Even now, a month before the Democratic primary for Senate, Ed Case and his wife, Audrey, still hear the whispers and snide remarks. He's too impatient, too ambitious. His ego has gotten in the way of his judgment. He's not even really a Democrat.

The congressman is feeling the weight of the party's establishment push back against his challenge to U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, with money, with endorsements, and with the quiet but coordinated disapproval of influential loyalists.

Case knew it was coming, but knowing does not make it any less intense. He expected the party to resist change but he needed to force the question anyway.

"I take the comments seriously," Case said in an interview over breakfast. "But I can't be anybody other than who I am. And I won't be somebody that I'm not. I think people can feel that.

"People can feel insecurity. People can feel when you have adjusted with the political winds. And I have kind of this basic belief in people that what they want in their elected officials is a real person with consistency and sincerity. Even if they disagree with that person, they will entrust that person to lead."

Case is asking voters to answer two basic questions. With Akaka and U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye both at 81, is this the right time for leadership transition? And do they want a moderate who more closely reflects the political center to be their voice in the Senate?

The campaign has been an enormous political risk for Case, who is giving up his safe 2nd Congressional District seat in Central, Leeward and Windward O'ahu and the Neighbor Islands to go up against the beloved Akaka and the leaders of his own party. In Hawai'i, no challenger since statehood has beaten an incumbent who has served a full term in Congress.

People close to Case, 53, say it is not about ego or impatience but a belief he can be more effective than Akaka. It is an uncomfortable message to hear for many Democrats who have supported both men over the years, and it runs counter to a culture in the Islands that frowns on confrontation, but it is the reality of his campaign.

Jim Starshak, a tax attorney who has known and worked with Case for more than two decades, said the party's reaction has been provincial. "If the Democratic Party had thought about this first, it would have been a great idea," he said. "They would have been pushing somebody else into the Senate and they would have said it was absolutely the right time.

"But Ed thought of it. And the Democratic Party, to me, has done everything it can to not get him elected."

SHAKING ESTABLISHMENT

Case, an attorney, has been in conflict with many in his party from the start of his political career.

The congressman has often been portrayed as an outsider, but he has establishment credentials. He comes from a prominent Island family. He was a House and Senate aide in Washington, D.C., to the late Spark Matsunaga. He clerked for revered former state Supreme Court Chief Justice William Richardson. He was a partner in the powerhouse Carlsmith Ball law firm downtown.

State Rep. Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), who went to high school with Case at the Hawai'i Preparatory Academy in Waimea on the Big Island, thinks Case was scarred by narrow losses in Manoa to Brian Taniguchi in a 1986 state House race and to Ann Kobayashi in a 1988 state Senate race.

Case has characterized himself as an agent of change against the party's establishment and labor unions in most of his campaigns since those early defeats, including his close loss to Mazie Hirono in the Democratic primary for governor in 2002.

"He kind of got pounded down and from that point he started on this mantra about the machine," Caldwell said. "He began to see the world in that light, and he has seen the world in that light ever since."

Caldwell and Case had a falling out over a legal dispute and no longer speak to each other. But Caldwell, who is supporting Akaka, still describes Case as brave. "I think Ed has cojones," he said. "Ed has a lot of guts and he's willing to take a position and defend it publicly."

Once Case reached the state House in 1994, after Taniguchi moved to the Senate, he became known for his intelligence and independence and was not afraid to take on unpopular causes. But he was also frustrated with the pace of change and alienated other Democrats who thought he was too single-minded to work well in the collaborative legislative process.

Case's aggressive drive was an asset on issues such as limiting compensation for trustees at the Bishop Estate, where he was well ahead of the curve. But it would also backfire, such as when he failed to get consensus in the Hawaiian community on an unsuccessful bill to consolidate the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands into a single trust.

"Ed is the kind of person who does his own independent analysis and ultimately decides to do what he believes is right," said state Rep. Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully, Pawa'a). "Once he makes that decision, he doesn't really deviate. He'll set up a plan to accomplish that goal and then execute it.

"It doesn't always work because you will ultimately ruffle feathers."

DIFFICULTY BEING HEARD

Case has had some similar frustrations since he was elected to the U.S. House in 2002 in a special election to replace the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink. Since he is a moderate with little seniority, his voice can get drowned out in a Republican House that often rules purely along party lines. He has joined other moderate and conservative Democrats — known as the Blue Dogs — to get some leverage, but does not get many opportunities to influence national policy.

