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Democrat Neil Abercrombie crushed Republican James “Duke” Aiona 58-41 percent in the contest for Hawaii governor.

With Abercrombie’s election — and Colleen Hanabusa’s defeat of Charles Djou — the state’s top elected offices are once again solidly in Democrat’s control.

Aiona, the lieutenant governor, never led Abercrombie, the former congressman, in public opinion polls throughout the campaign.

But the final margin of victory — with recent polls showing a closer race than expected — was jaw-dropping, especially given Republican gains on the mainland.

The statewide vote tally, as of the third printout late Tuesday night, was 207,640 for Abercrombie to Aiona’s 146,587, or 58-41 percent. Two independent candidates on the ballot finished with a combined 2,395 votes, or 0.6 percent.

Abercrombie, 72, and running mate Brian Schatz, 38, swept all four counties.

They won 56-42 percent of the City and County of Honolulu, 62-37 percent in Hawaii County, 60-38 percent in Maui County and 59-39 percent in Kauai County.

“We have a message, not just a message from this campaign, but a message maybe that we can take to the mainland,” said Abercrombie in his victory speech, delivered at his election night headquarters at the former CompUSA site near downtown Honolulu. “Well, what do you see tonight? You see division, you see rancor, you see people at odds with one another. You see confrontation and conflict all over the mainland. But what you see in Hawaii tonight is unity of purpose and unity of people because our diversity defines us and does not divide us.”

Abercrombie continued: “We are united. We are the rainbow people, the aloha state, we reach out together to pono, to do the right thing.”

Earlier in the evening Aiona, 55, conceded the hard-fought contest, only his third political campaign.

“You guys have been a tremendous blessing. This is very hard right now. I did call up our opponent Neil Abercrombie … I thanked him for running a great campaign. I wanted to make sure he thanked his supporters, he thanked his family, he thanked everybody who was involved with him in that campaign,” Aiona said, blinking back tears. “I said ‘Neil, we will come together for the state… you will stick to your principles, I will stick to my principles… that is what makes Hawaii and this great nation of ours so great.'”

Aiona was joined by his running mate, Lynn Finnegan.

Helped by Obama

While supporters of Abercrombie’s primary election opponent, Mufi Hannemann, strongly favored Aiona over Abercrombie, their numbers were not enough to change the general election’s outcome.

Nor was the spending of more than a million in advertising on Aiona’s behalf by the Republican Governors Association.

Abercrombie, who was friends with President Obama’s parents when both attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa, benefitted from a TV endorsement from the president.

Obama was born in Hawaii, graduated from Punahou School and frequently vacations with his family on the islands. His half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, lives here and was an outspoken supporter of “Uncle Neil.”

Speaking with reporters after his win, Abercrombie reflected on how unusual that a short white man from Buffalo, N.Y., would become friends with a tall black man from Kenya who would father a future U.S. president.

“It’s amazing — I’ve thought about that,” he said. “But it just struck me as some kind of — you’ve got to be real careful you don’t think there was some kind of destiny or some kind of plan of cosmic plot — it turned out to be this remarkable set of coincidences.”

Governor-elect Abercrombie will be sworn in with lieutenant governor-elect Schatz at noon on Monday, Dec. 6.

Abercrombie succeeds Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, who was limited to two four-year terms.

Doubts About Candidacy

Abercrombie represented Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District from 1991 until he resigned in February of this year to run full time for governor.

He was criticized by his opponents for leaving Congress when it was controlled by Democrats and a Democrat was in the White House, and for helping give his seat to Republican Charles Djou, who was elected in a special election in May to complete Abercrombie’s term.

Some also questioned whether Abercrombie had been in Washington, D.C., too long and did not understand local issues.

But Abercrombie said he was inspired by Obama’s 2008 election to return to Hawaii and seek the governorship. He has been a resident of the state since 1959 and completed graduate school at UH.

Since running, unsuccessfully, for the U.S. Senate in 1970 on an anti-Vietnam War platform, Abercrombie has held elective office nearly every year since. He served in both the state House and Senate and the Honolulu City Council.

