Aloha Friends. This is part 1 of 2 during Primary season: highlights the State Committee meeting, party finances and Obama-like executive decrees.

-August 8-10 RedState Gathering, Dallas www.redstate.com/gathering

-August 9 Hawaii Primary Elections http://hawaii.gov/elections

-September 6 East Oahu Republican monthly meeting Marian243@hawaiiantel.net

-September 18 HIRA Roadshow, Hawaii Kai www.hawaiirepublicanassembly.com

-September 27-28 Gun Rights Policy Conference, Chicago www.ccrkba.org

-September 26-28 Value Voters Summit, DC www.valuesvotersummit.org

There are many strong and energy-filled conservatives and Republicans in Hawaii. Thank you. The Hawaii Republican Party can be better.

-On air. www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/13027/categoryId/116/Radio-Ad-Hits-Hawaii-Democrats-lsquoCostly-Sweetheart-Deals-for-Political-Insidersrsquo.aspx. HIRA advocating for Republicans. http://hawaiirepublicanassembly.com/enews/hira_news_070914.html HIRA FB, Thomas “I just heard HIRA’s ad on the Sean Hannity show. It was right on the money! It’s just sad that the Hawaii Republican Party doesn’t do the same kind of thing.” HIRA is the only organization on air & holding town hall meetings, HCC hosts candidate rallies. HRP should do something, or work with conservatives, or they could acknowledge the others doing their job because they can’t and won’t.

–ATF. Americans for Tax Reform www.atr.org, DC. Norquist’s weekly invitation-only fiscal conservatives meeting. Super PAC leaders, activists, special interest group chairmen, candidates, incumbents, congressional staffers. Summer brings organizations from Europe and Asia. SRO, about 110 this time. Presenters pre-load videos, interns and staffers continuously pass handouts. If candidates ramble, Norquist cuts them off with “Guns, babies, taxes. What is your position?” My update: Republicans got the candidates they wanted – Aiona & Djou. Races are Safe or Likely D. Local candidates step up following homosexual marriage loss. Conservatives doing all the work.

-“The Weyrich lunch is a weekly off the record meeting of conservatives” per Slate.com. Invite only. 80 conservatives, conservative groups, members of congress (one discussing SAVE Act, and two senior conservatives) race in between floor votes, and staffers addressing the issues. Won’t say where, can’t say who or what they said.

-Payback for being an NRA speaker on a Freedom Alliance/ACU cruise and President Porter’s guest (you’ll see his name, again, soon) at the NRA Annual meeting. Appointed to the NRA Urban Affairs Committee and a couple others. http://nra.einnews.com/article/207384849/qLDzWSLqN9NGtpMr. First NRA non-Board committee member from Hawaii. Appreciate the opportunity of a larger role in protecting the 2^nd Amendment and (gun) rights, encouraging shooting sports and growing the hunting community. www.hawaiireporter.com/hawaiis-willes-lee-appointed-to-nra-committee/123.

-No notice. Berube, “Monday, July 07, Subject: Join us this Saturday – Door to door 101 Training for Candidates & District Chairs!“ Candidates should already have a plan for next Saturday. Scheduled in the middle of DtD time, following a state cmte meeting i.e. an entire lost campaign day only four months to election, teaching DtD when they should be DOING DtD. Candidates & chairs still need time to train their people. Candidates now needing 101-level shouldn’t be candidates. This week the new RNC guy has a potential fix “Options for poll watcher training include a YouTube video, a conference call and an in-person session” – media which could have been used for DtD 101.

–State Cmte. If you didn’t read this report, you wouldn’t even know there was a State cmte (meeting). To win elections, begin by providing an agenda prior to the meeting. AGAIN, no minutes from the previous meeting! 24/76 attend, only 13/51 district chairs. Ninth in a row, no one from Big Island participates. Phone again broken “we were hearing double” and “the sound system was so bad, not sure I could have heard properly.” Exec Cmte is talking to themselves and wondering why ‘the rest’ of party isn’t engaged. Klompus skips, again, and phones in a perfunctory Treasurer’s report. Hellreich report below. Liu doesn’t do anything, phones in, no report. HNL Rohlfing’s new canvassing initiative for next weekend takes local leaders by surprise. Kauai Hickling “abandons” voter reg efforts due “to apathy.” Maui Fontaine was in a parade. No report from vice chairs Ready, Yim, Mukk, Chong Kee because nothing is happening. Saiki needs help running a meeting and learning HRP Rules. Kubo (high-energy!) arrives 45 minutes late as Saiki announces her as new HRP Secretary, until Ready reminds that Rules requires a vote. No announcement, no campaign, no choice = worse than the Dem party. In her faux-Roberts Rules, she anoints Kubo (who is also totally invested as the new Victory Coordinator). With an Obama-like executive order, having not read party rules, Saki breaks Big Island into two counties… and appoints one of two Half-County Chairs (which requires a state cmte vote were there such a position). Perhaps, current county vice chair (associate pastor may have been nixed by Saiki) and current vice chair west and vice chair all quit. After botching the Kubo anointment, she gave resos (for two Exec members who QUIT four months before the election) without a motion or a second, asked for ‘Ayes’ (not nay’s), didn’t ask for votes on the phone. Inept at the basics, this is embarrassingly embarrassing.

