President Obama has your number. So do U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka. Even former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie is planning to call you.

If you live in urban Honolulu's 1st Congressional District and have a home telephone, there is a chance one of those four will be calling, asking for your participation in the ongoing vote-by-mail special election to pick a successor for Abercrombie, who resigned to run for governor.

Voting already has started in the election, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent more than $300,000 in an attempt to keep the district Democratic.

GOP City Councilman Charles Djou is the major Republican candidate against Democrats Ed Case and state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa. Yesterday the Democrats started computer-generated calls to registered voters.

Voters will hear, “;Aloha, this is President Barack Obama on behalf of the Democratic Party.”;

Obama says he wants voters to pick a Democrat to replace Abercrombie.

Inouye and Akaka, who already have endorsed Hanabusa, recorded phone messages urging a vote for the current state Senate president.

  President Obama Favors Neither Democrat

 

But behind the scenes, there are some subtle efforts by key democratic party organizations to sway voters to support Ed Case.

 

[ Watch ]

 

 

 

 

“;I received one from Sen. Akaka, and my wife had a call from Sen. Inouye,”; reports Dante Carpenter, state Democratic Party chairman. “;I guess this is a different style of campaigning that we will have to get used to.”;

He said, “;It is annoying to some, but it is the wave of the future. I just hope they don't call during dinner time.”;

Abercrombie is also recording a message, saying, “;Hawaii needs a Democratic delegation to support President Obama,”; said campaign press secretary Laurie Au.

“;He is not endorsing one candidate over another,”; Au said.

Hanabusa press secretary Crystal Kua said the messages from Inouye and Akaka have been going since last week.

“;The response has been generally positive,”; Kua said.

Meanwhile, Djou's campaign planned to hold a “;tele-town hall talk-story”; last night so supporters could listen in on a political conference call.

“;It will have hundreds, thousands of participants,”; said Jonah-Kuhio Kaauwai, Hawaii GOP chairman. “;No celebrity robo-calls are planned. All voter contact calls will be done with local volunteers since it is their race to decide.”;