Aloha Friends. Welcome back.

-November 5 General Election VA, NJ

-November 10 Hawaii Friends of NRA Oahu dinner DawnHorn@lava.net

-December 7 8:30AM HD17/18 monthly meeting Marian243@hawaiiantel.net

-January 26 Meet Medved www.hawaiirepublicanassembly.com

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

Lots to report. I am tuckered, you’ll read why. These highlights are in two LONG parts (A and B).

-VA Governor’s campaign. First stop – VA RNC National Committee Man Blackwell, President of Leadership Institute, a conservative-libertarian Republican icon. Toured the state-of-the-art office space and the training programs. Blackwell spent 90 minutes on the issues facing Cuccinelli and future opportunities to partner. Unlike squishy Rs, Blackwell and I believe this race can and needs to be won. Hence, a month in Virginia.

–Virginia election provides Rs (and Ds) an opportunity to test new techniques and Rs to even-up the digital and social media race. Thirty days to go, canvassing in 90 degree weather. Voter ID, with an understanding HRP doesn’t have, to record everything from US flag in yard, to college stickers on autos, to children’s toys in the yard… anything to tell about the voter. Information goes into the RPV dbase (our candidates don’t share anything). I am in the Northern Virginia Dem enclave working out of the Arlington-Alexandria Field office. I know the area and the RNC deployed me to Alexandria-Arlington Field Office for the ’09 election. Ugly campaign by both campaigns – hit pieces, mean ads, nasty rhetoric. Similar to our shortfall in Hawaii, there were few N VA down-ticket Rs. Surprised at lack of VOIP phones. Being on the ground, door-to-door and on the phone (no sign waving) is refreshing. Several Assembly friends from other states deployed into Virginia with various conservative groups. 18 days to go and polls have Cuccinelli down by 6-8 points, and the Lib has an unrealistic 9-11%. Now it is cold, campaign weather, 50 degree days, 40 at night (feels like 37!), 15 mph winds. Numbers are holding through the shutdown as we get hit with another $1M of media from each Bloomberg and Planned Parenthood. Clinton (she) stumps for McCauliffe and we counter with Cruz and Huckabee. We’re knocking and calling the same people only one day later. Fall colors are here, a head cold runs through the field office and I am out-of-action for more than a week. Spending is lopsided with two more weeks of $1M each by the D and less than 200k by us. A week to go, liberal media says the margin is 10-11 points, with a 24-point women’s difference. Ds brings in Clinton (he), we have Paul (son) and Jindal. McCauliffe brings Obama, then Biden and Cuccinelli brings Walker, Rubio, Paul (father). So far, the Ds have $35M in the race to R’s 20M. Last poll…Quinnipiac margin is only 4 with the Lib still at an unrealistic 9 (Cuccinelli internals showing a 2 point deficit). OCare failure is helping Cuccinelli numbers.

–Election day is long and fast – delivering materials and spelling poll watchers. Election night becomes painful as the D passes us to give Virginia a D governor by 2.5 points (Lib got a historic 6.6%) and a Dem LG. AG race is a re-count with 200 votes difference out of 2.2M votes. It sucks, but campaigning is fun and the people were great.

–Finger-pointing began last night. Turnout at 42%. When an establishment candidate runs, conservatives are expected to support him/her, but when a conservative Cuccinelli runs, the establishment disappears. I agree but will add that conservatives, scared by early polls, did not fully support because they didn’t think we could win.

-Aside: There are no gun shops in Arlington, county laws and all. In Fairfax, they allowed me to purchase only one box each of .45 and .380 ball because ammo sales are so high (and inventory so low) stores can’t keep up.

-Positive thinking. HRP will have a plan. HRP is going to build coalitions. HRP will have training. HRP is going to have district and precinct chairs. Until then, when you read for example that we have no candidate for Governor, US Senate or either Congressional District, the unwritten suggestion is that HRP should recruit. A few requested more clarity so we’ll finish some paragraphs with very specific suggestions. Suggest: keep reading.

-HRP FEC www.fec.gov. Ugh, another C/H/L self-inflicted body blow to HRP. September receipts were $4,234 (down even from last month’s paltry $6,453) with disbursements of $10,526, Another month of HRP RED. CoH drops further from 44.6k down to 38,4k, which includes 10k fenced for mortgage and counties’. NO reduction of the $20.4k debt. No transfer from the still empty state account. Only 34 to 37 sustaining donors, considerably less than Chang’s planned 400. Though a Ready continues to ‘shade’ the truth “It makes sense that elected officers would make at least a minimum regular contribution to support our Party“.. none of your county chairs participate, only 6/14 Exec Cmte members and 6/51 district chairs participate. When leaders aren’t buying in, don’t expect others to do so. Ready “We are effectively out of prior years’ debt” (so, effective = $20.4k debt?), “so every contribution builds for the future election season” (truthfully, debt payoff). Expenditures include $1500 mortgage, 786 copy machine, 2614 building maintenance, new ED Burebe received 1544 salary for one pay period ($228/month less than the last ED)+800 payroll tax, 1826 IMS accounting includes Thomason’s pay. The summer mail & phone program is the first time HRP conducted a fundraising campaign and came out red. Party of fiscal responsibility now in debt for 36 consecutive months. HRP is in the red 6 of 9 months of 2013, and 8 of 11 months since the last election. For the past 20 FEC reports, HRP is 13 months red and only 7 months black. For CY13, HRP is in the red $23k… HRP went RED in May, at the end of September HRP is STILL in the red FOR THE YEAR, plus they carry 20k of debt. New finance guy can only go up! Suggest: C/H/L at least should raise funds to cover travel expenses.

