Gov Ben Cayetano was in office the whole time Mazie was Lt Gov. He gave his endorsement, instead, to Mayor Jeremie Harris, the governor's race front runner, which likely helped Mazie decide to run for Mayor.
Amid corruption allegations, Harris withdrew from the race. Thirty minutes after his announcement, Mazie dropped out of the Mayor's race and entered the race for Governor.
Linda Lingle beat Mazie by a small margin -- 51.6% to 47% -- to become the first female governor in Hawaii, and the first Republican governor since 1962.
I'd say there are plenty in Hawaii who don't like Lazy Mazie, but in the Senate race, she had the name recognition to raise the money needed to beat her opponents.
Since she won the House seat in 2006, she was set up to more easily win the Senate seat in 2012. She spent almost all of her time in the House fundraising for re-election/her Senate bid.