Abercrombie won a special election in 1986 to fill the remainder of Cec Heftel‘s term in Congress when Heftel ran for governor. (Heftel, a Democrat, lost.) But Hannemann, in his first political race, defeated Abercrombie in the primary election, which was held the same day as the special election.

Hannemann subsequently lost the general election to Republican Pat Saiki, who served for two terms before running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. Abercrombie won the race to succeed Saiki.

While they have demonstrated an ability to work together in later years, Abercrombie and Hannemann were said to retain bitter memories of the 1986 race. Abercrombie’s landslide defeat of his opponent in the 2010 primary was vindication for Abercrombie, who was the target of a negative campaign by Hannemann that backfired.

Taking the High Road

Abercrombie’s victory is a crowning achievement to a career in public office that has spawned four decades.

By leaving Congress, Abercrombie was free to campaign full time for the governorship.

His strategy focused in part on making repeated trips to the neighbor islands to build a base and secure donations.

Abercrombie called the visits “conversations,” where he sought to listen to what residents — farmers, lawyers, environmentalists, hotel workers, educators, senior citizens, women’s groups and others — had to say about the direction of the state.

What he heard, he said, was people wanted leadership.

Long notorious for having an outspoken personality, Abercrombie seemed to tone down his rhetoric on the campaign trail, presenting himself more as a politician wanting to seek input and compromise on complex issues rather than force his views on others.

While pundits expected a brutal rematch between Abercrombie and Hannemann, Abercrombie took the high road when Hannemann threw mud.

“That’s not what a governor does,” he said, for example, when Hannemann’s infamous “Compare and Decide” mailer painted an unflattering portrait of Abercrombie.

Abercrombie continued the pattern leading up to the general election.

When critics doubted his religious beliefs, Abercrombie chose not to attack them. But he did make a point of saying he had followed his own “spiritual journey,” and that the line between church and state must remain intact.

He also stood firm on his promise to sign a Hawaii civil unions bill should it come across his desk as governor. While Hannemann and Aiona both opposed the legislation on religious ground — and while several religious conservative groups mobilized against his candidacy in favor of “righteous” candidates — Abercrombie argued that civil unions was fundamentally a matter of civil rights.

Defying Inouye, Unions

Abercrombie won the primary without the blessing of many influential labor unions, despite having long been a staunch supporter of labor, or that of Daniel K. Inouye, the state’s senior U.S. senator and long considered a kingmaker.

After the primary, the unions switched to Abercrombie and Inouye and Hannemann publicly endorsed him.

The Abercrombie-Schatz campaign was slow in gathering steam after the primary. Abercrombie took time off, likely exhausted after devoting his energy — and about $3 million — to defeating Hannemann.

The Aiona-Finnegan campaign, by contrast, immediately released ads and called for debates. A Civil Beat poll published Oct. 13 showed Abercrombie with a 3 percentage point lead, far closer than the 15 point spread revealed in other polls earlier in the year.

But 8.5 percent of voters that were polled were undecided, and of those most had voted for Obama in 2008. Neither candidate scored a knockout punch in debates and forums, and Abercrombie doubled Aiona in fundraising after the primary.

Lingle, the incumbent governor and titular head of her party, was largely absent from the campaign. A recent poll conducted by Ward Research showed that 51 percent of voters disapproved of her performance, likely brought on by budget cuts and the “Furlough Fridays” involving public school instructional days.

Ultimately, a majority of voters appeared more comfortable selecting a traditionally liberal politician over a socially conservative one.

Abercrombie now inherits a state Legislature and budget situation much the same as the one that confronted Lingle during the past two years. Whether his self-described collaborative style will be more successful than Lingle’s often confrontational stance may well depend on the local economy, which shows signs of improving.

His victory also puts a leader on the fifth floor of the state Capitol who will be far more sympathetic to educators and their unions; Abercrombie, a former educator and UH grad, is one of them.

He has also long supported a rail transit system for Oahu, a project currently on hold as Lingle deliberates what to do with the accompanying environmental impact statement.

With Democrats running the executive and legislative branches and again in control of legislative appointments and the congressional delegation, there will be little political balance in a state dominated by one political party.