On a night where, nationwide, Republicans grabbed control of the United State Senate and strengthened its grip on the U.S. House of Representatives, Hawai’i’s General Election results were still decided very early and continued to lean strongly toward the Democratic ticket.
The state’s top races were decided early in the evening. In fact, before the first set of results were released, most news outlets had named Brian Schatz as the winner of the U.S. Senate special election to fill the final two years of late Senator Daniel Inouye’s term.
Schatz, with 246,770 votes, handily defeated Republican Cam Cavasso, who earned 97,983 votes.
Democrat Tulsi Gabbard won re-election in U.S. House District II, gaining 75.8 percent of votes cast. Republican candidate Kawika Crowley finished with just 33,624, far behind Gabbard, who is currently serving in Pahoa as an active member of the Hawai’i National Guard.
State Senator David Ige held a firm grip on the gubernatorial race from the opening printout. He, and Liutenant Governor Shan Tsutsui, earned 49 percent of votes cast, amounting to 181,065 votes. Finishing second was former Republican Lt. Governor Duke Aiona and Elwin Ahu, over 45,000 votes behind. Former City and County of Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hanneman finished a distant third.
Very few Hawai’i Island races were close throughout the night. The main exception to that came in Hawai’i County Council District 5, where Daniel Paleka Jr. defeated journalist Tiffany Edwards Hunt by 274 votes. Paleka gained 50.2 percent, or 2,319 votes, while Hunt had 44.2 percent of votes cast.
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Margaret Wille will be returning to her County Council seat in District 9. She held off Ron Gonzales by 1,021 votes.
Big Island voters strongly passed a change to the county’s charter, allowing the term limit for the County Clerk to increase from two to four years. Nearly 35,000 people (34,973) voted in favor of the change.
Voters, however, shot down several amendments to the State Constitution. One of them, knocked down by 72.8 percent of voters, would have increased the retirement age of state justices and judges from 70 to 80. The other, which aimed to allocate state money toward private early childhood education programs, was voted down by 52 percent of people who chose to answer the question.
Voter turnout was once again low. Just 52.3 percent of registered voters took part in the election, amounting to 369,554 votes. Only 50,158 people, accounting for 47.7 percent of the more than 105,000 people registered to vote on the Big Island, cast a vote.
2014 General Election – Final Results (issued at 1:55 a.m. Wednesday)
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U.S. SENATE VACANCY (247 out of 247 precincts)
(D) SCHATZ, Brian – 246,770 (66.8%)
(R) CAVASSO, Cam – 97,983 (26.5%)
(L) KOKOSKI, Michael – 8,936 (2.4%)
Blank votes – 15,774 (4.3%)
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Over votes – 152 (0.0%)
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES – CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 2 (134 out of 134 precincts)
(D) GABBARD, Tulsi – 141,996 (75.8%)
(R) CROWLEY, Kawika – 33,624 (17.9%)
(L) KENT, Joe – 4,692 (2.5%)
Blank votes – 7,019 (3.7%)
Over votes – 82 (0.0%)
GOVERNOR/LIUTENANT GOVERNOR (247 out of 247 precincts)
(D) IGE, David Yutaka/TSUTSUI, Shan S. – 181,065 (49.0%)
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