New poll shows Djou, Hanabusa neck & neck in Congressional race

By Minna Sugimoto - bio | email

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The race for Hawaii's 1st Congressional District seat is too close to call. The latest poll numbers show Charles Djou and Colleen Hanabusa are virtually tied with a little more than a week to go until the general election.

Ward Research conducted the poll for Hawaii News Now and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

With just nine days left until the election, Republican Congressional candidate Charles Djou and Democratic challenger Colleen Hanabusa are neck and neck, according to the results of our new poll.

Four hundred six voters in the 1st Congressional District were asked if the election were held today, who would you vote for. Forty-eight percent said Djou, while 46% chose Hanabusa. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

"Of course I'm excited to be a little bit ahead in the poll," Djou said. "I think it's clear that the majority of the people in Hawaii are very concerned about the direction Congress is taking our nation and are very excited about changing the direction of Congress, and that we need to change these failed policies."

"We're really close to the only poll that really matters, which is of course on election day," Hanabusa said. "We do know, as everyone knows, when you look back to the special election, we do know what it takes. We have the greatest volunteers and they are getting people out to vote."

The candidates kept busy on Sunday shaking hands and spreading their message. This high-stakes race has seen its share of negative campaigning.

"It tells you how critical this seat is nationally for the Republican party because I don't ever remember an election when they have spent as much money," Hanabusa said.

"This Congressional seat is one of the most exciting, and one of the closely and hardest fought Congressional races in the United States of America," Djou said.

According to our poll, Republican John Willoughby has a lot of ground to make up in the 2nd Congressional District. Of the 202 voters surveyed, just 16% said they would choose the first-time candidate if the election were held today. Seventy-six percent picked his Democratic opponent, Mazie Hirono. The margin of error was plus or minus 7.1 percentage points.

"Mrs. Hirono and I have not yet debated," Willoughby said. "That's because she refuses to debate. She knows she would lose. I would love to debate with Mrs. Hirono any time, any place."

"It's always heartening to see poll results like this, but I've never taken any vote for granted and I'm not going to start now," Hirono said in a written statement. "I'm pleased that island families are responding positively to my message."