Hawaiians Fill Final House Seat
Democrat Ed Case beat out 43 other candidates to win a wide-open special election in Hawaii’s 2nd District and become the final member elected to the 108th Congress, election officials said Sunday.
Case was an incumbent for five weeks after easily winning a special election to finish the remainder of the late Rep. Patsy T. Mink’s term.
Case won with 33,002, or 43%, of the votes cast Saturday and tabulated Sunday. He will be sworn in Tuesday.
Democrat Matt Matsunaga finished second with 23,050 votes, while state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, also a Democrat, was third with 6,046 votes.
The special election was needed after Mink was posthumously reelected to her seat representing rural Oahu and the neighbor islands. She died Sept. 28, a week after easily winning her primary but two days after a deadline to replace her name on the general election ballot.
By virtue of his previous victory, Case, a cousin of AOL-Time Warner Inc. Chairman Stephen Case, touted the advantage of incumbency in campaign ads.
Although not sworn in, Case was considered a congressman, an advantage that will give him seniority over other freshmen and an edge in securing committee assignments.
Case served for eight years in the state House of Representatives.
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