HIRA News
THE PLOT THICKENS: Top Hawaii GOP Officers Push Self-Destruct Button, Over and Over and Over
ZOOMING INTO A BLACK HOLE:
Over the course of these few hours, it became clear that ‘deep state’ RINO control of the Hawaii Republican Party is worse than ever.
Unbeknownst to island Republicans, the new executive officers of the Hawaii GOP gathered around their computers last Thursday (06 (06 July 2023) and held a virtual “Executive Committee” meeting over the CCP’s Zoom teleconferencing software – a depressing meeting which sowed the seeds of another two years of disastrous party management and continued domination of Hawaii policy and politics by liberal Democrats. Over the course of these few hours, it became clear that ‘deep state’ RINO control of the Hawaii Republican Party is worse than ever. The deep state RINO’s from Team Dalhouse, Team Ostrov, Team Finnegan and Team Garcia really twisted the knife in the backs of real Republicans with a combination of bad results, bad direction, bad decisions, and an enduring culture of corruption.
Since party leaders don’t share any news of value to party members, the media or the public, HIRA News is providing verified and highly sourced info about the Hawaii GOP. So, here’s a brief summary of what happened, plus a sneak preview of the agenda items pushed to TODAY’s HRP Exec Cmte Zoom meeting (closed to guests, as party leaders know that your stomach would turn if you saw what these RINOs have been doing and are still planning to do). Sorry, folks. The picture is quite bleak . . . but none of the bad news will keep them from asking for your money. [You can always say “no”.]
*** SUMMARY OF 7/6/23 HAWAII GOP EXEC CMTE MEETING ***
HUGE PARTY DEBT EXCEEDS CASH ON HAND: A massive amount of funds was allegedly stolen by previous party officers to pay lawyers for unapproved legal work, leaving the state party up to its eyeballs in debt. To be sure, “stolen” means that the party’s governing State Committee of several dozen elected party leaders from Hilo to Hanalei were PREVENTED from knowing about or deciding on the $33,000 in expenditures on lawyers. So, when HIRA News reports that “funds were stolen by previous officers to pay lawyers”, that’s what this means. No permission was obtained to put the party in debt to the attorneys who somehow magically got picked out of the Yellow Pages without any input from the governing State Committee.
New state chair, Cheatin’ Tom Dilhouse, asked his immediate predecessor Diamond Garcia (who was on the Zoom call) why Garcia and Lynn Finnegan and treasurer Steve Holck and executive director Maryann “Mele” Songsong would commit tens of thousands of dollars (a.k.a. steal $33,000) without getting permission from the State Committee. But Garcia stayed SILENT when asked about why he and Finnegan handed over a broke party to Dalhouse or why he and Finnegan had no problem giving attorneys a blank check or why Ostrov and Holck weren’t being held liable for the $60,000 fine incurred by HRP, or why Lynn Mele and Diamond aren’t being held liable for the $33,000 in unauthorized legal costs, even though he was clearly still connected to the call.
Garcia flunkie and Kauai county chair Ana Mohamed Desmarais (who goes by the stage name “Ana Mo Des”) went on the defense and tried to fill the void of Garcia’s noticeable silence by pretending that Diamond Garcia had nothing to do with the massive expenditure. Further, Ms. Mohamed didn’t seem to mind that the meter for attorney fees was still running and that the $33,000 owed by HRP to the attorney was still growing and growing. Indeed, “Ana Mo Des” pushed the Finnegan/Songsong/Garcia position of refusing to negotiate or settle or mediate the lawsuit against HRP filed by party members who are sick of the corruption and cheating by party leaders. The discussion merely petered out while these new leaders simply let the legal fees grow and grow and grow, despite the party being broke and unpopular with its own members, let alone the public. Members would be disgusted to learn how casually party leaders regard this financial sinkhole, as if nobody would ever find out and that the debt will somehow magically disappear.
From Tom Dilhouse’s presentation slides at last Thursday’s Exec Cmte meetingDilhouse gave a “Fundraising Update”: No $$ raised yet. Nothing to report. Working on a plan. RNC said NO to helping with any $$. “RNC has no funding sources to give. I’ve already pushed that button a few times,” reports Dilhouse. Yes, those delinquency lawyers from the property management company who’ve been waiting for the back rent (and current rent) will be very unimpressed with the lack progress and the sad financial state of affairs.
