Aloha Hawaii Republicans:
As we begin part two of this series, it is not surprising to us that establishment “R”s and water-carrying, loyal apologists believe that we do not have a problem in the Party; that it’s got to be some “outside reason” that needs tracking down or some fine nuance or lack of time that is to blame. No more excuses. So, like any good recovery program, you have to “hammer home” an honest assessment. Then you can admit there is a serious problem and take steps to fix it.
While the top leadership of the Hawaii Republican Party is a fundamental problem, the people underneath them are severely disappointing as well. This is the analysis of five top party officers and hired staffers who heavily contributed to the ineffectiveness.
BOYD READY
Vice-Chair for
Coordinated Campaigns
Section 407 of party rules lays out the work to be done for two years, so that there’s no mystery:
“The Vice-Chair for Coordinated Campaigns is responsible for oversight and organization of the Coordinated Campaign Program. The Coordinated Campaign Program shall include, but not be limited to, coordination between the various Republican campaigns and the Party to maximize effectiveness of campaign and Party resources, voter registration and identification programs, the Absentee Ballot Program, and the 72-Hour Task Force and Get-Out-The-Vote efforts.”
At best, there was minimal coordination; at worst, there was zero. Voter lists were severely flawed. Many candidates HIRA spoke with complained openly that the information on the party lists was old and inaccurate. One candidate said, “when I went to a Republican house on the list, there was a Democrat living there. These are basically useless.” Also, the lists for candidates were difficult to get. At least one candidate's campaign on the Windward side had to wait several weeks to get its list.
While there was some benign urging via email to get district chairs to register voters (which started in May 2014 . . . way too late), this effort was doomed to fail for material and non-material reasons. First, there is no Republican message! Why should voters cast ballots for Republicans rather than Democrats? NO case was ever made. Also, there is no leadership which will inspire people to make this effort. It is impossible to motivate and incentivize district and precinct chairs when there are none to be found (except those appointed to fill in for important votes on the state committee), and those that do exist are given NO Party support whatsoever.
Just imagine what could have happened if the money the Party used for one Djou television commercial was distributed among the district chairs to print door-hangers, buy lists to get started with, print mailers, and supply district volunteers with the necessary materials to go door-to-door so they can identify Republican voters. But of course . . . Therefore, the promised campaign to register 25,000+ new voters who would lean Republican in order to improve the chances of victory for GOP candidates was NON-EXISTENT. Indeed, the voter registration program (Saiki’s major focus) was scrapped and Ready did not fight to do the necessary things. Results were “dismal, very poor” in Saiki's own words. So much for the promise of a coordinated campaign! Look at how far we were from victory, as in DEFEAT. The numbers don’t lie. The average percentage loss by Republican candidates in 2012 versus the Democrat victors wasn't any different in 2014. What did we do better two years later? Nothing. Republican candidates lost by the same large margins as in 2012. It's as if the party (and Boyd Ready) didn't do anything any differently to change the outcome.
ANDY MUKK
Vice-Chair for
Communications
Section 407 of the party rules clearly states that “The Vice-Chair for Communications is responsible for overseeing and managing communications programs instituted by the Party.”
However, $25,000, in scarce party monies, was diverted to a paid political consultant instead. Why would this money not be designated for volunteer officer Andy Mukk to use for increasing Republican communications to voters throughout Hawaii? Why isn’t Andy publicly protesting against this bad decision to just send e-mails to current Republicans? Ultimately, anybody in Hawaii who listened to the radio, watched television, read a newspaper, or surfed the internet already knows the truth of the following statement: Voters had no better idea in 2014 than they did in 2012 on why they should vote Republican. Basically, a few e-mails were written which only got sent to party members and those on Republican mailing lists . . . hardly a way to increase the likelihood of Republican victory given our small base!! Yet that's what Andy Mukk did in 2013-2014 to pave the way for victory in November.
MARCIA KLOMPUS
Treasurer
She is the very same treasurer who continues to deny that our party was ever in debt. Indeed, she has presided over years of debt (helping several party chairs to spend recklessly while looking the other way) while negligently missing meeting after meeting of the party’s state committee; leaving those in attendance with more questions than answers. Klompus also opposes allowing the party to have its annual independent audit as required by party rules. She also supports letting the “fox guard the henhouse” by letting the same person who manages the books perform the audit of those very same books; a very cozy arrangement indeed.
UPDATE: In fact, at yesterday's first post-election meeting of the HRP state committee, the committee nearly unanimously approved paying thousands of dollars MORE per year to the accounting firm which does the party's bookkeeping in order to call that extra expense "an audit" even though the firm will do no additional work for that money . . . merely so corrupt party officers can say they're 'having the books audited' like they're supposed to. Republican Party members are not supposed to notice the obvious conflict of interest of paying a company to audit itself. Can they really be expected to say "Hey, there's money missing" when doing so will end their business arrangement with the party? Remember the accounting scandal with ENRON and Arthur Andersen? That was a cozy situation. Seriously, when party officers fight an audit for years and years then finally relent and push hard for a proposal to pay thousands of dollars to Hellreich's friends for doing no additional work whatsoever except to say that their bookkeeping services also include 'auditing services', you know there's a scam and that party donors are being fleeced. Why not pay your gardener extra money each month to audit the quality of his own gardening? The length that party officers go to keep a lid on their cooked books is astounding. THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE.
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
CELYN CHONG KEE
Vice-Chair of
Community Service |
JANELL YIM
Vice-Chair of
Coalitions |
WHAT coalitions? WHAT community service? Voters too young to remember the ‘plantation days’ or the Big 5 still see us as a bunch of selfish, mean, wealthy exploiters of the poor and minorities. Unfortunately, these two are just part of Hellreich's cabal; installed in these key positions to make sure Hellreich and Saiki can win all votes on the state party's executive committee in the pursuit of their RINO agenda. Don't keep checking your e-mail for a copy of Chong Kee's report on community service during 2013-2014 or for the likewise not-forthcoming report by Yim on all the coalitions that she's not been building the past two years. Their job was to be seat-warmers and to provide power and control to RINO Hellreich.
DYLAN NONAKA
Former HRP Exec. Director
turned Democrat Consultant
In 2014, former party staffer Dylan Nonaka, who got HRP into debt in the first place with reckless spending and generous pay raises for himself, abandoned his support for Republicans in 2014, instead choosing a more lucrative ‘bipartisan’ path for himself. During the 2014 election cycle, Dylan Nonaka earned his keep by actively supporting a host of Democrats in their bid to continue dominating Hawaii politics:
- Democrat Ernie Martin for City Council
- Democrat Trevor Ozawa for City Council
- Democrat Baybee Hufana-Ablan for City Council
- Democrat Donovan Dela Cruz for State Senate
- Democrat Richard Onishi for State House
While Nonaka’s Democrat allies and clients leveraged their political power to win elections, his company’s fledgling Republican clients like Richard Fale and Elwin Ahu and others went down in flames. Only in Saiki’s and in Hellreich’s Hawaii would a ‘consultant’ in politics play both sides against each other. Only in Hawaii would Republicans put their fate in the hands of someone who clearly does not care who wins as long as the money comes in.
Stay tuned for our next installment --“What Went Wrong, Part 3” -- which will feature Saiki/Hellreich’s crack team of county chairs on each island, 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
P.S. Please click "Forward email" near the bottom of this message in order to easily share this e-mail with friends and family, neighbors and co-workers.
