U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye

U.S. Rep. Ed Case

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie

With more than half of the precincts counted, U.S. Rep. Ed Case, 52, was beating Honolulu City Councilman Mike Gabbard, 56, by a large margin for the 2nd Congressional District, which includes rural O'ahu and the Neighbor Islands.

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, 66, was headed for his eighth full term by defeating Dalton Tano naka, 50, a Republican and former TV and newspaper journalist, for the district representing urban Honolulu. Libertarian candidate and adult club floor manager Elyssa Young, 35, lagged.

No Hawai'i incumbent who has served a full term in Congress has lost a re-election bid since statehood.

The congressional delegation's victory did not surprise Don Clegg, a political consultant and pollster, who said many voters recognize the benefit of having seniority representation in Washington.

"And I know that all of the legislators who are running bring that up and use that as a reason why you should return me to Congress: 'I have seniority. I bring back the pork,' " Clegg said.

Inouye was in Washington with his wife, Maggie, who has cancer in her large intestine and is scheduled to have surgery tomorrow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Case, who won two special elections to succeed Patsy Mink in Congress after her death in 2002, said the campaign in his district centered on whether his constituents approved of his performance in Congress.

"And from the results it looks like they're satisfied with what I've been doing and look forward to another two years from me," he said. "I obviously want to do even better than we have been doing, and I definitely want to reach out to the people that voted for my opponent and embrace their concerns and their desires as well and I will be doing that."

Gabbard thanked people in the district and his volunteers.

"We did our best, considering what we were up against," he said. "As you very well know, it's difficult to run against an incumbent, especially one who has twice as much money as I had. When we started the campaign, very few people statewide even knew my name."

According to the latest available figures filed with the Federal Campaign Spending Commission, Case had raised $632,000 for his re-election campaign while Gabbard, best known for his support for traditional marriage, raised $398,000.

Tanonaka said he congratulated Abercrombie and wished him well after the second printout.

"I told him my supporters and I would work with him to make our state a better place," he said.

Tanonaka's campaign faced a complaint under review by the prosecutor's office that he allegedly hid outside loans to his 2002 campaign for lieutenant governor. A second complaint was filed questioning loans to his congressional campaign. Tanonaka has denied any wrongdoing.

Tanonaka acknowledged that the complaints hurt his campaign.

"Obviously, the efforts by our opponents ... timed to certain events affected the outcome," he said. "I'm not saying it was the only reason we lost, but we had to run a perfect race to win. And that didn't happen for some reasons that were out of our control."

Abercrombie said the numbers also show that voters are pleased with the Democratic congressional delegation.

"I think our partnership and our congressional team has made the case to the voters and they've agreed with us," he said.