Discussion was held that maybe a fundraiser should be organized. Nobody volunteered. Dilhouse opined that he hopes people will buy HRP t-shirts from the state party’s online store. Well, that “Fundraising Update” solved nothing. The self-described “most unpopular person in the party” Sheila Walker (Team Dalhouse’s cheating coordinator on Maui and a failed candidate from the Dalhouse slate) participated in last Thursday’s Zoom call. When running for state treasurer, Walker laughably said that the treasurer’s job was to raise money, rather than to ensure all monies were accounted for. HRP mainland donor and long distance puppetmaster Kevin Spillane menacingly and threateningly insisted that Sheila Walker get the treasurer job and that Dilhouse flunkie Joel Borgquist be tossed aside or else he’ll stop donating to HRP altogether. Well, neither of those demands were realized, as Walker lost ‘bigly’ and Borgquist has taken over Dilhouse’s shady self-funded SuperPAC. So, HRP is in an even bigger financial trouble than the new officers probably realize.
In case you’re wondering, Team Dalhouse’s Keone Simon won the office of vice chairman of coalitions for HRP by only two votes (through dozens of improper votes in the rigged convention and runoff election). His first order of business was to appoint Dalhouse’s cheating coordinator Crooked Sheila Walker to take his place at this crucial meeting, since he was unavailable. That’s right, Keone Simon actually picked crooked Sheila Walker to substitute for him even though he knows she coordinated the cheating that resulted in his own squeaker of an election and Tim Dalhouse’s election. If that sleazy decision to give slimeball Sheila Walker a place at the table doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about Mr. Simon, then you haven’t been paying attention. Plus, with absent national committeeman Gene Ward appointing Crooked Shirlene Ostrov to take his place on the crucial Zoom meeting, that tells you everything you need to know about Gene Ward.
PARTY HOMELESSNESS IS FAST BECOMING REALITY: The homelessness problem in Hawaii continues to worsen. Now, island Republicans are about to become homeless, as HIRA News recently broke the story that party leaders stopped paying rent for its official headquarters for HRP at 725 Kapiolani Blvd. This is the same HQ that RINOs insisted be purchased and repeatedly saved from foreclosure for the past two decades, resulting in the diversion of funds away from winning elections and into the black hole of a barely utilized office suite where there is more dust and mold than volunteers or strategizing. Now, top party leaders hope to sell off this once crucial HQ (if is doesn’t get foreclosed on first) and blow all the proceeds from the sale on the 2024 election campaign.
New HRP state chair Tom Dilhouse confirmed the HIRA News story . . . only with a higher figure than we reported: HRP now owes $12,674.28, because Lynn Finnegan, Diamond Garcia and Steve Holck weren’t paying the rent. Indeed, the figure is even higher since July’s deadline for another month of rent was due on the 1st, which came and went.
From the draft minutes of last Thursday’s Exec Cmte meetingThe surprise admission that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wasted over the past 10 election cycles on this overpriced, money-losing albatross appears to have the support of building co-owner, the Oahu League of RINO Women (OLRW); the organization of closet Democrats who play the lead role in picking HRP’s officers and ensuring that conservatives never run the party or control its agenda. Current OLRW president and disgraced former HRP state chair Shirlene Ostrov (who fired the executive committee during her tenure, when she wasn’t busy illegally laundering party monies) made it clear that she hopes to convince OLRW bigwigs to sell the very HQ that they have been aggressively guarding for years and years (as they have a free office in perpetuity, all utilities included, inside the HRP HQ).
At last Thursday’s meeting, Ostrov said: “The OLRW would like to cease further discussion (about the sale of HQ) until we have our meeting so we can have a synchronized position. We just need to move in tandem and with our attorney.” Ostrov didn’t bother to mention to her largely uninformed colleagues that she became state chair several years earlier because that same OLRW organization went into overdrive making sure HRP elected a chair who opposed EVER selling the office space. Now, with a chance to make some serious money off the sale of the HQ for both HRP and OLRW, the only obstacle to HRP chair Tom Dilhouse and OLRW president Shirlene Ostrov getting their grubby hands on the proceeds (estimated $400K each).
