Editor's Note: In the final 100 days before Election Day, CNN has been profiling one race at random each day from among the nation's top 100 House races, which we've dubbed "The CNN 100." Read the full list here.
Today's featured district is:
HI 01: Rep. Charles Djou (R) is fighting to keep the seat he won in a special election.
Primary: September 18, 2010
Days until the election: 13
This race is a little quirky. Hawaii's first congressional district, former home to President Barack Obama, longtime Democratic district, but the GOP has a great shot at keeping this seat. Why? Well – a couple reasons: foremost being that this year seems to be the year where the impossible becomes possible in Hawaii politics: a Republican, Charles Djou, won the special election for former Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie's seat and now, when Democrat Colleen Hanabusa is trying to take it back, Djou is well-positioned to keep the seat.
FULL POST
(CNN) - After eight years in Republican hands, Hawaii Democrats hope to re-capture the governorship, but first they need to survive a bitter primary.
Saturday voters in the state head to the polls to cast ballots, and the hottest contest appears to be the Democratic gubernatorial battle. Former 11-term Rep. Neil Abercrombie is facing off with former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann in what's turned into a nasty race. The two candidates have a rivalry that dates back more than two decades.
Whoever comes out on top in the Democratic primary is expected to be the favorite in the general election against Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, the presumptive GOP nominee. The winner in November will succeed term-limited Gov. Linda Lingle, who eight years ago became the first Republican governor of Hawaii in four decades. Democrats dominate elections in the state and President Barack Obama, who grew up in the state, captured 72 percent of the vote in Hawaii in the 2008 presidential election.
President Obama’s birth certificate (left) has been certified authentic by the Republican governor of Hawaii. His birth announcement (right) appeared in print in 1961. (PHOTO CREDIT: State of Hawaii)
Washington (CNN) - It's surely not what the leader of the free world wants for his birthday. But, for a stubborn group of Americans, conspiracy theories about President Obama's birthplace are the gifts that keep on giving.
The president celebrates his 49th birthday Wednesday. On the same day, a new national poll indicates some Americans continue to doubt the president was born in the United States. According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, more than a quarter of the public have doubts about Obama's citizenship, with 11 percent saying Obama was definitely not born in the United States and another 16 percent saying the president was probably not born in the country.
Forty-two percent of those questioned say they have absolutely no doubts that the president was born in the U.S., while 29-percent say he "probably" was.
(CNN) – Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a civil unions bill Tuesday that would have given same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, saying the issue needs to be put to a referendum.
"I am vetoing this bill because I have become convinced that this issue is of such significant societal importance that it deserves to be decided directly by all the people of Hawaii," said Lingle, a Republican whose term ends this year.
"The subject of this legislation has touched the hearts and minds of our citizens as no other social issue of our day. It would be a mistake to allow a decision of this magnitude to be made by one individual or a small group of elected officials."
Gay rights group decried Lingle's decision.
(CNN) - One of the two candidates in a Democratic party family feud that resulted in a rare Republican congressional victory in Hawaii says he's giving up his quest to return to the House of Representatives.
Former Rep. Ed Case announced Sunday that he's dropping his bid for the state's first congressional district, which the GOP captured in a special election nine days ago - the party's first win in a House or Senate election in Hawaii in nearly two decades.
"My heart tells me to stay in this fight, but my head says this has become the wrong fight," said Case, in an e-mail to supporters and in a statement on his campaign website.
National Democrats attempted, without success, to convince either Case or Hawaii State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa to drop out of the May 22 special election, held to fill the seat of former Rep. Neil Abercrombie, the longtime Democratic congressman who stepped down earlier this year to run for governor.
(CNN) - Republican Charles Djou took advantage of an intra-party fight among Democrats to snatch a House seat that Democrats had held for 20 years in Hawaii.
Djou, a Honolulu city councilman, won 67,274 votes - or 39.5 percent of those cast.
FULL POST
(CNN) – An intra-party fight among Democrats will most likely allow Republicans to win a House seat in a place they rarely win congressional elections: Hawaii.
