The primary election race to fill the urban Honolulu congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa has attracted an array of high-profile state and city Democrats.
A Honolulu Star-Advertiser Hawaii Poll showed Ed Case as the Democratic front-runner in the final month, with 36 percent of likely Democratic voters in the survey saying they would cast their ballots for the former U.S. representative.
Lt. Gov. Doug Chin was trailing Case with 27 percent of voters surveyed, while state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim was at 14 percent.
Well behind in the poll were state Rep. Kaniela Ing with 6 percent, Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernie Martin with 2 percent and state Rep. Beth Fukumoto with 1 percent.
Case, 65, has reminded voters that he is the only candidate in the race who has served in Congress before. He hasn’t held public office for more than a decade, and only entered the race in June.
“I think that the best thing I can say to the voters is that I have already done it,” he said.
Case served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2002 to 2007. He also served in the state House from 1994 to 2002, but hasn’t served in political office since his losing bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka in 2006.
Chin has built his campaign largely on his reputation as state attorney general for three years, when he filed repeated court challenges to the policies of President Donald Trump. Chin sued the Trump administration over its travel ban against a number of Muslim-majority countries.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the third version of Trump’s travel restrictions. Chin as attorney general also joined in a number of other federal lawsuits against the president’s policies, and told listeners at a recent forum that “I will hold the Trump administration accountable, and I will fight for your values.”
Kim has served in the state Senate since 2000 and was a member of the Honolulu City Council from 1984 to 2000. She also represented Moanalua, Aiea and Kalihi communities in the state House from 1982 to 1984.
She ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2014, finishing second to the late Mark Takai in the 2014 Democratic primary for the same congressional seat representing urban Honolulu.
Kim has pledged to “continue to fight for middle- and working-class families because growing up in Kalihi, both my parents had to work hard to make ends meet, to pay the rent and put food on the table.”
State Rep. Kaniela Ing (D, South Maui) has served in the state House since 2012 and bills himself as ”the only candidate who has consistently fought for progressive values and secured record funding for his district.”
He is also the only candidate to support scaling back military spending in Hawaii, noting the military’s history of environmental pollution in the islands. The Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission in June fined Ing more than $15,000 over violations of Hawaii campaign spending laws dating back to 2011.
Martin was first elected to the City Council in 2010 and has twice served as Council chairman. He cites his experience as an executive in the city’s Department of Community Services as part of his preparation for Congress, and wants to increase congressional oversight over the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve services for veterans.
Fukumoto was first elected to the state House in 2012 representing Mililani and Waipio Acres, and served as minority leader of the Republicans’ six-member House caucus in 2015 and 2016.
In 2016 and 2017 she publicly denounced some of Trump’s statements as sexist and racist, and her fellow House Republicans ousted her as minority leader in February 2017. She quit the Republican Party a month later, and is now making her first run for Congress as a Democrat.
Democrat Palasi Puletasi and Republicans Cam Cavasso, Emmanuel Tipon and Raymond Vinole are also running for the urban Honolulu congressional seat.
Primary Election Candidates by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
Primary Election Polling Places by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