From Tom Dilhouse’s presentation slides at last Thursday’s Exec Cmte meeting
With the increasingly likely prospect of HRP campaigning statewide for the first time in decades without any headquarters to call home, one of the funniest and saddest moments of the meeting came when Dilhouse had to be persuaded that HRP needs a well thought out plan how it can operate during Election 2024 and beyond as a homeless party BEFORE deciding to sell the HQ. Eagerly wanting to blow $400K on the next election and related expenses appeared to blind Dilhouse to the obvious need to perform any due diligence as a political party already struggling for survival in a state that is FAR more “blue” than when a grand opening was held for the HQ decades earlier.
In a state where $30 billion gets spent each year by county and state politicians, a few thousand dollars per month spent on rent for office space would seem a small price to pay for a multi-million dollar Hawaii Republican movement which ostensibly is designed to unseat Democrats from power. Like a good closet Democrat, GOP State Chair Dilhouse already has plans for those proceeds . . . big, expensive plans which will enrich his cronies. More about that below . . .
LAWSUITS AGAINST INDIVIDUAL PARTY OFFICERS FOR ALLEGED MALFEASANCE ARE NOT COVERED BY ANY INSURANCE POLICY: HRP’s repeated malfeasance under several consecutive state chairs caused HRP to get sued; with cases still pending. As mentioned above, attorneys were secretly given a blank check to run up legal fees, which now exceed $33,000 in non-budgeted and questionably approved expenses and debt. New state chair (and political ally to those past state chairs) Tom Dilhouse admitted that his fellow RINOs could have avoided such costly legal expenses by simply purchasing “directors and officers insurance” for as little as $2,800 per year. Sadly, voters put people like Diamond Garcia and Gene Ward and Lynn Finnegan into office . . . politicians and HRP officers who have zero business sense (or common sense) and who recklessly ran up a huge tab which keeps rising. Why is it still rising? Because none of these executive officers yesterday or today demanded a cessation to the billable work by the attorney and because the committee failed to see this past Thursday how settling the case and meeting with the plaintiffs could be of any benefit. In the meantime, these same monkeys who control HRP’s executive committee control a party which is broke and can’t even afford the D&O insurance; thereby exposing each of them to personal liability for the lawsuits. And, so that there’s no doubt, D&O policies are NOT retroactive to cover bad deeds of the past. Judging from last week’s meeting of these top party bosses, they are sure to get HRP in more legal and even criminal hot water going forward.
From Tom Dilhouse’s presentation slides at last Thursday’s Exec Cmte meeting
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DEEP STATE CORRUPTION AT HRP GETS DEEPER STILL: HRP chair Dilhouse has been working feverishly on filling a key position at the state party which is essential to continued RINO control of the state party – the chairman of HRP’s rules committee. This person gets to decide when party rules get ignored, twisted, or ‘reinterpreted’ so that his or her boss (the state chair) can do whatever he or she wants to do with the HRP, its money, its elections, its conventions and much more. With corrupt Celyn Chonkee of OLRW unable to fulfill her duties after years of crooked leadership of HRP’s rules committee, Dilhouse attempted unsuccessfully to install crooked RINO dinosaur Boyd Ready into the post. That humiliating defeat several weeks ago led to last Thursday’s need for Dilhouse to break the tie when the Exec Cmte voted on the latest corrupt RINO dinosaur to be nominated for the post: Closet Democrat “Silent Mary” Smart. More than almost anyone, HRP’s past state treasurer Mary Smart was directly responsible for the election of Crooked Shirlene Ostrov as state chair, which wrought nearly four years of political self-destruction and a veritable crime wave at HRP which cost the party $60,000 in fines to the FEC for reckless lawbreaking in the form of apparent money laundering, secret bank accounts and off-the-radar bookkeeping. In case you just came to the party, Ostrov was the same state chair who forbade Republicans in Hawaii from protesting the draconian Covid lockdowns which destroyed our economy and delivered record price inflation which persists today.
