RLMiller founder of Climate Hawks was quoted in the Congressional Quarterly:

As the Washington Post reported this week, Hanabusa faces an uphill fight to overcome Schatz in the two precincts.Environmentalists, who are backing the climate-conscious Schatz in the race, slammed the prospect of a Hanabusa lawsuit:

“A lawsuit is the electoral equivalent of a new coal-fired power plant — it’s inefficient, wasteful, casts toxic shadows on nearby neighborhoods, and ultimately will be shut down,” said RL Miller, the co-founder of Climate Hawks Vote, a new climate-focused SuperPAC, in a statement. “Hanabusa needs to drop the lawsuit, let the voters vote, and unify the party. She doesn’t need to end up as the Norm Coleman of Hawaii politics.”

It is true that the Puna area was hit hard.  But Civil Defense says the roads are all open.  It will be weeks before electricity is restored.  Delaying the vote another two weeks (which is the maximum that the office of elections can according to HRS §11-92.3) won’t make conditions much different from what they will be this coming Friday.

“We’ve been informed that all the roads or major thoroughfares are now open in both subdivisions,” Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago said Monday. “It allows us to conduct the election sooner than by mail.”
(Hawaii News Now)

It is unclear what legal precedent Hanabusa plans to rely on for her challenge.  This is not the first time that Hanabusa has misunderstood law.During the Superferry controversy, in private email, Hanabusa (then the President of the State Senate) told me that “HRS 343 [the Environmental Assessment law] does not apply to the Superferry.” The Hawai’i Supreme Court told her she was wrong.

Later she told the Sierra Club that Act 2, the law she shepherded through the legislature which exempted the Superferry from doing an EIS was legal. The Sierra Club maintained it was a law written for a specific business which made it illegal.

Again the Hawai’i Supreme Court told Hanabusa she was wrong.

Hanabusa, although an attorney, has a long record of not understanding Hawai’i law.  As a result, folks have started a MoveOn.org petition asking the various Hawai’i gubernatorial candidates to promise not to appoint her as Attorney General should she lose this senate election.