Democrats made history this year by staging a contest for the party’s presidential nomination between the first African American and the first woman to ever seriously contend for the White House.

It’s  ironic that Hawaii Democrats, who claim Barack Obama as a native son, have become symbols of racism and exclusion as a result of their dogged support for Hawai’i Tourism Authority CEO Rex Johnson after he was caught sending an e-mail to friends dismissing Obama as a “coon” and Hillary Clinton as a “beaver.”

To my knowledge, no top Democratic elected or party official has denounced Johnson for the prejudice he displayed against the two party icons. They’ve not joined with offended civil rights and women’s groups — loyal Democratic constituencies — that have called for his ouster.

In fact, from her public statements, it appears that Senate Vice President Donna Mercado Kim remains one of Johnson’s leading defenders as the tourism agency prepares to meet next week to decide his fate.

Polls indicate that his  race may be Obama’s greatest obstacle to being elected in a year that should otherwise be a slam-dunk for the Democrats.

If Republicans are accused of stirring racial tensions, they’ll have a ready answer: “Don’t look at us. The top tourism official in the state where Obama was born and raised denigrated him as a ‘coon’ — AND THE LOCAL DEMOCRATS DEFENDED THE GUY!”

It’s no surprise that the Hawai’i Democratic Party came out strongly against holding a Constitutional Convention for the first time since 1978, a question that voters will decide in the general election.

What’s not to like about the status quo if you’re a political partisan with a “D” after your name?

Local Democrats are thriving in an environment of low voter turnout and campaign financing laws that border on legalized bribery.

The party controls 44 of the 51 seats in the state House and 21 of the 25 Senate seats, with some 40 percent of incumbent Democratic legislators running unopposed for re-election and most of the rest facing grossly under-financed challengers.

The Democratic Party and public employee unions have become an inseparable political force — and it’s not necessarily the politicians calling the shots.

It’s obviously a sweet deal that enables Democratic politicians, the unions and other lobbying friends to take care of their every desire, but it’s equally obvious that the lack of competition and accountability doesn’t serve the broader public interest.

It should be Job No. 1 of a ConCon, if there is one, to level the political playing field, make public office more accessible to competing ideas and engage turned-off voters who find no reason to participate anymore in a system stacked to keep power in the same hands.

The Democrats argue unconvincingly that the state Constitution was intended to be a stable document that should seldom be changed. If that was the case, the people who wrote it wouldn’t have required that voters be asked every 10 years whether to hold a ConCon.

The Democrats’ heavy-handed opposition to a ConCon, which includes a ridiculous estimate by the Legislative Reference Bureau that it could cost $41 million, may well backfire.

Sometimes you can  tell a lot about the merits of a proposition by who it scares the most.

The Democratic National Convention was the big story, so we’ll start there as we “flASHback” on the week’s news that amused and confused:

• Barack Obama accepted the nomination for president before 84,000 adoring Democrats at Mile High Stadium. In a rock-concert atmosphere, he performed a medley of “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “Love Me Do” and “I Did It My Way.”

• Michelle Obama worked hard in her convention speech to show Americans she’s not an angry black woman. That lasted until she got back to the hotel and found Barack’s socks on the floor.

• Hillary Clinton graciously released her delegates, but the Hawai’i contingent couldn’t get a unanimous vote for Obama when Richard Port held out for Clinton anyway. He’s just not a silver-medal kind of guy.

• Hawai’i Senate President Colleen Hanabusa warned delegates not to place too high an expectation on Clinton to unify the party. They should listen. If Hawai’i legislators understand anything, it’s low expectations.

• UH football coaches couldn’t decide all week on their starting quarterback against Florida. This drama has dragged out as long as the Obama-Clinton competition.

• Citizens Against Government Waste gave zero rankings to Hawai’i Sens. Daniel Inouye, Daniel Akaka and Rep. Neil Abercrombie, and awarded Rep. Mazie Hirono a 1-percent rating. Hirono always was the class showoff.

• U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo is cracking down on illegal immigrants, saying “there will be no aloha for those who lie, cheat and steal from us.” Darn right. We’ve got plenty of homegrowns doing that stuff and don’t need to import more.

• The King Kamehameha statue at the U.S. Capitol will be moved from Statuary Hall to a new visitors center. Isn’t that stereotyping to put the Hawaiian to work welcoming tourists?

• The state is working to cool Kahuku High classrooms known on campus as “purgatory.” Hey, that’s a step up from when I was in high school. We knew it as “hell.”

• Slack-key master Ledward Kaapana had his guitar stolen on his 60th birthday. I know seniors are more vulnerable to crime, but couldn’t they have let the poor guy finish his cake before reminding him?

• Maui and O’ahu farmers will get a 30-percent discount when they use the Hawaii Superferry to move their produce between islands. Kaua’i farmers can have their kids deliver fruits and veggies on surfboards.

And the quote of the week …

… from Sen. Akaka on his bill for native Hawaiian recognition:

“Who knows? A miracle may happen. We may pass it. Bush might sign it.”

I thought faith-based government was a Republican thing.

Kevin Cronin, the state’s chief elections officer who is under fire for a number of missteps since he was hired from Wisconsin last year, had better pray that spoiled ballots because of overvoting in next month’s primary election are down from 2006.

Cronin is taking heat from both the Democratic and Republican parties for ignoring state law and failing to show them the primary ballots before they were printed.

Now that they’ve seen the ballots, both parties are concerned about a new requirement that voters check off the political party they choose before voting instead of just filling out the ballot for the party whose primary they wish to vote in.

The parties are worried that having to designate a party preference will confuse voters who consider themselves independents. They fret that these voters will check the independent box and then have their ballots disqualified if they vote in the Democratic or Republican primaries instead of for the two independent candidates on the ballot.

Cronin said voters who do that can have their mistake corrected at the polling place, but admits the third of voters who cast their ballots absentee could be out of luck.

He says multiparty voting was already a major problem under the old system, with nearly 2 percent of the ballots disqualified for that reason in 2006. He insists the new process is less confusing and will significantly reduce spoiled ballots.

The proof will be in the numbers. There were 5,231 invalidated ballots in 2006, and if the number does go down significantly, perhaps Cronin can start turning around the mounting criticism he’s facing.

But if the number of spoiled ballots jumps, he could be on his way back to Wisconsin.

I look more closely at the blunders that have bedeviled state and county election overseers in my column in the Opinion section of today’s Advertiser, “Election officials earn poor marks.”

It’ll be interesting to see if Hawai’i Sen. Daniel Inouye draws any flak from fellow Democrats for going to Alaska to campaign with embattled Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, Inouye’s best friend in the Senate whose re-election is in trouble after he was indicted for corruption.

You’d think a Democratic senator helping a Republican would rankle party leaders at a time when Democrats hope to win enough GOP Senate seats to achieve a veto-proof majority — with Alaska a prime target of opportunity.

In Hawai’i, lesser Democrats have been brought up on charges for consorting with the opposition.

This isn’t the first time Inouye has put friendship ahead of party. Local Democratic activists objected in 2006 when he continued to support Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman after he lost the Democratic primary and ran as an independent.

The Hawai’i Democratic hierarchy did a tap dance to duck punitive action against their titular leader, and Inouye finally let them off the hook by finding an excuse to drop his support for Lieberman.

But it’s hard to see that happening with Stevens as long as he remains unconvicted and stays in the race.

Not only does their personal friendship run deep after serving together for 40 years, but they’ve forged a unique political alliance as senior members of the appropriations and commerce committees that has enabled both to bring home big pork no matter which party is in power.

Good enough reason for Democrats to look the other way?