Well, the very same RINO who led the charge to install Crooked Ostrov is now the rules chair, with Mary Smart endorsed by Ostrov herself at last Thursday’s meeting. Barely confirmed by an embarrassing 9 to 8 vote following national committeewoman Laura Nakanelua’s unhinged rant against anyone who dared to speak negatively about Mary Smart’s past actions in HRP, Dilhouse broke the tie to ensure that Smart would be his loyal, corrupt soldier going forward. Perhaps Smart will be as loyal to Tom Dilhouse as Boyd Ready was to Lynn Finnegan, who had no problem with the Rules Cmte being prevented from holding meetings for nearly two years, in order to keep a lid on HRP’s internal corruption, rigged conventions, election interference, and related scandals.
Observers and participants of last Thursday’s Zoom meeting commented that the entire discussion of “Silent Mary’s” nomination was a scripted infomercial by RINOs, including the righteous indignation by deep state RINO Laura Nakanelua attacking new HRP vice chair for community service Joelle Seashell for daring to express her reservations about Mary Smart based on extensive negative experience with Smart.
What went undiscussed during the awkward conversation about Silent Mary’s nomination is that she previously remained silent and did jack squat about Shirlene Ostrov’s crimes, so it’s no wonder Ostrov returned the favor during the Zoom meeting by vouching for Silent Mary. Never forget that Mary Smart never spoke out against Ostrov’s money laundering or the firing of Ostrov’s exec committee or last-minute usurpation of HRP’s platform committee (throwing away all its months of work in favor of some drivel that Ostrov and her crony wrote instead) or any of Ostrov’s dictatorial or downright criminal actions. Critics of Mary Smart explained last Thursday that Mary Smart wants a top-down party, not a collaborative body of fellow Republicans. HIRA News can report that Mary Smart did NOTHING at all about all Team Dalhouse’s cheating in party elections during 2023 and has no plans to EVER do anything to obtain justice for the assault on election integrity at caucuses, conventions and such. NO wonder she was also endorsed during the Zoom conference by morally bankrupt ‘minister’ Diamond Garcia, leader of the pro-Dalhouse cheating effort. The new rules chair is not expected to take action on all the cheating in the party’s rigged convention, carrying on the same blindness as her predecessors Boyd Ready and Celyn Chonkey. Installing Crooked RINO Mary Smart as the rules chief of this corrupt state party was and is a slap in the face to real Republicans from Hilo to Hanalei.
“Silent Mary” Smart (on right, in pink) fits right in with the RINOs who have destroyed the Hawaii GOP . . . RINOs like Democrat Charles Djou (far left, really), Anti-USA activist Al Frenzel (in back), crooked Shirlene Ostrov (always front and center), Illegal Immigration advocate Gene Ward (back-center, but really far left), Ostrov’s shady boyfriend Mark Blackburn (2nd from right in back row), and assorted other closet Democrats who control HRP.
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THE NEXT MEETING IS TODAY . . .
Their wide-reaching and mostly unfinished agenda will be continued again tonight at 6pm via another Zoom meeting (since Tom Dilhouse doesn’t even live on Oahu). Based on the nearly dozen matters of unfinished business from last Thursday’s agenda, here is a sneak preview of the major travesties to come.
“Membership Terminations” – While state chair Dilhouse hasn’t initiated any terminations of party memberships like his thin-skinned, dictatorial predecessors, he’s just getting started. The HRP roadside is littered with expelled party members who have dared to expose the corruption and lawlessness of the deep state RINO cabal which has controlled HRP for decades. Throwing out registered Republicans (usually conservatives) is an easy way for a state chair to curry favor with other RINOs. Dealing with the aftermath of such actions might be why Dilhouse has added this to tonight’s agenda. Or, he already has more targets in mind for removal. Stay tuned . . .
“Establishment of State Officer Expectations & Ground Rules” – Starting with the rein of terror under Shirlene Ostrov, state chairs have rarely asked permission from the Executive Committee or the larger State Committee (the true governing body of HRP) to do anything. That’s why the party is in so much trouble, financially, legally and otherwise. With eight HRP executive officer posts up for election in May 2023 and with only a mere three of those posts being filled by Dalhouse and two allies, the new state chair is surrounded by five reform-minded executive party officers from the competing slate at the state convention. So, it’s no wonder that Dilhouse wants to put those five on the tightest possible leash through the ‘establishment of expectations and ground rules’ for those do-gooders who ran because they were sick of HRP’s corruption and its political irrelevance.
