I have put next year’s Hawaii Senate race in my “could be competitive” pile. A new poll commissioned by a Democratic campaign suggests that it could be even better than “competitive” if former Republican Gov. Linda Lingle jumps in:

Former Congressman Ed Case contracted Merriman River Group to conduct a statewide poll of registered voters on their feelings about the candidates in the U. S. Senate primary election.
Case, a Democrat who served in Congress from 2002 to 2007, provides the results here: Merriman’s summary of the results. He said they show his campaign ahead of Congresswoman Mazie Hirono in the primary, 53%-37%.
The poll also shows Case ahead of former Republican Governor Linda Lingle in the general 48% to 38%.
The poll also showed Lingle ahead of Hirono in the general by 48% to 43%.

Of course, all the standard caveats apply: it’s a very Democratic state, it’s one of Obama’s home states, its voters will probably know the winner of the presidential race on the afternoon of Election Day, the results of this poll are almost exactly what the Case campaign would want to see, etc. But if the DSCC has a lot of tough incumbents to defend this cycle, it’s easy to imagine some Democrats taking this race for granted…