-HRP needs the help. But, not AGAIN at the expense of losing the US Senate majority. Last cycle, national money was wasted on Lingle’s 25 point loss, and it cost us mainland US Senate seats. It was announced at the State Cmte meeting that “RNC is picking up the tab for [Berube] and our new finance guy.” C/H/L can’t cover their expenses, so RNC is forced to support HRP instead of winning the Senate majority. A snapshot

-RNC spent three times LESS in VA in ’13 than ’09, while paying HRP’s bills. Suggest: HRP stop helping us to lose the US Senate majority.

-Chang, about the US debt ceiling “.. it is best for the state and nation because we don’t want to be in debt.” C/H/L initiated the HRP debt in 2010 and still carry $20,000 of debt. Suggest: walk the walk.

–State Cmte meeting. The Cmte again failed to meet quorum. To ‘solve’ his apathy situation, Chang had Schaedel count non-cmte members, and then declare the exact minimum number for quorum. Attendee “This party is like a kangaroo court.” Only 11 of 51 districts represented. A lack of leadership explains why no one attends, why HRP can’t fill 35% of the districts or 95% of the precinct seats. NO minutes from the previous meeting because, wait for it, no one bothered to take notes (irony – in this meeting, the Cmte ‘passed’ a reso requiring minutes for all other cmte meetings). “Chang spent some time talking against groups” OPPOSED to homosexual marriage. “[Fukumoto] spent quite some time explaining how their caucus was TRYING to come up with a PLAN..” but had no strategy, plan or direction. Liu didn’t even phone in. Hellriech was a non-entity. Those promises from the officers you elected at Convention – still no coordinated campaign, no coalitions, no candidates, no communications (Community Service cleaned the Ronald McDonald house). Nothing of value from vice chairs EXCEPT Yim apologized for not doing Coalitions; finally someone taking responsibility. Berube was introduced (good reviews, compared to the last ED) along with new finance director. Burebe says it takes $15k/month to ‘keep the doors open’ (more than it has EVER taken, and somehow HRP spent only 10k in September). Klompus again skipped, phoning from Kapolei with scanty finance data of 28.2k CoH (after the listed bill is paid) plus 2.7k of county money. Big shock is Capital Campaign at 7.2k (about four months of mortgage payments), half of what we estimated from previous reports. No debt paid, still at 20.4k. Mortgage remains a giant $143.7k. Suggest: gain some integrity

-OLRW (website). Club 100. As 2010 drew to a close, it was obvious that the Party was in financial distress. There was talk by Party officers of the need to sell the (HQ) building…women of the League…initiating the Capital Campaign to pay off the mortgage. Miriam Hellreich led the charge, joined in by fellow League members Marcia Klompus, Kathi Thomason, Janice Pechauer, Carol Thomas, Helen and George Kekuna, Willes Lee and Adrienne King. Suggest: mortgage responsibility back to HRP where it belongs.

-Hawaii: Welcome to homosexual marriage. There are at least two more votes but….

–A heartfelt and prayerful thanks to each of the individuals who worked so hard and spent so much time to stave off homosexual marriage.

-Hochberg said he was in charge of almost 25 social conservative groups in a coalition to oppose the special session. Coalition members couldn’t agree on strategy (change public perception, lobby all the legislators, target perceived ‘swing’ legislators) or goal (stop the special session, push for religious exemptions, kill the bill, push the issue to January, make a ballot vote). Rallies were well attended, Roco email “A Sheriff Departments representative estimated there were about 100 at the morning rally supporting SB1, about 4000 of us opposed in the evening.” To not anger liberals, the coalition did NOT oppose homosexual marriage but used “Let the People Decide.” Coalition leaders tried to control members, criticizing organizations which opposed homosexual marriage such as First Assemblies’ accurate mail piece. HIRA – first on the radio – was asked to stop their ads which might upset Ds. HRP was absolutely inconsequential. Rs tried a last minute legal maneuver which failed. The coalition strategy changed to ‘fill time, delay, stall’ and then ‘Let Us Vote.’ The Hochberg-McDermott coalition enlisted Nonaka and lost the effort to stop the special session, and, so far, to stop homosexual marriage or to force a ballot issue. The good news is that a coalition formed.

-Less than a week before session, the R House caucus began ‘updates.’ Fukumoto, Fale, Johanson…. none say they opposed homosexual marriage… they just didn’t like a special session. Schlafly “Americans who believe in God had better wake up and realize that a well-orchestrated campaign is moving to fundamentally transform the United States into a scrupulously secular nation.“

-Several D legislators and candidates ‘evolved‘ as they prepare for 2014. Theilen (R) went with the liberal Ds. Several Ds – Kim (CD1), Ito, Har, Oshiro for instance – showed more leadership than Rs.

