'Racially Insensitive and Sexist' Democrats Pull Out of Hawaii Special Election

Nothing like a good catfight among Democrats. Their own infighting may well allow Republican Charles Djou to win the Hawaii Congressional seat in Barack Obama's hometown.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the national campaign organization of House Democrats, announced today that it is pulling out of a special election in Hawaii that has turned into a major headache for the party.

"The DCCC will not be investing additional resources in the HI-01 (Abercrombie-open) special election," said DCCC spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. "Local Democrats were unable to work out their differences. The DCCC will save the resources we would have invested in the Hawaii special election this month for the general election in November."

Here's the back-story: There are two Democrats, Ed Case and Colleen Hanabusa, who are seeking the seat, along with one Republican. While the district is usually safely Democratic - President Obama grew up there, and took 70 percent of the vote in 2008 - the two Democrats are splitting the special election vote, leaving GOP candidate and Honolulu city councilman Charles Djou in first place in many polls.

Democrats have been pressuring one of the Democratic candidates to drop out, but there is a split in institutional support: National Democrats have been supporting Case, a former U.S. representative, while Hawaii's two senator's backed Hanabusa, the state senate president. Hanabusa insisted last week she is "in the race until the end" despite pressure from national Democrats.

Here's some of the back story.

Democrats remain hotly divided over whom to support, with some saying national party interference in the election has been racially insensitive or sexist.

The DCCC has been quietly supporting Case over Hanabusa, Politico reports, citing unnamed sources. Those efforts reportedly coincided with the circulation of opposition research against Hanabusa.

Upon hearing reports of the DCCC's support for Case, the Asian American Action Fund released a statement saying, "The DCCC should focus the party on uniting Democrats and keeping this seat blue rather than dividing us and helping us defeat ourselves."

"It is unseemly for party officials to step into a special election with more than one Democrat, particularly in a district where 58 percent of the population is Asian Pacific American," Asian American Action Fund executive director Gautam Dutta said. "Imagine the disgruntled reaction were the DCCC to step into a contested special election in a predominantly African-American or Latino district."

Some female Democratic activists were also angered. Amy Siskind, president of The New Agenda, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls, wrote at the Huffington Post that the DCCC's actions represented "the latest on a long list of examples of the Democratic Party no longer standing up for, nor representing, women and women's issues."

Gee, I thought only Republicans were supposed to be racist and sexist?