Results are expected late Saturday in a special election for the state's 1st Congressional District, a battle for seat of former Rep. Neil Abercrombie. The 10-term Democratic lawmaker stepped down earlier this year to concentrate full-time on his bid for Hawaii governor.
The seat should be safe for the Democrats, who dominate the district, which includes Honolulu and some surrounding suburbs. Abercrombie won more than three-quarters of the vote in his most recent re-election and President Obama, who spent parts of his childhood in the district, won 70 percent of the vote in the 2008 presidential election.
Listen: CNN Radio's Dick Uliano breaks down the Hawaii special election.
But there are two Democratic candidates on the ballot in this election and recent polls indicate they are splitting the vote, with the Republican candidate, Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou, in first place in the surveys. The special election is a winner-take-all contest, with only a plurality needed for victory.
The two Democrats are former Rep. Ed Case, considered the more moderate candidate, and state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, considered the more liberal candidate. Hanabusa was in third place, according to recent polls, but she refused to step aside. She disputes the surveys' findings and says they are wrong, according to local reports.
Washington (CNN) - Hawaii would like for so-called "birthers" to stop asking to see President Obama's birth certificate.
The state passed a law on Wednesday that allows state agencies to ignore repeated requests to view government records, including the president's birth document. Hawaii's Republican Gov. Linda Lingle signed the legislation into law.
This will impact requests from a fringe movement dubbed the "birthers." Adherents question President Obama's constitutional eligibility to be commander-in-chief, suggesting he was not born in the United States despite proof that he was born in Hawaii in 1961. CNN and other news organizations have thoroughly debunked the rumors about the president's birthplace.
Hawaii has released a copy of the president’s birth certificate – officially called a “certificate of live birth” – and the hospital took out ads in two Hawaiian newspapers announcing the 1961 birth.
But adherents to the “birther” theories persist. Army surgeon Lt. Col. Terry Lakin subscribes to the “birther” theory and faces a court martial for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan unless the president shows his birth certificate. He disputes that the Hawaii birth certificate is real.
“I believe we need truth on this matter,” he said in an interview earlier this week on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.
Washington (CNN) - Hawaii would like for so-called "birthers" to stop asking to see President Obama's birth certificate.
The state passed a law on Wednesday that allows state agencies to ignore repeated requests to view government records, including the president's birth document. Hawaii's Republican Gov. Linda Lingle signed the legislation into law.
This will impact requests from a fringe movement dubbed the "birthers." Adherents question President Obama's constitutional eligibility to be commander-in-chief, suggesting he was not born in the United States despite proof that he was born in Hawaii in 1961. CNN and other news organizations have thoroughly debunked the rumors about the president's birthplace.
Hawaii has released a copy of the president’s birth certificate – officially called a “certificate of live birth” – and the hospital took out ads in two Hawaiian newspapers announcing the 1961 birth.
But adherents to the “birther” theories persist. Army surgeon Lt. Col. Terry Lakin subscribes to the “birther” theory and faces a court martial for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan unless the president shows his birth certificate. He disputes that the Hawaii birth certificate is real.
“I believe we need truth on this matter,” he said in an interview earlier this week on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.
Washington (CNN) – House Republicans are on the verge of picking up a congressional seat in President Obama's childhood home of Hawaii, which would be a symbolic victory for the GOP less than six months before the midterm elections.
The House Democratic campaign arm announced Monday it would no longer spend any money or time on the special election to fill former Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie's Honolulu-based congressional seat. Abercrombie resigned earlier this year to run for governor.
"The DCCC will not be investing additional resources in the HI-01 (Abercrombie-open) special election," Jennifer Crider, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. "Local Democrats were unable to work out their differences. The DCCC will save the resources we would have invested in the Hawaii special election this month for the general election in November."
Crider is referring to the two Democrats, former Rep. Ed Case and state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, who are competing in the special election along with Honolulu Councilman Charles Djou. Polling shows that Djou, a Republican, is likely to win the special election to serve the remainder of Abercrombie's term because Democrats are splitting the vote.
From CNN Politics
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