-R earned media when… they attacked themselves. McDermott called for (1) Thielen’s removal from JUD so that Fale – who, according to DePledge “took his unfamiliarity with the rules to a more extreme degree, describing himself [Fale] as a farmer and a soldier who should not be expected to understand when confronted with a book on procedure” – instead could grunt his disapproval, (2) Rs removed from cmte vice-chair positions, (3) caucus to leave the Souki faction, and (4) KITV “replacing minority leader Aaron Ling Johanson with Rep. Gene Ward and triggered a floor feud that spun out of control.” Ward was surprised, Johanson back-peddling to defend … anything… Thielen pleading, Cheape was dumbstruck. CB says the raised voices caused our pillar-of-strength to grab her Kleenex and “Fukumoto stood up and left the room.” Recall last January, I argued against Rs organizing with the liberal Ds “This whole arrangement has destroyed the minority caucus,” McDermott said,” in HR, adding that the caucus and HRP are NOT “standing up for Republican values.” Best comment: Thielen appealed to the Dems to pleeaase keep her on JUD “I would ask the majority to have tolerance for a Republican who .. believes in marriage equity” as if the liberals are going to remove the liberal R. Thielen says that she stays in HRP because she needs to show that YOU, and anyone who is pro-family, are “a fringe element” of the Republican party, or maybe she means of all society. The House caucus should have thought of their leadership and committee positions when they organized last January. The ‘youth’ are clueless but McDermott and Ward should have known that unprepared rookies don’t serve a purpose; that joining the liberal wing of the dems would adversely affect legislation; and endorsing the governor’s bloated budget would be used against them. Borreca, SA, quoting Har “Saiki, Luke and Souki collectively have too many years on the GOP new leaders (a total of 65 years of legislative experience), they eat children like that for breakfast.” Now, if the rest of the caucus would take responsibility as McDermott has “As a member of the coalition who put the more liberal wing of the Democratic caucus in power..”

– Souki saves Rs. Bill passes JUD 8-5 because Souki changes Cabanilla (no) for Coffman (yes). Otherwise, Thielen would be the deciding vote as Rs effectively pass homosexual marriage. Suggest: Johnason thank Souki.

-Conservatives on air. HIRA, minute each http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74eDQ1a5G8k  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D84J5Du0Q9A were deemed hurtful and hateful by liberal-friendly Rs.

-D leaders require ID to testify, but not to vote. Suggest: find liberal transparency.

-HIRA’s lesson. Boylan, Midweek “election results over the past 20 years are the key “dialogue and study” session that produced the “foreordained decision” reached by the Legislature.“

–Stop the bleeding, please. Many are leaving HRP. Last month Hemmings left. Then, Hemmings and Lagareta (she, Lingle fixer, wife of HRP district chair) mail an endorsement for Anderson (Dem CD1 candidate). Sakamoto, Lingle asst political director, is on Anderson’s team. Add fmr R legislator and state party chair Aiona on Hanabusa’s team (to oppose Schatz). Now, ‘leaders’ such as HRP HD2 chair Cortez (Nonaka’s fundraising partner) posts that she is Espero’s dep campaign manager.

-Economy, jobs, continuing resolution, debt ceiling, immigration… and Reid has the US Senate pass ENDA. WaPo “the most significant piece of gay-rights legislation passed by Congress since the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays in uniform..” Passes cloture because of Rs Ayotte, Collins, Hatch, Heller, Kirk, Portman, Toomey.

-ACA down your throat nationally, advertised with tax payer money. Rail down your throat locally, at your expense. Oahu Metropolitan Planning Org “The City and County of Honolulu will be hosting a Making TOD Happen! event at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center!“

-Horowitz http://www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org/_the_threat_we_face_by_david_horowitz  Instead of calling themselves [Obama, Reid, Pelosi] communists or socialists they call themselves liberals and progressives. Progressives are the principal oppressors and exploiters of minorities and the poor. The strategy of the lie is progressives’ new gospel. The politics of personal destruction is their favorite variety. If you want to fight the left you have to fight fire with fire. That means first and foremost you have to hold them to account. Conservatives need to talk less to the voters’ heads and more to their hearts. Freedom is what our cause is about not just fiscal responsibility. For the first time since the Cold War, people with a public voice are calling socialists (RNCC was the first) by their right name; and at last we have leaders who are willing to stand up to the thuggery of the left and who have the spine not to back down. This is not McCain, Graham, Chang or Fukumoto. The leaders are Cruz, Lee, Gohmert, Salmon, yes also Palin, DeMint and FreedomWorks. In Hawaii, there is Slom and HIRA.

-WaPo “An off-duty D.C. police officer shot and wounded a man who tried to rob her early Tuesday in Southeast Washington..” Off-duty officers can defend themselves but citizens cannot.

End (long) Part A. (Long) Part B coming after I land back home.

 

ARE YOU SATISFIED? HRP needs leadership focused on HRP.

 

Willes

Last five: Shutdown/ Transition/ Slow News Month/ Money Matters/ Finance