As he lay dying in 2012, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) asked Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) to appoint Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI), “a protégée and the daughter of a gas station owner here, to fill his seat. But Mr. Abercrombie, a fellow Democrat, disregarded that deathbed request, choosing his lieutenant governor, Brian Schatz, as the interim senator instead,” the New York Times reports.
“Eighteen months later, the decision to defy one of the most popular politicians in Hawaii history has come back to rock Mr. Abercrombie and the Democratic Party, setting off a backlash that threatens to topple both Mr. Schatz and the governor — who had already been struggling during an occasionally tumultuous first term — in the Democratic primary on Aug. 9.”
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