HAWAII RINOs Score Card for Legislative Session 2017: A Big Fat F

Now this is the approach needed to bring accountability to one's political party and to one's state.

Hawaii has languished under a do-nothing GOP as well as a do-even-less GOP caucus in Honolulu.

In some ways, this lackluster performance from one political party parallels what seems to be happening in California and other bluer-than-blue states.

The culture is in full freefall decay. Instead of fighting against the rot, the leadership in Central Committees does ... nothing.

And the results? Democrats keep winning, while the people keep losing.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT FROM HAWAII GOP HQ: The 2017 Legislative Session Will Be 100% Completely Ignored by HRP Aloha, Republicans: Today, yes today, is 'final decking' of bills at the State Capitol.   What does that mean for YOU? Well, if you DON'T really follow the detail of how Democrats (and RINO's) screw you, your family, your neighbors and co-workers, then you'll simply notice an increase in TV news stories about certain bills passing and others failing. And if you DO follow what's going on closely, then you know to get ready for a flurry of final votes on legislation designed to pick your pocket, line the pockets of special interest groups, destroy our economy, worsen our cost of living, and up-end society as we know it. As the 2017 session of the Hawaii State Legislature comes to a close, the Hawaii Republican Party has made a critical decision which HIRA is compelled to announce:  The Rohlfing-Tupola-Ward-James-Hellreich controlled Hawaii GOP is doing absolutely nothing to engage the 30,000 members of the state party to influence the outcome or even warn us what's going on. Whether or not you follow the legislature (or the mayor/council or congress) very closely, you'll still be watching the news and wondering obvious questions like: "Where is my party?" and "Where is the new Minority Leader that replaced Beth Fukumoto?" and the perennial favorite "How come nobody is speaking out?" Simple, they don't give a damn. There's no better time to draw distinctions between the parties when while the sausage is getting made.  Real Republicans in the other 49 states salivate at the opportunity to highlight the worst bills pushed by Democrats to bring attention to GOP solutions and reforms. But here in Hawaii, the state party's total inaction serves as its own announcement that all the terrible issues and legislation at the State Capitol over the past few months will be totally ignored. The individual state party officers who form the "Executive Committee" officially don't care.  Arguably, neither do many members of the larger group of state party officers from all 51 state house districts known as the "State Committee" which has the power to TOSS OUT these worthless executive officers for non-performance. Instead of seizing every moment to educate and persuade the public by using the Democrat-controlled state legislature as Exhibit A in making the case against Hawaii's ruling party -- tying the terrible statistics in Hawaii to failed Democrat policies -- party leaders have decided to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear toward the myriad of opportunities in 2017 to showcase Republicanism. In fact, the entire party organization is on 'Zombie Auto-Pilot' mode while leaders scramble for delegates to get their friends into party office on Kauai INSTEAD OF FIGHTING DEMOCRATS. Yes, everything is about control of the Hawaii GOP. Nothing is about unseating Democrats and repealing their destructive policies. Hawaii taxpayers and families are the chief casualties in the RINO Civil War for control of HRP. "Wait a darn minute", you might ask.  "WHO exactly is making this decision to remain on the sidelines with masking tape over our mouths?" HIRA will tell you right now.  A fish rots from the head down, so the decision to surrender has been made at the very top behind closed doors. Andy Mukk - He's the party's vice chair for COMMUNICATIONS.  Unlike every other state party and the RNC, Mukk refuses to actually do any communication.  He has control of press releases, rally announcements, testimony alerts, e-mail bulletins, Facebook, Twiter, YouTube and so on.  But Andy has decided his role is to PREVENT the Hawaii GOP from engaging in useful communication.  After four years of silence as HRP's communications director (yes, he got elected twice to two-year terms), Mukk is one of the Democrat Party's favorite GOP officials.  Never before has a GOP communications officer woken up each day waving the white flag and letting Democrats get away with whatever they want.  His idol Ron Paul would be ashamed of Andy if Paul knew that our vice chair of COMMUNICATIONS was determined to help Democrats from inside the Republican Party. Bob Hickling - He's the party's vice chair for COORDINATED CAMPAIGNS.  Unlike party officers in all other states, Hickling refuses to coordinate ANY form of campaign which would help the GOP to get a better foothold in Hawaii.  