16 legislators and UHPA support Akaka for Senate
Case is backed by the restaurant association, representing the state's top private employer
A group of 16 state lawmakers is backing U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka in his re-election bid against U.S. Rep. Ed Case in next month's Democratic primary.
After hearing news of the endorsement, Akaka joked that the endorsement was very important "to my race and to my ego."
"I'm delighted to hear that," he added. "That indicates the kind of relationships that I've had in the past with legislators and Congresspeople."
The group includes 12 incumbents who served concurrently in the state Legislature with Case, who represented the Manoa district from 1994 until his failed bid for the governorship in 2002.
"It's about a quarter of the Democratic caucus in the House and Senate," Case said. "From my perspective, those are . . . the members that believe they want to stay with the basic approach of Sen. Akaka. Three-quarters obviously think otherwise, for some reason.
"I'm very confident that many Democratic legislators are going to step forward and support my candidacy -- whether they do that publicly or whether they do that in the privacy of the voting booth."
Case spoke after receiving the endorsement of the Hawaii Restaurant Association. The trade association represents the largest private-sector employer in the state.
Meanwhile, Akaka also picked up the endorsement of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, which represents about 3,000 union faculty members. The union's board of directors announced the endorsement Monday.
The primary is Sept. 23.
Many of the Democratic lawmakers who are supporting Akaka cited his experience and ability to work with the other members of Hawaii's delegation.
"I think it's really important for the four people that we send to Washington to work together as a team," said Rep. Dennis Arakaki (D, Alewa Heights-Kalihi). "Having worked with Ed, we know he has an independent mind and independent spirit, and sometimes that doesn't work well when it comes to teamwork."
Rep. Marcus Oshiro, the current House majority leader who also served in that role during Case's last session from 2000-02, also was critical.
"He (Case) couldn't even work with his own colleagues -- fellow Democrats in the state House," said Oshiro (D, Wahiawa-Poamoho). "It seems crazy he would want to go and work in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat."
Case, known as a moderate Democrat, acknowledged some of the ideological differences he had with some lawmakers during his time in the Legislature.
"We basically had disagreement during the 1990s over changes that were necessary in Hawaii," Case said. "They defended the way government was being operated, I felt we needed to change."
The endorsements are nice to receive, but may not necessarily translate to additional votes, said Neal Milner, a political scientist at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
"I don't think it's likely to change the minds of people who are independent or people who are not regular Democrats," Milner said.
In the case of the UHPA endorsement, "it certainly is nice to have, but I don't think the unions carry quite the same political strength that they did in the past."
John Radcliffe, associate executive director for the faculty union, disagreed.
"In general our recommendations carry a great deal of weight with the members, otherwise we wouldn't do it," he said, adding that the union supports Akaka because of his voting record in strong favor of public employee unions and public education.