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In 1986 Neil Abercrombie was the experienced, confident front-runner, while Mufi Hannemann was the aggressive, well-funded newcomer. Yet both ultimately lost the battle for the 1st Congressional District.

The election was a bitter contest. Hannemann accused Abercrombie of being a pot-smoker who was soft on drugs. Abercrombie accused Hannemann of “sleaze,” and charged that he lacked character and integrity. The battle got so heated that the top four candidates all submitted to urinalysis tests.

As Hannemann, now the mayor of Honolulu, prepares to formally announce — as early as today — that he’s going to take on Abercrombie for the Democratic nod for governor, it’s worth examining what happened the last time the two rivals faced off.

Viewing the pages of The Honolulu Advertiser from August and September 1986 reveals that Hawaii was in many ways very different from today.

The Advertiser’s Oahu edition cost 35 cents. A half gallon of whole milk averaged $1.65. There were sales at Liberty House. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was playing at the Kuhio 2 Theater in Waikiki. Gov. George Ariyoshi was fighting to build H-3. And Ferdinand Marcos was living in exile in Niu Valley.

Some things were not so different at all: The KSSK duo of Perry and Price was No. 1 in the Arbitron radio ratings. Kilauea was erupting. Honolulu Symphony musicians complained about proposed pay cuts. And U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, running for re-election, was unopposed in the Democratic primary and faced a no-name Republican in the general.

One big difference in 1986, however, was that the state would hold a combined special and primary election to replace Cec Heftel, who left his 1st Congressional District seat after serving 10 years to run for governor.

Hawaii had never held a special and primary election simultaneously. But the lieutenant governor’s office, which at that time ran state elections, had little choice. Heftel’s last day in office was July 11 and the Sept. 20 primary was barely two months away.

It seemed Abercrombie’s race to lose. At age 48, he was a 12-year veteran of the state Senate. Hannemann, soon to turn 32, had never run for elective office.

An Aug. 4 Hawaii Poll said Abercrombie led the special election contest with 26 percent, followed by Republican Pat Saiki (20 percent), Hannemann (18 percent) and another Democrat, state Sen. Steve Cobb, (15 percent). The same poll gave Abercrombie 34 percent in the Democratic primary, Hannemann 27 percent and Cobb 21 percent.

But 21 percent were undecided about the special election, and 17 percent felt the same way about the primary. Saiki, 56, was unopposed in the Republican primary.

Despite the lead, the poll revealed a potential Abercrombie vulnerability. He polled well among union voters, Caucasians, Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians. But he also did well among voters under 35 and those with low incomes — two groups with traditionally very low turnout rates.

“Hannemann, A Virtual Unknown”

Hannemann, thanks to the support of his mentor, Gov. George Ariyoshi, polled well among Japanese Americans and higher-income earners — two groups that do turn out to vote — and Hawaiians.

“Hannemann, a virtual unknown when the year began, is already a tough challenge for veteran legislator Abercrombie,” wrote the Advertiser, adding that the race was “clearly up for grabs.”

Another red flag was the confusion over the dual vote, and its usefulness.

“One candidate could win both races, but that is far from certain,” the Advertiser wrote in an Aug. 8 editorial. “Much has been made of the idea that whoever wins may serve only about 10 working days before Congress adjourns Oct. 3.”

As is typical in all political races, letters to the editor played up the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates.

“I am surprised at how well the Hannemann image is selling in Hawaii,” wrote an Abercrombie supporter Aug. 13. “Hannemann has absolutely no experience: all of his ‘jobs’ have been political appointments with little substance … We the voters do not know how he feels about women’s rights, education, H-3 or any other issue I can think of.”

In fact, Hannemann brought to the campaign a compelling background. He was a cum laude graduate of Harvard, a Fulbright Scholar, a White House Fellow under the first President Bush, and an appointee in the Carter administration.

A Hannemann supporter wrote the Advertiser, “The increasing frequency and vociferousness of personal attacks on Hannemann lead me to believe that supporters of Neil Abercrombie are worried — and rightly so — about Mufi’s growing strength among Hawaii’s voters.”

Abercrombie was already an established figure in Hawaii politics. He had brazenly run for the U.S. Senate in 1970 while still a long-haired, 32-year-old graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Although he finished third in the Democratic primary, by 1974 he was elected to the State House and had not lost an election since.

The two candidates could hardly be more different.

Abercrombie, a native of New York, was known to carry a literal soapbox to stand on because he is only 5 feet 5 inches tall. Hannemann, a Samoan and basketball standout at Harvard and Iolani School, is 6 foot 7.

As the campaign progressed, letters to the editor turned darker, foreshadowing the race itself. An example from Aug. 20: “I do not think Neil Abercrombie would have been endorsed by the HSTA and HGEA, nor would he have done so well in the recent Advertiser poll, if people knew where he stands on liberalization of laws on pornography, abortion and prostitution.”

Drug Tests and Pot Accusations

Then things got weird.

By late August Saiki, a former teacher, legislator and state GOP chairwoman, slammed Abercrombie for refusing to take a urinalysis test for drugs, a test sponsored by Tony Hodges, an environmentalist and candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor. Saiki also singled out Abercrombie’s sponsorship of legislation to remove marijuana as a Class A felony and to allow doctors to prescribe heroin as a painkiller for terminally ill cancer patients.

Abercrombie replied that urinalysis tests were unreliable and defended his bill sponsorship as compassionate. He called Saiki “politically desperate.”