You could hold a gun to the head of any voter on Election Day 2016 and they still couldn't tell you what the Hawaii GOP's themes or issues were in 2016, because there weren't any.  You could ask that same hostage to say just one reason Republicans are better than Democrats based on the messaging of the state party's coordinated campaign and you'd wind up getting no answers because Bob's coordinated campaign never happened.  After two failed years, Hickling refuses to make an example of Democrats during the legislative session, because he is just as hopeless in the Spring as he is during a Fall campaign.  Yeah, Democrats really like Bob too. Karen Jensen - As the embarrassingly awful vice-chair of COALITIONS, Ms. Jensen never quite understood her job because she never quite understood politics and campaigns.  Sure, every vote cast in an election is cast by individual registered voters.  However, many (some would argue 'most') voters are actually influenceable through their peer groups.  Building coalitions means finding common cause with business groups, labor groups, civic groups, ethnic groups, religious groups, single issue groups, and so on.  Meeting with, appealing to, and getting the buy-in of these voting groups is called BUILDING COALITIONS.  There's no better time for a political party to identify and partner with potential voting groups than the annual session of the state legislature (not to mention the year-round county councils).  They actually tell you what kinds of legislation they like and what kind they hate.  It's a roadmap to forging coalitions.  But Karen Jensen thought that her job was to attend potluck lunches with her buddies and use her vote on the executive committee the way she was told to.  So, having refused to forge coalitions after years of doing absolutely nothing to grow our party's influence, Karen Jensen is also VERY well liked by Democrats (even if she hasn't figured that out yet). Mary Smart - as party treasurer, she has known for a LONG TIME that none of her fellow officers had any plans to spend a penny to help Republicans get elected in 2016.  That is a major red flag at any other political party, Republican or Democrat.  When 100% of all donor funds (yes, 100% of the entire party budget) is used exclusively for administrative overhead and ZERO for campaigning or lobbying or candidate support, Mary Smart needed to work with party officers statewide to fix this glaring deficiency.  Instead, she enjoyed the perks of being "a party officer" and focused on violating her pledge to cut the budget if donations went down.  Yes, revenues to the party have plummeted under these officers, but Mary didn't say a word until very, very recently.  We all pay the price for her sad desire to sit with the popular kids at the cool table.  Now we've lost seats and the party is broke.  Silence and inaction really costs money. Nancy Monahan - As the party's vice-chair for COMMUNITY SERVICE, "Fancy Nancy" didn't do anything. The average voter continues to believe that we don't care about Hawaii, even as Democrats rape, loot and pillage Hawaii from Hilo to Hanalei. Yes, Fancy Nancy Monahan embodies the RINO do-nothing spirit which all of Hellreich's and Rohlfing's loyal seatfillers bring to the table. Boyd Ready - What can be said about state party secretary Boyd Ready which hasn't already been said ad infinitum.  He prefers to use the party's mailing list and e-mail system to pursue personal aggrandizement than to make the party stronger.  During the 2014 campaign, Boyd was our party's Bob Hickling, failing spectacularly to coordinate campaigns for the party during his miserable two year term.  Then after a demotion to secretary, Boyd went out of his way to fail the simple responsibility of corresponding with members about the many ways he and his fellow officers were taking malfeasance, nonfeasance and misfeasance to new heights (or new depths, really).  Boyd Not-So-Ready's consistent refusal to use his influence on the executive committee or the state committee, combined with his two years of silence as party secretary (not to mention his active participation in the coordinated assault on the newly-revitalized Oahu county GOP), makes it clear that Boyd Ready might as well be holding dual citizenship in the GOP and the Democrat Party.  Auwe! Fritz Rohlfing / Gene Ward / Miriam Hellreich - Once again, a fish rots from the head down.  Well then, who are the top three fish?  The state chair, national committeeman and national committeewoman have been running the Hawaii GOP for years in various positions.  None longer than Hellreich.  Each of them was 100% COMPLETELY SATISFIED with the poor performance of their fellow party officers because that's just how they want them to do their jobs -- NOT AT ALL. They also keep a LOT OF DIRTY SECRETS which HIRA will tell you about in the days and weeks ahead.  WHY?  Because you DESERVE to know why we keep losing. Just like voters get the government they vote for, we get the party we vote for.  And as long as do-nothing RINO's keep being handed the reins of power at the Hawaii GOP by party members, these RINO's will keep ignoring what happens at the legislature, the council, and even what Hawaii's four losers in Congress are up to. My friends, these opportunities are where you get CAMPAIGN ISSUES from.  