Saiki has NEW focus as her top priority of registering 25,500 voters has “not been successful in reaching new voters.” Saiki nor Ready tell how many, if any, got registered. Instead, Saiki starts over with “two-prongs.” (1) Rohlfing’s precinct walk. Reader “If they canvass even two precincts in the state every weekend, and probably won’t, it will take 124 weekends, or not in time for the 2016 elections. Rohlfing, doing a Oahu precinct every weekend, will be out there three years.” (2) VOIP phones, if she can get volunteers to call. She demands the ten HNL district chairs in attendance to provide two people (including themselves) to make calls and asks THEM to contact missing district chairs. Only two months after Saiki gave Ready the single job of registering voters she scraps her plan because of “dismal” results. “We tried but it didn’t work.” With three months to go, she starts over.

Saiki demands “criticism be kept in-house.” “The enemy is not us.” (Conservatives, TEA, and Liberty say “Uh huh. Sure.”) Meeting degenerates into phone & copier training and an unbelievable (for a STATE cmte) lengthy explanation of the difference between poll workers and watchers. Berube says poll watcher names are due in LESS THAN A WEEK. Saiki implores the few present “Could you pass on information to those not here? I wonder if any candidates ever read our email?” Saiki forms another faux-cmte to study Auxiliaries like her faux-cmte to review the audit requirement. Saiki’s final decree is to appoint Coalitions Vice chair Yim in charge of manning the phone bank. Get that? Ready and Berube don’t do their jobs, and apparently Kubo’s Victory Coordinator job is something other than coordinating the victory effort, so Saiki directs the Coalitions person, who has NO coalitions, to coordinate phone volunteers.

-Week later. Berube bails, three weeks before Primary, three months to General. Arrived last year and SA writes she “did not survive the election cycle.” No one alerted chairs & candidates at State meeting. District chair “I called HQ to speak to [Berube]. He told me [Berube] wasn’t there anymore, and [Parsons] had taken over her position. He suggested I call back Monday.” Still no HRP announcement.

-HRP FEC www.fec.gov. HRP in the RED again. June receipts drop 40% to $25,320 (contributions drop 44% to $21.6k + RNC $3,750). No transfer from State account. Disbursements = $31,843. CoH drops to 55k (33k fenced for mortgage payments+4.5k Counties) = only 18k for operations, leaving no Victory Funds for local candidate support or electioneering (Reader “Maybe that’s why Berube had to go.”). RGA funds for Aiona and NRCC for Djou should begin to arrive. Debt is $15.9k. Saiki nor Finance Chair Felix on this contribution report, Liu made first-ever HRP contribution, Hellreich is the only sustaining donor of the four. When leaders don’t buy in, don’t expect others to do so. Expenditures include $6400 MORE for state convention (plus 6153 last month), 1499 mortgage, 2792 building maintenance, 1000 debt payment (doubled after my comment that it’d take them two years to pay off their debt), 4027 telemarketing, 1416 N Shore event (which may not have broken even), 805 old copier, 1967 IMS accounting, and Berube’s 3096 & Parson’s 2832 salary +2599 payroll tax+440 health insurance+147 insurance. Mortgage = 135k. HRP in the red 11 of last 18 months. Party of fiscal responsibility in debt for 45 consecutive months, Will report HRP CSC info in Sept, it is surprising. Expect great things from Felix’s new Finance cmte.

–Family Forum survey. www.hawaiifamilyforum.org What they say, not necessarily what they do. Many did not respond includes H47 Pouha, H41 Jeremiah, H26 Marshall, H21 Manutai, H19 Mathieu, S24 Danner, LG Sutton & Ahu. Neither conservative Hood nor liberal Thielen responded. Some questions are vague. Observations: S5 GOP Kanaka is more liberal than most Dems. GOP S21 Brown, H43 Tuploa ‘undecided’ on 50% of issues. There is virtually no difference between S23 GOP Meyer, Fale and Dem Riviere & S16 Dem Harimoto is more conservative than all of them. GOP H6 Ebert is conservative vs liberal Valenzuela. H19 Lib Higa is more conservative than all GOP House incumbents. GOP H12 Pohle is undecided on assisted suicide, H42 Moses supports assisted suicide. Gov GOP Aiona, H17 Ward, H18 Halvorsen, H31 Johanson, H36 Fukumoto, H40 McDermott, H45 Cheape support increases in government spending and programs. Little difference between H31 GOP Johanson and Dem Sharsh. H33 Dem Kong more conservative than GOP Helsham. As surveyed, no difference between H42 GOP Tupola and Dem Awana. H45 little difference between GOP Cheape and Dem Magaoay. H48 Lib Takayama is more conservative than GOP Kukahiko. Sen GOP Cavasso supports ‘a pathway to citizenship’ and does not support legislation to allow denial of benefits based on religious beliefs. HI-1 GOP Djou supports ‘a pathway to citizenship’ and legislation that allows businesses and individuals to deny services based on religious beliefs.