The past few weeks have revealed Dilhouse to be out of his depth in running a volunteer organization; clearly hoping he could be regarded as a ‘chief executive officer’ or a ‘generalissimo’ who answers only to himself and never gets his motives or decisions questioned by fellow party leaders. Cheatin’ Tom is in for a rude awakening and possibly an early retirement from politics if he tries to ignore the role that cheating played in his razor-thin victory for the state chair position, let alone the mandate from party members for a fresh look at how HRP does business. And here’s why Dilhouse needs to be careful . . .
LINING THE POCKETS OF A FRIEND a.k.a. “Financial Auditor Choice” – When outgoing state chair Diamond Garcia and outgoing state treasurer Steve Holck handed the keys for HRP headquarters to Tom Dilhouse and they failed to mention that the party is completely broke, in debt, and at risk of losing the HQ due to failure to pay the rent, even Cheatin’ Tom had to buy into the urgency for an audit of the party’s finances. Pressure has been quickly building to audit the past few years of party financial activity and records after the new officers inherited a financially bankrupt party organization with virtually zero dollars in any of its bank accounts.
But what’s the plan? How many years back will the audit cover? Will the legality and legitimacy of expenditures be reviewed? What action will be taken to recover improper expenses, say the $60,000 fine which HRP paid to the FEC (which ended up being paid by the RNC which now has denied HRP any more money for its expenses, therefore essentially was paid by HRP)?
That’s right, RNC can’t help HRP with its financial problems, as they already bailed out HRP a few months ago by paying the $60,000 fine for the alleged misconduct of Ostrov and Holck of creating a secret mainland bank account for secretly laundering funds through HRP and never reporting millions of dollars in transactions for mainland campaigns to the FEC. The big question is WHY isn’t HRP and RNC going after Ostrov and Holck to reimburse for the $60,000 in wasted donor funds thanks to their ‘alleged’ financial impropriety? Why isn’t restitution on the agenda? Instead, as mentioned above, Ostrov actually took part in this meeting to return the favor to Mary Smart by pushing the executive committee to approve Smart as HRP rules chair.
Anyway, if you’ve been watching Cheatin’ Tim Dilhouse in action, then you can easily conclude he doesn’t really care about getting to the bottom of the party’s financial problems and has zero intention of dealing with these costly scandals (which he has already likened to retribution and living in the past). It turns out that he just wants to spend party funds which HRP does not yet have on his crony’s questionable mainland business operation.
Don’t believe it. His top choice for the auditing contract is Thomas Datwyler, who not coincidentally does the campaign finance reporting for Dilhouse’s failed congressional campaign and for Dilhouse’s shady SuperPAC which is currently being investigated for felonious activity during Hawaii’s 2022 election campaign. Yes, Dilhouse wants to pay the guy who helped multiple candidates and their campaign committees to cook the books and hide the coordinated support from Dalhouse’s SuperPAC which was funded by own pocket. [A clever way to evade individual contributor limits, until caught that is.] As Dilhouse explained, “Hawaii Conservatives was not good at fundraising – Tim and & Alicia Dalhouse were just big donors. Over 95% of the funds spent by that PAC came directly from me.”
Let’s get to know #1 choice for the auditing contract, Thomas Datwyler of AX Capital. Datwyler also works with swamp creatures like Lisa Murkowski (photo) who likes to vote with Democrats. According to numerous news stories, Datwyler is reportedly linked to the campaign of crooked nutjob congressman George Santos who is now charged with Fraud, Money Laundering, Theft of Public Funds, and False Statements. Sure, you know U.S. Rep. George Santos, who allegedly embezzled contributions from supporters and fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits in order to live his disturbing double life as a crossdresser and more.
Earlier this year, the misreporting of $150,000 in contributions to a Republican U.S. Senate candidate resulted in a $15,000+ fine blamed on Thomas Datwyler. That campaign laid blame for the FEC woes with Datwyler, the former treasurer for the Senate bid. Elizabeth Curtis, who replaced Datwyler in the role, wrote to the FEC in December that she discovered the errors.
