Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) is resigning from Congress to run for governor full time, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports.

His resignation will trigger a special election to fill the remainder of Abercrombie current congressional term.

Two Democrats have announced their candidacies for Abercrombie’s seat: State Senate President Colleen Hanbusa (D) and Former Congressman Case, who formerly represented Hawaii’s other congressional district. Case immediately declared himself a candidate for the special election that would be required to fill out the rest of Abercrombie’s term.

Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou is running for the Republican nomination, and national Republicans have so far appeared to be supportive of his candidacy.

UPDATE:

Under Hawaii law the special election that will be created by Abercrombie’s resignation is a winner-take-all contest, which all but guarantees that it will be both competitive and expensive and gives Republicans a pick up opportunity.

If both former Rep. Ed Case and state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa decide to run in the special election, the two well-known Democrats could split the vote and allow Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou (R) to win the contest. At the end of September, Djou reported having $267,700 in the bank — more than twice as much as Case. Hanabusa at that point was not yet in the race.

IN 2004 Bush received 47% vote in district