Action Committee in a 1995 meeting that he would have converted to Judaism except he had promised his mother he would remain Methodist.

Christian, white males are the congressional majority, according to a count by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., but on the Democratic side, white males are in the minority.

The 200 Democrats of the House will include 61 women, 43 African-Americans, 27 Hispanic-Americans and 10 Asian-Americans, according to figures reported in The Washington Post.

Among the 5,210 United States senators this nation has had, Hirono will be the first Asian-American woman. Gabbard is the first Hindu in Congress.

Hirono will be one of a record-setting 20 women in the Senate.

Besides the numbers then, what is the impact of the changes? How does a move toward gender balance change our politics?

"This election cycle showed the importance and power of gender. I believe when all the analysis is done, the presidential election was probably highly affected by the women’s vote. Likewise in key Republican Senate races, you saw the impact in the outcome of those races," Hanabusa said in an interview.

As the GOP wrestles with the mistakes it made along the campaign trail, certainly its missteps in the presidential race were highlighted by the Democrats. The Obama campaign was quick to note after the GOP national convention that the Republican Party platform called for "outlawing abortion in cases of rape and incest."

When conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called law student Sandra Fluke "a slut" after she testified before a Senate committee that health insurance should include birth control, women across the country were newly engaged in the campaign.

How this will be reflected in Congress, Hanabusa said, will be in a Congress that is moving closer to reflecting the views of the entire country.

"I think there will be a difference," Hanabusa said. "The politics of the nation, as we get to 50 percent, will reflect the nation better."

One of the political pioneers is Republican former U.S. Rep. Patricia Saiki. The first woman in the Hawaii Legislature to support abortion rights for women and author of the Equal Rights Amendment to the state Constitution says women in office are not getting ahead as much as "catching up."

"I think that when women are running and winning, they are doing so not as women, but as qualified candidates and leaders," Saiki said in an interview.

The real change will be when states like Hawaii are no longer the exception and there is balance in representation.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.