Hawaii goes for Bernie Sanders

KAILUA-KONA — Hawaii was feeling the Bern.

The Aloha State joined Washington and Alaska Saturday in resounding support of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Rough tallies shortly after all Hawaii Island precincts had reported indicated just under 6,000 votes for Sanders and about 1,600 votes for Clinton, according to Hawaii County Democratic Party chair Phil Barnes. Statewide results were not available as of press time.

Turnout was strong and the registration line was long at the 2016 Presidential Preference Poll in Kailua-Kona, with Democrats from House District 6 and one precinct from District 7 pouring into the Makaeo Events Pavilion at Old Kona Airport Park to cast their ballots.

For Diane Herrle, Sanders was the clear choice to lead the country out of a system rigged against the average citizen.

“People are not happy,” she said. “There is going to be a revolution if things don’t change. The working poor are sick of being taken advantage of. Trump stands for white males and Bernie is everyone else.”

Amanda Rogers favored Sanders to take on an energized Republican corner — and likely a surging Donald Trump — in November.

“I think Sanders has been the most consistent,” she said.

Some other voters were skeptical of the New England lawmaker and saw Clinton as a solid bet.

“She has the foreign policy experience to deal with the terrorism that is going to be our future for awhile,” said Donna Beumler, who was joined by her husband Timothy in voting for Clinton. “Bernie has a lot of idealism and rhetoric, but I don’t think the experience is there.”

Hawaii has 34 delegates to the Democratic National Convention set for July in Philadelphia, where a general election candidate will be chosen. Voters chose how 25 of those delegates will be divided, and the remainder are super delegates who can vote for whichever candidate they choose.

Kristi Van Pernis said she has followed Clinton’s career over the years.

“I like what she stands for on women’s rights, equality of pay and family rights,” she said. “I think internationally, she is respected.”

Clinton is backed heavily by Hawaii’s political establishment, with a long line of endorsements. Sanders has enjoyed a high-profile endorsement by Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee to support the senator. Sanders has run on a platform of taking on the corporate establishment, leveling the economic playing field, free college and universal health care.

Ricci Bezona said Gabbard’s endorsement was a turning point in his decision to vote for Sanders. Her support helped lend credibility to a candidate some of Bezona’s friends characterize as crazy, he said.

Regardless of whether Clinton or Sanders is ultimately chosen, history will be made if the Democrats prevail in November. Clinton would become the first woman president. Or, a Sanders victory would constitute a significant jog to the left in the American political sensibility, with the election of a self-proclaimed Social Democrat who has called for nothing less than political revolution in this country.

And there is always the factor of the three consecutive Democratic presidential terms. It doesn’t happen often.

According to the National Constitution Center, the Democrats haven’t won three presidential elections in a row since Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a triple term in 1940. In the modern two-party era, this trifecta has only happened one other time — in 1836 — according to the center.

The election of George H.W. Bush in 1988 following two terms of Ronald Reagan, is a recent example of how Republicans have had only a marginally easier time pulling off 12 years in the White House. Political analysts say American voters don’t like to leave the Oval Office in the hands of one party for too long.

Rogers doesn’t think the Democrats are taking anything for granted.

“I think a lot of people are turning out and coming out of the woodwork that wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Rogers said.