ANOTHER NON-TEST:

Republicans optimistic on Hawaii election (ALEX ISENSTADT, 5/22/10, Politico)

Regardless of the outlook for November, after the GOP’s disappointing performance in the western Pennsylvania House special election Tuesday Republicans were eagerly anticipating the chance to pick up a seat that includes Obama’s birthplace.

“It takes some of the sting off,” said former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, a onetime NRCC chairman. “For Republicans, it shows they can execute. This was not a slam-dunk. It’s a 70 percent Democratic district.”

“It’s important that we win one of two of these special elections,” added Jason Roe, a California-based GOP strategist who is involved in House races across the country. “We’ve got to make sure people don’t think we’ve lost our momentum.”

Unable to persuade Hawaii Democrats to clear the field or line up behind one of their two top candidates, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced earlier this month that it was pulling out of the race after spending more than $250,000 on TV ads blasting Djou.

Ballots in the unusual all-mail-in race were still trickling into the state’s elections office Friday.

On the eve of the election, with just one day until the voting period ended, state elections office spokesman Rex Quidilla said 50 percent of the voters in the Honolulu-based district who had received ballots had turned them in.

Just as the Democrats victory in a race that was determined by a competitive statewide primary on their side with none on the GOP side was rather meaningless, so too would a GOP victory by a mere plurality be in this one.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 22, 2010 12:39 PM