Honolulu City Prosecutor Charles Marsland, a Saiki supporter, joined the fray. Marsland said Abercrombie “has admitted being present during felony drug use … We don’t need a bald-headed hippie in Congress, and you can quote me on that.”

Countered Abercrombie: “He’s lying, but since when does the truth have anything to do with what Chuck Marsland says?”

Democrat Cobb, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, joined the bandwagon, saying Abercrombie opposed the federal Green Harvest pot eradication program in Hawaii.

Abercrombie said Green Harvest had done little to dent illegal drug use.

Saiki, Abercrombie, Hannemann and Cobb soon submitted to a drug test, each with negative results. But the drug attacks would soon resurface.

By early September Marsland pointed to a 1970 Advertiser article in which Abercrombie was said to enjoy pot. Abercrombie responded that the article was inaccurate, that he never smoked pot, and that he gave up drinking 12 years ago.

In the meantime, the Advertiser endorsed Hannemann, calling him “very much a self-made man … inspired by the poverty-to-president saga of Abraham Lincoln.” U.S. Sens. Ted Kennedy and Bill Bradley also gave their support to Hannemann.

On Sept. 9, the Advertiser reported that Hannemann had raised the most money ($95,000) between July 1 and Aug. 31. He was followed by Saiki ($89,000) and Abercrombie ($75,000).

A Rainbow Of Ballots

By that time the lieutenant governor’s office had launched a $40,000 special voters guide intended to “minimize confusion” and “speed the balloting process.” Encouraging voters to think of the Sept. 20 election as a “primary plus one,” the guide explained that there would be a yellow ballot for Democrats, blue for Republicans, white for nonpartisans and pink for the special election.

Voters were not required to vote for the same person in each election, the guide said, though the Advertiser wrote “the assumption is that they will.”

Saiki then launched her own $40,000 campaign, called “Think Pink,” to help voters. “There’s a lot of confusion out there in the public,” said Saiki. “People do not truly realize that we’re having two elections on the same day.”

In a Sept. 14 primary guide in the Advertiser, a Saiki advertisement stated, “Vote your pink special election ballot first.” A Hannemann ad said, “Remember to vote twice.”

The next day — five days before the election — a new poll showed Abercrombie still leading the special election with 32 percent, followed by Hannemann (22 percent), Saiki (21 percent), Cobb (11 percent) and 14 percent undecided. A primary poll had Abercrombie with 41 percent, followed by Hannemann (31 percent), Cobb (16 percent) and undecided with 13 percent.

Saiki said her internal polls reported that both races were “much tighter.”

On Sept. 16 Hannemann began running 30-second TV ads, followed later by newspaper ads, saying Abercrombie admitted to using drugs and twice tried to decriminalize marijuana. The ad ended with a “bearded” Abercrombie, according to the Advertiser, looking “tired and distracted” while a voiceover warned, “Is that the kind of man you want representing Hawaii in Congress?”

The same article noted that Hannemann, described as “active” in the Mormon church, had never used marijuana, cocaine or other illegal drugs.

Then, on Sept. 17, Mufi Hannemann’s salvo on Abercrombie’s alleged drug use made the front page of the Advertiser: “Hannemann’s potshots set off candidate squabbling.” Abercrombie called the ads “sleaze” and said it reflected Hannemann’s character.

The next day, the Advertiser interviewed the widow of the journalist who wrote the 1970 piece about Abercrombie “enjoying pot.” She defended her late husband’s veracity and observed that he was a Pulitzer Prize runner-up that same year for reporting on Hawaii organized crime.

The day before the election, at a Honolulu Press Club forum featuring the top four candidates for the 1st district, Hannemann challenged Abercrombie to “say you’re sorry” or take a lie-detector test. Abercrombie responded that the only test he would submit to was the voters’ judgment. Saiki chimed in that Hannemann’s ads were “defamatory,” because Abercrombie had taken a drug test.

Hannemann responded that he was just presenting “the facts.” The Advertiser described Hannemann’s demeanor at the forum as “strident” and “increasingly bellicose,” adding, “Abercrombie, who was unusually subdued, said this has been an emotionally draining campaign.”

Finally, The Election

Hannemann won the primary with 46,269 votes to Abercrombie’s 45,107 — a difference of barely more than 1,100 votes. Cobb was third at 22,779. As the sole candidate in the Republican primary, Saiki earned 14,453 votes.

But Abercrombie won the special election with 42,031 votes. Saiki was second (41,067), Hannemann third (39,800) and Cobb fourth (16,721).

“There’s nothing anything I would do in my life as to sink that low,” Abercrombie said of Hannemann after the election. Abercrombie soon backed off his demand of a primary recount, saying, “I’m not going to be a bad sport.”

Abercrombie left for Washington shortly after the race, serving for just three months. He was replaced by Saiki, who trumped Hannemann in the general election.

Abercrombie went on to serve on the Honolulu City Council from 1988 to 1990 before succeeding Saiki, who left the U.S. House in an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate against Daniel Akaka. Abercrombie would stay in Washington for the next 20 years.

Hannemann, meanwhile, ran for the 2nd Congressional District seat vacated in 1990 by Akaka , who was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat of the late Spark Matsunaga. Hannemann lost to Patsy Mink in the Democratic primary.

The 2010 race between Mufi Hannemann and Neil Abercrombie officially begins this week. Fasten your seat belts.