“Due to the stunning number of inexplicable reporting errors made by Mr. Datwyler, including errors in reattributions, errors in reporting correct elections, late filed 48-hour reports, handling of contributions that may or may not be permissible, and incorrect distribution of [joint fundraising committee] funds, ignoring the FEC and potentially incurring significant fines without notifying the Committee, the Committee expects it will take some time to unravel Mr. Datwyler’s mess.”
You can only guess why deep state operative Cheatin’ Tom Dilhouse is so eager to blow the party’s money on his shady crony from Wisconsin. Even worse than the disgusting cronyism at play here is that Dilhouse wants to award the contract beforethe goals of the audit and/or the scope of work has even been thoroughly developed and approved. As you probably guessed, this move would give beta male RINO Dilhouse direct control through his buddy Datwyler over what gets uncovered (or what remains covered up) by any audit. Other members of HRP’s executive committee have put forward other candidates for the auditing work (including tasking new state treasurer Jodi Beaty at no charge). But, watching how the RINO’s pushed through “Silent Mary” Smart’s horrendous nomination as Rules Chair, Dilhouse has learned how to count votes and get his way by pushing his RINO vision for HRP.
To be sure, word has it that HRP is about to file its fourth consecutive set of fraudulent and illegally nontransparent financial disclosures to the FEC and the State Campaign Spending Commission, with deadlines coming in a few days. Already under investigation for this ongoing fraud and related ‘alleged’ criminal activity, though the blame is squarely on Dalhouse’s buddies that preceded him, state and federal law will pin the responsibility on the current party officers for the fraud. Ouch!
CEASE AND DESIST a.k.a. “Use of ‘GOP’ by counties is not authorized” – More evidence that Tom Dilhouse is a clone/puppet of corrupt, deep state autocrats Diamond Garcia and Lynn Finnegan is revealed in this next item on today’s agenda of HRP’s executive committee. Unbeknownst to 99.99% of island Republicans, Team Dalhouse and its supporters launched an all-out assault on the county party organizations of Oahu and Maui. Dalhouse supporters, in the form of the cabal of Mele Songsong, Lynn Finnegan, and Diamond Garcia, convinced a low-level moron in the RNC legal office to send threatening “Cease and Desist” letters to the heads of these two (and only two) county organizations, as Oahu and Maui are hotbeds for anti-RINO sentiment within HRP, while the Kauai, West Hawaii and East Hawaii ‘counties’ are considered pro-RINO. The letters demanded that the Maui GOP and Oahu GOP pull down their websites and social media accounts and ‘cease and desist’ from operating as county GOP entities.
Dilhouse’ inclusion of the “Use of ‘GOP’ by counties is not authorized’ in today’s agenda shows that he is 100% complicit with the ill-advised attempt to shut down the two most powerful and organized Republican counties in the state to consolidate control and achieve the type top-down state party RINO’s prefer. Knowing that only he and two of his eight running mates from Team Dalhouse managed to get elected (versus FIVE from the competing ‘reform’ slate led by Charlotte Rosecrans) certainly drives Dilhouse’s apparent desire to use strongarm tactics to squelch future uprisings among dissatisfied Republicans statewide.
When the ‘cease and desist’ letters were first received, these were initially regarded as a bad joke being played by a leftist forger. But Finnegan/Garcia henchwoman “Mele” Songsong was VERY quick to let the affected county leaders know that the ‘cease and desist’ order was VERY real. And today, the legal threat tactic designed by the supporters of Team Dalhouse to influence the outcome of the state convention appears to be part of a long game to bring county GOP organizations to heel in Hawaii. It was sad to see the RNC so easily manipulated into helping RINOs cheat their way to continued control of our party. Now, it’s sad to see this problem rear its ugly head on today’s agenda.
Now that the conventions and the runoff election are over, Tom Dilhouse wants to prevent any pushback from strong GOP counties by getting them to take down their websites and social media accounts, hence the Team Dalhouse agenda declaring that the “Use of ‘GOP’ by counties is not authorized”. It will be interesting to see if Dalhouse sycophant and new Rules Chair “Silent Mary” Smart will help enforce such a ridiculous assertion . . . especially when hundreds of mainland Republican county organizations utilize “GOP” with their websites and more.
