Djou’s odds of winning the House seat are a lot better than the Senate seat: the Dem nominee won’t be as strong, there won’t be as much Democrat money thrown into that race, the HI-01 is several points more Republican than the state as a whole (in 2004 it gave President Bush 47%, as opposed to the 45% he got statewide), and Djou is far better known within the Honolulu-based HI-01 (he represented it for like a year in Congress, and previously was on the Honolulu City Council for years) than in the Sister Islands. So while obviously it would be preferable to have Djou in the Senate (even for a two-year period; the seat would be up again in 2016), the odds of him winning the Senate race are so much slimmer than for the House race that I think he made the right decision.
Is it still looking likely we take the governorship? A recent poll had our guy up several points over Abercrombie.
I agree.
So Pat Saiki is the new party chair eh, I hope she does a good job.