His policy agenda — balancing the federal budget, homeland security, global leadership, job growth, healthcare, protecting the environment — places the congressman among House centrists. The National Journal, a weekly magazine on politics, gave Case's voting record a 58.7 liberal rating in 2005. He is generally more conservative on foreign policy and the federal budget, more liberal on the environment and social issues. His Hawai'i colleague, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, received a 75.8 liberal rating last year. Akaka's liberal rating was 78.8.

The Hawai'i delegation operates as a team on state issues, and Case is with Inouye, Akaka and Abercrombie on all but the Jones Act, the federal maritime law that requires cargo ships operating between U.S. ports to be U.S. built, flagged and crewed. Case has sought an exemption to the Jones Act for Hawai'i because he believes foreign competition to Matson Navigation and Horizon Lines — the carriers that dominate the market — would lower costs for consumer goods.

The issues that have split Case and Akaka in the primary have been mostly national, from the war in Iraq and the USA Patriot Act to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and some of President Bush's tax cuts. (Read more details about their differences at www.honolulu advertiser.com.)

The war appears to be the issue that will help define elections nationally this year, and Democrats, who want to capture Congress from the Republicans, have been getting more assertive about blaming problems in Iraq on Bush's leadership.

Akaka, who opposed the war and is among a minority of Senate Democrats who have called for U.S. troops to leave Iraq by July 2007, has made Iraq a focus of his campaign. Case has said he likely would have voted for the war had he been in Congress at the time and is against a timetable for withdrawal that is unrelated to conditions on the ground.

Case said the time will come, perhaps within the next 18 months, for the United States to decide how long troops will stay. He said he is concerned the Akaka campaign will continue to try to unfairly link him to the president on the war even though many Democrats share his views on troop withdrawal.

"I believe what I believe," Case said. "And I believe voters are entitled to make a judgment on whatever they want to make a judgment on. If Iraq is their sole issue, then that's up to the voter. I don't believe it should be the sole issue. I believe Iraq is going to be pau, one way or the other, within a few years max.

"And I'm talking about the next 25 years."

Case has described the primary as a check on the state's insular political culture, but many progressives who have been outsiders over the years have joined the establishment Democrats behind Akaka — largely because of the war and the Patriot Act — and have been among the loudest to doubt Case's party loyalty.

The congressman said the "Democrat in Name Only" label used to bother him.

"I am a Democrat," Case said. "I have been a Democrat all my adult life.

"I do believe that in many areas of national policy the Bush administration is off track. I have voted against the Bush administration. I have voted against their initiatives in Congress — on the environment, energy, budget and spending priorities.

"But I am not a Democrat first and foremost," he said. "My first and foremost obligation is to my country. My first and foremost obligation is not to my Democratic Party. And I'm very clear about that in my mind.

"If a Democrat out there wants me to pledge allegiance to the Democratic Party at the expense of what has to happen, in my mind, for our country, then they've got another candidate in this race."

EAGER TO 'TALK STORY'

Case told The Advertiser four years ago he regretted that some of his colleagues at the Legislature never really got to know him as a person. Maybe he kept his guard up too high, he thought, or maybe it was easier to demand change when there were fewer friends to upset.

But he has tried not to make the same mistake with voters.

The congressman has held 172 "talk story" sessions over the past few years where he has met with people and taken questions. Some of the events have drawn only a dozen or so people, and some have given his detractors openings to pound him on issues such as Iraq, yet he is eager to schedule as many as possible.

He has also been extraordinarily accessible to the news media, answering even the most routine press questions himself. Some political analysts think Case could use more professional guidance with his image and advertising, but he seems to like being unfiltered.

Case stays in the basement of his brother's place in suburban McLean, Va., when the House is in session but returns home to a fixer-upper in Kane'ohe at every chance. He tries to fit in a four-mile run on most days, and his idea of relaxing is often just sitting outside with his wife, Audrey, in the evening, having a beer.

"I think that sometimes people feel that somehow we're different," Case said of politicians. "But I feel I'm a regular person. A regular person who has had an interesting life of both successes and failures."

Audrey Case, a flight attendant for United Airlines, grew up as the youngest child of an Episcopal minister and said she is used to being in a fishbowl. She is appearing frequently with her husband during the campaign, shaking hands with voters at the Kailua Fourth of July parade, starring in TV commercials that stress themes of respect and saving the environment.

"I think no matter what happens after this," she said, "we'll always be involved with the community at one level or another, whether it's in politics or just in community service."

Case realizes the choice he is asking voters to make is difficult. But he feels they are hearing his message.

"People have a beautiful way of reducing things to the most essential statements. 'Time for a change.' 'Yeah, we gotta move on already.' 'Time for Akaka to come home,' " he said. "I think people do instinctively understand that we've got to provide for the future."

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.