-Hawaii Center for Food Safety Action Fund endorses the most liberal Ds AND Thielen, only R on list.

By the numbers:

-One. RNC picks Cleveland for 2016 convention. “Mistake on the Lake.” Reader “I know. Yech.”

-1.6%. US adults CDC says self-identify as homosexual, less than estimates of 4% and of public perception of 25%.

-Five. Lack of integrity by State cmte to address Rs – Thielen, Carroll, McDermott, Pine, Fenton – who endorsed Ds against Rs in the last election.

-Six. Years without a HRP strategic plan, finance plan, campaign (Victory) plan.

-Six. Net R seats for US Senate majority. Begin to focus effort. Moving IA up, NC down. SD, MT, WV won. Support: LA, AR, IA, GA, CO, KY, MI, NC, AK. Sabato: Rs haven’t beaten more than two incumbent D Senators since 1980. Great graphic www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/upshot/republicans-senate-chances-rise-slightly-to-60-percent-.html?_r=0. Looking up, this month.

-Eight. Net US House R gains (and at least five) expected. Rs retain solid control.

-Eighteen. Months since the 2012 required HRP financial audit was to be conducted. Seven since the ’13 audit was due. Instead of accountability, Saiki’s plans to eliminate the requirement.

-Twenty-one. Months of the election cycle and sixteen after Hellreich wrote “the need to use massive voter registration drives in all states to increase our chances of winning local and national elections.” No state registration drive as Saiki’s program falls apart. Last weekend, Hellreich “There is no substitute for registering new voters,“ something HRP doesn’t do.

-1829. Days (as of August 2) to Presidential election.

-NCW report. Hellreich had a report, Liu provides nothing. From the RNC meeting which Saiki, Liu skipped: “RNC breaking fundraising records” but HRP again in the Red. “The Executive Directors were briefed on the specific tools that are available at no cost to the parties or candidates and the most up to date data and voter contact information” except Berube, who hasn’t been to a meeting. “[RNC] members voted to amend the rules to allow Republicans, not the mainstream media, to have a greater say in the 2016 primary debates.” I am not so confident with this ‘establishment’ fix. “Major donor and small donor fundraising has surpassed previous records and reflects the mood of our country and our donors to elect Republican leaders” but, in Hawaii, no funds to support candidates and RNC must pay for staff. “[RNC Political Field Director] position was approved for Hawaii for this election cycle” though mainland Senate races are what is important. “We don’t want everybody to vote.”

–OCare/Health Connector. NYT “Americans are paying through the nose for care but increasingly wait longer and longer to see doctors.“ HR “After getting $204 million, Hawaii’s uninsured has been reduced by less than 3 %. 8,592 enrolled …under Obamacare. It will take 150,000 people to make the program self-sustainable… Lawmakers set aside another $15 million/year of state taxpayer funds to sustain the exchange.“ HR www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/07/24/malfunctioning-websites-still-delaying-hawaii-obamacare-signups. http://hira.hawaiideservesbetter.com/enews/hira_code_blue_072114.html Ward, Theilen, Fontaine, Johanson, Pine voted FOR Connector.

-Sabato “The Tea Party, or the unorganized mass of voters who identify with the movement’s anti-establishment and outsider tenets, is alive and well. Republican Party leaders can’t wish them away; the leaders need to deal them in.”

-Internal RNC fight goes public. www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/15/martin-crossing-the-line-in-mississippi. MO Chairman says MS RNC members responsible for ads suggesting McDaniels is associated with KKK and all TEA party members are racists.

-At National Right to Life convention, I passed several exhibitor booths and asked what I thought was tongue-in-cheek “Isn’t Priests for Life, like Lutherans for Life, redundant?” Father Frank leads Priests for Life. He, rightly so, fielded it as serious question. His response was (a disheartening) “Forty years ago, yes, it was redundant. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case these days.”

-Center for the Study of the American Electorate. More Americans are giving up on the political process. Turnout in the 25 states with statewide primaries so far (Senate and/or governor) has declined from 18.3% in 2010 to 14.8% this year. In 15 of 25 states, turnout reached historic lows.

-HIRA’s Roadshow. www.hawaiirepublicanassembly.com. Get involved with conservative solutions.

 

ARE YOU SATISFIED? HRP needs leadership focused on HRP.  Part 2 on the way.

 

Willes

Last five: Changes/ Convention+Candidates/ Meetings/ Relevance/ Movement. See http://hawaiideservesbetter.com