Heading into the general election with a 12 percentage point lead in the latest sampling from the Hawaii Poll, state Sen. David Ige is showing evolving strength in his campaign.

In the August primary, Ige was the good-natured, humble choice for all those who wanted to end Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s political career.

The previous Hawaii Poll, taken for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now by Ward Research in late July, showed the Pearl City Democrat as well-liked but hardly recognized. In fact, with just days to go before Ige crushed Abercrombie at the ballot box, 10 percent of those surveyed said they had never heard of Ige, and another 18 percent said they had heard of him but didn’t know enough.

What voters knew was that Ige was not Abercrombie. The survey showed that 57 percent reported liking Ige, while only 38 percent liked Abercrombie.

And 58 percent said they didn’t like Abercrombie, but just 15 percent disliked Ige.

The new poll taken Oct. 11-18 shows Ige holding his favorability rating, and showing that he is an ethnic powerhouse with 74 percent of Japanese-American voters saying they have a favorable impression of him.

In the three-way race between Ige, Republican James "Duke" Aiona and Independent Mufi Hannemann, the poll has Ige with 47 percent, Aiona with 35 percent and Hannemann with 12 percent.

The Ige tally includes his domination of what I call the "holy trinity" of Hawaii poll demographics: AJA voters, voters 55 and older, and union members.

The only better marker for election trends would be if the poll included a sample of those who request permanent absentee voter status. That’s because elections officials report that 82 percent of those who vote by mail in Honolulu return their ballots.

As far as the "holy trinity" is concerned, it is all Ige.

He has 61 percent of the AJA voters, 50 percent of those 55 or older and 53 percent of the union voters.

Those three categories are all groups that vote regularly, and if they are supporting Ige, the race is certainly solidly his.

Back before the primary, the Hawaii Poll measured how the race would go if the trio included Ige and not Abercrombie; the new numbers show how Ige has improved since that poll.

Among Caucasian voters, Ige shows big gains; he is also climbing with AJA, Filipino and Native Hawaiian voters.

The other side of the poll story is that the new numbers show Aiona, compared to his test showing in the July poll, is down among Caucasian and Hawaiian voters, two key groups that a GOP candidate needs to win.

This most recent poll asks voters why they are voting for a specific candidate.

Interestingly for Hannemann, who has been elected Honolulu mayor twice, 57 percent of those who are voting for him say it is because of "leadership experience." Unfortunately for Hannemann, that number of total voters amounts to just 12 percent.

The clincher for an Ige victory next month is in the reasons given for why voters are voting for a specific candidate.

Ige is the only one who gets a pat on the back for his political party. A full 22 percent say they are voting for Ige because he is the Democrat. Only 8 percent say they are voting for Aiona because he is a Republican and 1 percent say they are backing Hannemann because he is an Independent.

In Democrat-blue Hawaii, end of story.

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