But a number of other races are being watched closely:
District 24 (Kaneohe) - Senate Republican leader Michael Liu is in a rematch with former state Rep. Marshall Ige (D). Two years ago, Liu defeated Ige by only 246 votes. Liu has positioned himself as a budget watchdog and says he'll call for a financial audit of the House and Senate because of secrecy surrounding legislative expenditures. Ige is proposing that homeowners be given a tax break if they use security devices in their homes, because crime is a major concern among voters.
District 25 (Kailua, Waimanalo) - At the beginning of the campaign season, the conventional wisdom was that Sen. Whitney Anderson (R), who was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Mary George, would be easily defeated by former House Vice Speaker Jackie Young (D). Few are thinking that way now as the race has tightened. Credit Anderson's opposition to same-sex marriage in a predominantly conservative and Republican district. Young says she will work to cut red tape to make government more efficient.
District 8 (Honokowai, Maalaea, Wailuku) - House Speaker Joseph Souki, 63, appears to be the heavy favorite to win re-election, but he is experiencing some voter backlash for his letter of support to a judge on behalf of child molester John Murakami, a former Maui director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association.
Souki, who said he did not request leniency for Murakami, has accused Republican Danilo "Danny" Agsalog of running a smear campaign. The Republican Party on Maui has asked for an ethics investigation.
Said Agsalog, 35, an electrical supervisor at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., "You tell him I didn't do it. He did it to himself."
Agsalog, who calls Souki "soft on crime," ran unsuccessfully for a Maui Council seat in 1994. He supports requiring prisoners to work for their keep, wants to reduce income taxes, and opposes gambling.
Souki said in his last 14 years as a House member, he has helped to bring more than $1 billion in state money to Maui County and that Agsalog is long on criticism but short on a plan.
"I get the job done," Souki said.
District 15 (Hawaii Kai) - Retired St. Andrew's Priory Headmaster David Kennedy says he's running as a Republican because he wants balance in the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature, where issues are largely debated in closed-door majority caucuses. Incumbent David Stegmaier, a Democrat who's considered to be in tune with his Republican-leaning district, says his priority next year would be auto insurance reform.
District 21 (Waikiki) - Attorney Pam Ferguson-Brey (D) and state marketing manager Galen Fox (R) are both emphasizing crime-fighting in a district race that opened when incumbent Mary-Jane McMurdo (D) decided against seeking re-election.
District 24 (Makiki, Tantalus) - Two Republican big guns - former U.S. Rep. Patricia Saiki and Franklin Kometani, who headed the Reagan and Bush presidential campaigns in Hawaii - are providing firepower for first-time candidate Samson Aiona's effort to unseat Jim Shon (D). Aiona, a sales manager, is painting Shon as a "tax-and-spend" liberal. Shon counters that he has always voted against increases in the excise tax. This is considered a tough race for Shon, who early in his career earned the nickname "Landslide Jim" for beating his foes by razor-thin margins.
District 27 (Alewa Heights, Liliha, Puunui) - Republicans have high hopes that schoolteacher Corinne Ching can win this open district that has gone Republican in the past. Both Ching and broker Lei Ahu Isa (D) want to curb crime. The district seat was vacated by Rep. Suzanne Chun Oakland, who defeated veteran state Sen. Milton Holt in the Democratic primary and who faces gun salesman Jonathan Low (R) in the general election.
District 32 (Aliamanu, Foster Village) - Same-sex marriage is the defining issue in this race, and incumbent Lennard Pepper Jr. (D) is vulnerable because he voted against a proposed constitutional amendment barring homosexual unions. This House district is half of the Senate district in which Democratic primary voters ousted Senate Judiciary Chairman Rey Graulty, who is blamed by gay-marriage foes for blocking a solution to the issue. Warehouse manager Bob McDermott (R) has been stressing his opposition to same-sex marriage. Pepper is concerned that his work on other issues, such as health care, is being lost in the cross fire of single-issue politics.
District 46 (Laie, Punaluu, Waiahole) - Former Rep. Reb Bellinger (D) is seeking to oust first-term Rep. Colleen Meyer (R). Bellinger says he would focus on tax reform, education and curbing youth gang crime. Meyer, like other Republicans, is stressing economic issues.
District 50 (Maunawili, Enchanted Lake) - Another district where opposition to same-sex marriage is resonating, making incumbent Devon Nekoba (D) vulnerable. Nekoba voted against a proposed change to the Hawaii Constitution prohibiting homosexual unions. Challenger David Pendleton (R), an attorney whose wife is Board of Education candidate Noemi Pendleton, opposes gay marriages.