Hawaii voters generally think Gov. Neil Abercrombie was right to pick his former lieutenant governor, Brian Schatz, to replace the late U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, according to a new Civil Beat Poll conducted last week.

Voters were split between Schatz and U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa when asked in a separate question who they would have picked between the three choices given to the governor. Very few supported Esther Kiaaina, now a state natural resources official.

But when asked if they approved Abercrombie’s decision, 45 percent said yes while 36 percent said no. Nineteen percent were undecided.

What voters did disapprove of was the decision by Inouye’s staff to release a private letter from the late senator to the governor urging him to appoint Hanabusa. That move is widely viewed as politically calculating and an effort to put pressure on Abercrombie to tap Hanabusa.

Abercrombie’s approval rating is slightly higher than in recent polls, too.

The Civil Beat Poll was conducted Jan. 7-9. Merriman River Group randomly surveyed 813 registered voters using touch-tone polling. The margin of error is 3.4 percent.

However, for the first time in the two years Civil Beat has been conducting polls, calls to cell phones also were included in this survey. (Read more details in accompanying story.)

In addition to asking voters about the recent political shakeup in Hawaii, Civil Beat got a sense of how people feel about issues that likely will come before the Legislature, which begins its session Wednesday.

More stories to come later this week but lawmakers may not want to be so quick to abandon the Public Land Development Corporation, write off a state lottery or raise taxes to pay for growing unfunded pension liabilities. Same-sex marriage may be just around the political corner as well.

The New Senator

Voters generally are supportive of Abercrombie’s decision to appoint Schatz to fill Hawaii’s senate seat — once he did it. The split was 45 percent approved, 36 percent disapproved and 19 percent unsure.

When asked who they would have picked between the three names sent to the governor by the Hawaii Democratic Party, 36 percent picked Schatz, 36 percent picked Hanabusa and 7 percent picked Kiaaina. On that one, 22 percent were unsure.

Generally, voters who support Abercrombie supported Schatz. Men and women were identically split between the two. Hanabusa had more support from younger voters, especially those under 30, while Schatz got his support from older voters, in particular those over 65.

Voters who identified themselves with the Democratic Party tended to support Hanabusa. But Schatz was the choice of independents and Republicans. People who identified themselves as being from union households were split nearly evenly between the two.

Schatz also tended to do better with people who were more highly educated and had higher incomes.

Matt Fitch, executive director of Merriman River Group, said there are a number of different factors that have been talked about in the press that may have led to the split. Moving Hanabusa to the Senate was generally seen to have given Republicans an opening for her congressional seat. Others may have been put off by the political pressure from Inouye’s staff. Schatz is also seen as bringing a younger face to the Senate which could start to rebuild Hawaii’s seniority, lost with death of Inouye and the retirement of longtime Sen. Daniel Akaka.

“It’ not a political race where you pick candiate A or B,” Fitch said. “But there are two very different paths to take.”

Hanabusa would be very much a successor in the same political mold, he said, noting that Schatz “is a big generational, ethnic, cultural break.”

And, Fitch pointed out, it’s one that was Abercrombie’s call to make, not the voters.

The Inouye Letter

On Dec. 17, the day he died, Inouye’s staff sent a letter ostensibly from the senator to Abercrombie. It was hand-delivered to the governor by two of Inouye’s closest political advisors.

Abercrombie declined to release the letter, saying it was marked personal and meant for him only. But Inouye’s staff made the letter public. It urged Abercrombie to pick Hanabusa for the seat and the staff’s move is seen as trying to bring political pressure to bear.

That appears to have backfired, both with Abercrombie who chose Schatz over Hanabusa, as well as with the public.

“Before Senator Inouye passed away, he wrote a private letter to Governor Abercrombie asking the Governor to appoint Colleen Hanabusa to fill his Senate seat,” Civil Beat asked voters. “After Inouye’s death, someone on his staff released that letter publicly, to put pressure Abercrombie to appoint Hanabusa. What do you think of the Inouye staff member’s decision to release that letter?”

Forty-five percent disapproved of the release of the letter compared to 33 percent who approved. Again on this one, 22 percent were unsure.

Fitch isn’t surprised people generally disapproved of releasing the letter. He said people taking the survey who support Abercrombie or Schatz would have practical reasons for saying they opposed the release.

“Even those who supported Hanabusa may have found it disrespectful of his Senate staff to release a private letter from Senator Inouye after his passing,” Fitch said.

Whether the staff thought they were doing the right thing isn’t the issue. “It didn’t work, but that doesn’t mean it was the wrong political move,” Fitch noted.

More people may have said they were unsure on these questions about Schatz, Hanabusa and the letter because it was never a choice for them to make so they didn’t have to make up their own minds, Fitch suggested.

And both Hanabusa and Schatz are popular and well-liked, he said.

Abercrombie Approval Up

Civil Beat also checked in on how voters are feeling about their governor. Their answer: Better than in a long time.

Throughout 2012, Abercrombie’s approval rating seemed stuck at about 40 percent, according to both local and national polls. In fact, in February 2012 it was down to 30 percent, prompting Public Policy Polling, a national outfit that generally supports Democrats, to label him the least-liked governor in America.

Civil Beat found his approval rating at 48 percent. That’s with 44 percent saying they disapprove and 8 percent replying that they are unsure about his job performance.

Abercrombie rated about the same with women as with men, tended to be thought of slightly higher by voters over 40 than under 40, and scored well with those identifying themselves as Democrats. Natives Hawaiians are less fond of him than other ethnic groups.

“It’s not surprising that two years into his term his numbers are going to be down,” Fitch said. “If he runs for reelection he’s not in a terrible position as far as getting reelected.”

For more details, peruse the breakouts posted below. We’ll post the poll results in their entirety on the last day of this series.