After the death of Hawaii’s senior Sen. Daniel K. Inouye in December, the conventional Washington, D.C., wisdom had his Senate seat flowing smoothly to his U.S. House protégé, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa.

The logic was that Hanabusa offered a serious body of work as a leading Democrat in the state Senate, pushing forward reforms in public worker contracts, education and drug policy.

"Inouye and Hanabusa shared a close relationship: He backed her in a heated 2010 special House election, and she called him her ‘mentor’," said The Washington Post.

What wisdom there is in Washington turned out to be neither wise nor conventional as Gov. Neil Abercrombie argued that we need Hanabusa right where she is and instead elevated a member of his Cabinet, Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz.

This week Hanabusa formalized her much-leaked declaration to give up her House seat and run against Schatz for the Senate.

For the Schatz campaign, a portion of the reason for keeping him is that the 40-year-old former state House Democrat and Democratic Party chairman already has the job, and if you keep him around long enough, he will have some real seniority.

In contrast, Hanabusa is likely to argue that she is already up and running and what Hawaii needs is not seniority, but someone who is comfortable with tough politics and complex issues and who delivers the goods today.

If politics were based on actuarial tables, Schatz’s reasoning would trump because he is younger than 61-year-old Hanabusa. Of course, Rep. Ed Case offered the same argument when he said his relative youth should be used to build up seniority by replacing the now-retired Sen. Daniel K. Akaka. That didn’t happen.

This coming Democratic primary race, to be held Aug. 9, 2014, will be a test for Hawaii’s majority Democratic Party.

Hanabusa is likely to have the full support and active campaigning help of Inouye’s widow, Irene, as well as the assistance of his former local chief of staff Jennifer Sabas and loyal Democrats such as philanthropist and businessman Walter Dods. That trio could put on some fairly powerful coffee hours for Hanabusa.

Over in the Schatz camp, Chuck Freedman, the longtime Democratic Party mainstay and former assistant to Gov. John Waihee, is already on staff. So is Andy Winer, the local attorney, Democratic Party leader and veteran of the Obama administration.

Winer has been the Democrats’ secret weapon in more than a decade of state races and has kept current on the latest high-tech campaign techniques.

The problem with handicapping the race by team roster is that Winer, Dods, Freedman and Sabas in the past have all been on the same team. Inouye had operatives like Sabas and Dods doing the heavy lifting in the backroom and Winer running the ground game. They were all on the same side. Winer ran Sen. Mazie Hirono’s campaign last year and Akaka’s race against Case. Dods is the former campaign chairman for the campaigns of both Inouye and former Gov. George Ariyoshi. Now they are all choosing different sides.

Hawaii political establishment is about to find itself in a fight — with itself.

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