Aloha Hawaii Republicans:
On the day before Thanksgiving, current state party chair Pat Saiki stated in an email that her 'back to basics' political strategy for Republicans in 2014 was a bona fide success. This type of boastful spin doctoring is not an honest assessment, as many of the statistics she quotes are totally misleading; especially regarding contact calls and mailers. Ask her what candidates did those calls and mailers go to. As far as contact lists go. . . ask the candidates how well those lists worked out.
Further, current party leadership indicates that this group wants to maintain control of Hawaii’s Republican Party with a 'new plan' for 2016. While some things stated in their plan “sound” good, like:
- messaging that’s meaningful;
- building and implementing our organizational structure;
- we need to prepare earlier for campaigns;
. . , the truth is that saying and doing are two completely different things -- especially when it's all been said before by the same 'leaders'. In fact, we have no strong foundation to build on when these current leaders have opted for passive dialogue over active debate; when they insist on a weak, ambiguous platform; when they refuse to aggressively (or even passively) differentiate Republicans from Democrats; when they look the other way while key Republicans help Democrats; when current party leaders are ashamed to stand for the very principles that our party was founded on. Moreover we cannot build strong experienced Republicans when party leaders continue to forsake state legislative candidates for “top of the ticket” challengers. That's just how they want it.
We simply can no longer keep the same self-serving cabal in charge of our party for another hopeless term in office. We cannot trust them to champion Republican principles and take on Democrats in an all-out fight to save our state.
Much went wrong and you deserve to know the truth. HIRA believes that it is time for a bit more honesty.
There were countless signs that party leaders were going to throw the 2014 election and blow two years for nothing.
Here, in an honest three-part series from HIRA on what the executive committee of your Hawaii Republican Party were SUPPOSED to be doing, but didn't . . . and what they did INSTEAD. This is about job performance!
PAT SAIKI - State Chair
Section 406 of the party rules make it crystal clear what the party chair should have been doing all this time: “The State Chair shall supervise the other State officers in the performance of their duties.”
Does anyone really believe that Pat Saiki actually ‘supervised’ the other state officers in the performance of their duties like she was supposed to?!?
Saiki and her team of party officers handed victory to the Democrats by sitting on their hands. There was no advertising on behalf of a Republican message. There was no statewide canvassing with a strong Republican message. The party did not make the case for Republicans and our solutions, and there was absolutely no speaking out against Democrat failures. Her first day in office, she worked to ensure that our party would be absolutely neutral on issues and made it known that her conflicted political ideology was the way to go.
WATCH THIS VIDEO
To ensure dysfunctional party operations, leadership had no strategic plan, no finance plan, no campaign (Victory) plan, and no required financial audit. The executive committee was just winging it while breaking rules left and right. Saiki even pushed for adoption of state party budget which only kept the lights on -- not a single penny budgeted for electioneering or campaigning (no radio, no TV, no direct mail, no internet, no nothing).
Perhaps it didn’t matter anyway. Once Saiki proclaimed that “The Republican Party does not have to take one side or the other,” voters did not have to make a choice. As the Star-Advertiser’s Dave Shapiro said about Saiki: “She'll avoid taking positions on issues in the fight to unseat Democrats. It'll be a battle of which party stands for the most nothing. “
DAVID CHANG
Immediate Past State Chair
Chang’s ‘bold plans’ for 2014 victory were nothing more than smoke, mirrors, and deepening party financial debt. Perhaps Chang’s most ridiculous claim, laid bare by the 2014 election results is this one: “Hawaii’s GOP is preparing to unleash an unprecedented grassroots-level blitz unlike anything in our party’s recent history.“ He didn’t bother to tell anyone how this was going to happen, nor did he work out the cost, logistics, or any other challenge in planning and executing such a ‘blitz’.
PowerPoint slides of Chang’s plan included strategic objectives for our party in 2014, all of which failed: "build long-term infrastructure to win the majority” (FAILED); "build a robust system of coalitions groups” (FAILED); "raise strategic amounts of money” (FAILED); "develop a consistent, topical message” (FAILED); "put aside differences to focus on common goal of electing Republican candidates” (FAILED); "be part of history in changing Hawaii politics” (???). On the latter goal, Chang probably succeeded, since HRP is even less relevant today than it was before Chang took over the party. David Chang conveniently ‘resigned’ as Party Chair just eight months before the 2014 Elections to make way for Pat Saiki's 'leadership'.
TED LIU
National Committeeman
So how did this guy even get elected? By telling people what they wanted to hear, of course!
Ted’s promises made (click here to see his actual campaign brochure) and how Ted delivered:
- “Focus on building the Party from the precinct-levels and district-levels on up.” - FAILED
- “Winning the battle in the marketplace of ideas.” - FAILED
- “Establishing strategic partnerships and coalitions with like-minded organizations.” - FAILED
- “Raising funds and other forms of support for the Party and for our candidates.” - FAILED
Ultimately, Ted Liu did nothing and nobody has even heard from him since he got elected in January 2012 with all that bluster and even the ringing endorsement of well-known members of our failed Hawaii GOP establishment (see his brochure).
MIRIAM HELLREICH
National Committeewoman
As the person who has really been running HRP for the past decade or more, Ms. Hellreich promised a lot of things in the wake of the disastrous 2012 election. First, she promised "massive voter registration drives to increase our chances of winning local and national elections." She also promised national monies for local candidates in 2014. Not a penny showed up! Civil Beat clearly reported that “Hellreich promised that (national) money would flow through the party to all Hawaii candidates.” Well, either that money was stolen, or Hellreich only said those things to seem important. HRP’s under-supported top-tier candidates and our under-supported state legislative candidates went down in flames. But those who know Miriam Hellreich know what’s most important -- that she collect tens of thousands per year from her political clients who expect her to put their interests above the party’s and above all other candidates. As a result, Hellreich only nominally performs as our party’s national committeewoman, when she flies off to meetings to ensure that her clients (Lingle 2012, Aiona 2014) get the campaign funding which pays her salary. Under party rules, while serving on both the party's Executive Committee and the State Committee, Hellreich as national committeewoman is supposed to exercise general supervision and control over the affairs of the Party, supervise the county committees (which supervise the districts and precincts), coordinate fundraising programs of the county and district committees, and much, much more. Those crucial job functions simply weren't done for all the years that Hellreich has been lining her pockets instead. Time for this massive conflict of interest to go!
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s installment --“What Went Wrong, Part 2” -- which will feature Saiki/Hellreich’s crack team of vice chairs, who presided over critical party functions for a year and a half yet did absolutely nothing except to ensure political disaster, as witnessed by the severe shellacking our Hawaii Republicans endured just four weeks ago.
IN THE MEANTIME, SIGN THE PETITION URGING THESE ‘LEADERS’ TO RESIGN
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