Report: New Hawaii senator on Wed.

Hawaii Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Wednesday is expected to name a successor to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, CBS News reported.

That’s a move that would be in keeping with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s preference to move quickly in filling the seat after Inouye, the most senior member of the Senate, died last week at the age of 88.


“With the passing of my dear friend Senator Daniel Inouye, I have asked the governor of Hawaii to appoint Senator Inouye’s successor with due haste,” Reid has said in a statement. “It is critically important to ensure that the people of Hawaii are fully represented in the pivotal decisions the Senate will be making before the end of the year.”

Inouye endorsed Hawaii Rep. Colleen Hanabusa for the seat the day he died, reports said.

“It’s the absolute, the ultimate kind of honor that anyone could be paid as a politician in Hawaii, to have Sen. Inouye … say that he would like to see me succeed him. It is an amazing honor,” Hanabusa has said to POLITICO. “And that is why I’m saying that I want to be able to honor him and his memory.”

If selected, Hanabusa could beat out incoming Sen. Mazie Hirono to be the first female senator from Hawaii, as well as the Senate’s first Asian-American female and Buddhist, by being sworn in first.

Other possible contenders for the seat include Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz, Rep.-elect Tulsi Gabbard, former Rep. Ed Case and several state senators, CBS reported.

This article tagged under: Hawaii

Politics

Daniel Inouye