But they are only 'use-able' issues if you actually USE them and make a STINK about them in real time, as they are happening.  If you wait until campaign season, voters won't make the connection because they won't have the memory to call upon. WHAT KIND OF MEMORIES?  For example, the kind where a rally of Republicans protests a terrible bill, while GOP leaders simultaneously speak out, while press releases get simultaneously sent, while ads get simultaneously put on TV and radio, while social media simultaneously burns up about the same issue.  That's what happens if you combine a coordinated campaign with coalition building with communications and so on. BUT, we don't exploit these opportunities to create lasting memories which help voters differentiate between the parties.  We THOUGHT we would.  But Andria Tupola and Fritz Rohlfing blew that possibility out of the water when they decided to do nothing instead. TUPOLA SILENT AS 2017 STATE LEGISLATIVE SESSION COMES TO A SCREECHING HALT: Three months ago tomorrow (an eternity in politics), Andria Tupola took the leadership position of GOP Minority Leader away from Beth Fukumoto.  Tupola's promises of partisan activism and outspokenness dissolved into absolute nothingness.  It turns out that the litter cleanup specialist with a liberal voting record had no real intent to give the GOP a stronger voice than Beth Fukumoto had. Instead, Tupola pursued the same policy of silence and do-nothingness which Beth Fukumoto had adopted in partnership with Fritz Rohlfing and Miriam Hellreich. Don't want to believe it?  Well, answer this:   Where was Tupola for the past three months?  Locked in her office?  Held hostage in Waianae?  She couldn't have a more cooperative partner than her #1 cheerleader Fritz Rohlfing.  Together, they could have unleashed the Hawaii GOP and its 30,000+ members (and its 129,000 voters).  But they didn't.  They didn't seize on any issues.  And voters are none the wiser about how the GOP would govern differently than Democrats. Andria Tupola has been GOP Minority Leader for MONTHS since Beth Fukumoto was kicked to the curb.  WHERE IS THE LEADERSHIP??  Tupola has FAILED her 'audition' to be party leader by showing us how totally useless she is at mobilizing Republicans against the Democrat Machine.  How will voters have any idea what Republicans would do DIFFERENTLY if we are silent, neutral, dysfunctional, and flat-footed? All of these seat-filling, placeholder "leaders" need to go.  And we cannot afford to install more do-nothings for the next two years.  Elections have consequences.  It all starts with electing the right party officers who actually want to work and actually know what they're doing.  We need party leaders who are so good that Democrats HATE them for being so effective. Instead, Democrats LOVE our party's officers and have for years and years.  Yes, the handpicked party officers of Rohlfing and Hellreich -- the ones in office now PLUS the ones who are on the ballot at the Kauai State Convention -- are IDENTICALLY USELESS.  And all the cheating and manipulation done by these very party leaders to cook the outcome of the Kauai convention's election of party officers make it impossible for REAL Republicans to become party officers.  The astounding level of cheating and manipulation dating back to last year's improper, rule-breaking selection of Kauai for the convention through this year's precinct caucuses and the district elections have destroyed the integrity of the Hawaii GOP's own party elections.  Both sides are doing it.  Both sides know the other side is doing it.  And together, they are repeating history by installing RINO do-nothings like those described above. "Why isn't our party fighting?," you wonder.  "All the issues are on our side."  And you're right.  But until you realize that liberals, closet Democrats and RINO's control the Hawaii GOP -- and they do it by telling you buzzwords and other things you want to hear -- you'll never understand why our party remains helpless on the sidelines of Hawaii politics.  Democrats are VERY happy with our dysfunctional state party.  But most Republicans don't know that Hellreich and Rohlfing and Tupola and Jack James are RINO generals leading the Surrender Army. This legislative session will end on a whimper.  Horrible policies have been created and/or reinforced by Democrats (with a lot of RINO support).   And the Hawaii GOP sat on the sidelines because while Beth Fukumoto is gone, her spirit lives on in Fritz, Miriam, Jack, Boyd, Karen, Andy, Bob, Mary, Gene, and Andria .  Otherwise, we wouldn't have a quiet party which elects GOP legislators who have the same terrible voting record and liberal leanings as their Democrat counterparts. Stay tune for more 'news you can use'.  HIRA will provide the answer to "Why don't we fight?' very soon.  It's not pretty.  Unlike the RNC and the other 49 state parties, we are deliberately thrown the election every two years. And more secrets will be spilled so you can actually KNOW why the GOP is losing . . . ON PURPOSE.