In emails sent to their supporters today and yesterday, Ed Case and Colleen Hanabusa continue to bicker over which one of them should drop out of the race.

"The Dark Side of Politics"  (From Ed Case)

5-25-10

The result in Saturday's election was most attributable to around $1 million in false attack ads leveled at me in the closing weeks by both of my opponents and their supporters.

Charles Djou's main goal was of course to win against the candidate he viewed as his real threat. But it was also to push me below Colleen Hanabusa in the hope that she rather than me will be his opponent in November's general election.

Colleen's goal, as confirmed election night by her campaign manager, was not to beat Charles but to finish second. This was so she could claim entitlement to the primary nomination, although my candidacy is the stronger one against Charles in the general.

Both achieved their goals. But how?

Here are two amazingly frank post-election articles describing how Charles and the national Republicans went about it and why:

-From Politico out of D.C.: GOP Threw Gasoline On Hawaii Fires. "Washington Republicans explicitly attempted to fuel local Democratic Party discord."

-From the Independent Women's Voice, the conservative D.C. group which alone spent around $250,000 on attack ads: In Hawaii's first congressional district, not only did Charles Djou win, Ed Case came in third. See especially this executive summary of the survey IWV commissioned on which it based its attacks.

These articles outline the dark side of politics: negative D.C.-style attack politics are widely decried but too often work, as they certainly did here. And they are forgotten or forgiven or explained away as "just politics" once the results are in. As a result, unfortunately we can expect far more of the same as we enter the primary and general elections.

  With aloha,

  Ed Case

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Turning Point  (May 24, 2010 from Colleen Hanabusa)

Saturday was a big night for all of us. It showed all of Hawai‘i, once and for all, that we can and will win in the September primary and November general elections.

Some told us that we shouldn’t be in this race. They told us to sit on the sidelines. They insisted that we were going to fail. They were wrong. We left no doubt that momentum is on our side, and will continue to build to our advantage.

It is clear that the voters believe I am the more electable Democratic candidate, one who will stand strong for our values and priorities. I will continue campaigning as Hawaii’s favored Democratic candidate.

I welcome the task ahead of unifying Hawaii’s Democrats for the primary and general elections. I thank Senators Inouye and Akaka for their unwavering support in this journey of ensuring a better life for all in the state of Hawaii.

You are the core and spirit of this campaign. I am grateful and humbled by your unwavering support. Without you, these results would not have been possible.

Every phone call, every knock on every door, every dollar contributed has played a vital and irreplaceable role in our powerful showing Saturday night. There were tough times along the way, but you kept me going and helped build the tremendous groundswell of support that paid off in the end.

The results prove that we have the best team in this race. Today we begin the next phase of our campaign to give Hawai‘i the representation we need and deserve in Washington.

Let’s march down this road together.

Colleen Hanabusa