That’s right!!! Hundreds of county level Republican party organizations from coast to coast use the word “GOP” in everything from their website URL to everything else. Crooked Tom Dilhouse is lying. And the hack attorney from the RNC is lying. Are we really supposed to believe that two specific county GOP organizations in Hawaii are forbidden from using the term “GOP” while hundredsof other county parties nationwide are operating just fine and without interference by crooked RINOs??
https://www.williamsoncountygop.org/
https://www.morrisgop.org/
https://www.polkgop.com/
https://johnston.nc.gop/
https://www.geneseegop.org/
https://dcgop.org/
https://www.pimagop.org/
https://www.laplatacountygop.com/
https://slcogop.com/
https://www.lakecountygop.us/
https://www.oldhamcountygop.org/
https://fultongop.org/
https://peoriagop.com/
https://staffordgop.com/
https://gillespiecountygop.org/
https://www.storycountygop.com/
After receiving the cease and desist letter before the state convention, Honolulu GOP county chair Steve Lipscomb wrote a message to Oahu Republicans warning them about the matter: “Nationally, there are hundreds of counties that use “GOP” in their website and social media title and descriptions. Just looking at one state: California you have Sacramento GOP: “SacCountyGOP” Home Page – Sacramento County Republican Party (saccountygop.com); and Orange County: Republican Party of Orange County – Leadership (ocgop.org). I’ve reached out to some other county parties and are awaiting their responses.”
GROUP HUG ALERT: Perhaps this hullabaloo is why new Lipscomb took time off from his divorce proceedings, the rumored sale of his $2 million Waialae Iki house, and the TRO filed by his soon-to-be-ex-wife to lend his support to the corrupt Tom Dilhouse agenda last Thursday (and even supporting Crooked Boyd Ready for rules chairman at a previous meeting). Based on Lipscomb’s suggestion, the committee discussed organizing a “Peace Summit” to involve various GOP groups which aren’t getting along. Apparently, they hope to get these various groups together and somehow convince them that it’s OK to for HRP continue the cheating and corruption and RINO tactics that the party has been engaging in. Such a ‘peace summit’ will surely stop all the fighting for the soul of the decaying Hawaii GOP, won’t it?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE a.k.a. “Numinar Campaign Data Platform Proposal” – Dilhouse is pushing for HRP to pay for an AI-based campaign software service called Numinar. It seems that with nobody at HRP knowing what they are doing in running HRP, and with few leaders and volunteers in HRP actually wanting to do the work of running a state party, Dilhouse wants to spend party funds to employ AI software to tell HRP what it should be doing. Ostrov tried doing that and she ended up firing her entire executive committee during an election year. Just think about the concept of combining RINOs and Artificial Intelligence for a moment and you’ll quickly realize that HRP’s ambitions for the 2024 election are doomed, even before you factor in everything else reported herein.
REPEATEDLY PUSHING THE SELF-DESTRUCT BUTTON: Finally, since the November 2022 election, the Hawaii Republican Party has done absolutely zero voter registration, zero canvassing, zero voter persuasion, or anything else to move the political needle. They’ve been a failure and THEY’VE NOW LOST EIGHT FULL MONTHS of the 24-month election cycle by doing absolutely nothing. Hawaii Democrats do not waste that kind of time because they wanna keep their grip on power and advance their socialist agenda for the islands. At HRP, closet Democrats and RINOs don’t really care about power or our Republican agenda. They’re just a social club of liberals who don’t actually want conservative reforms ever to take place in Hawaii. Get to know these deep state RINOs, their past crimes against Republicans and taxpayers, and get to understand the Culture of Corruption. Only when you know the players can you understand how to take back YOUR party from these closet Democrats and their cronies. Their nefarious agenda is real and it’s scary. Especially if you ever hope that Hawaii gets a GOP majority in your lifetime. All they are doing is continuously helping Democrats to stay in power by destroying our party from within. Auwe!
HIRA News
MASS EXODUS CONTINUES: Hawaii GOP National Committeeman and Top Honolulu GOP Officer Nolan Chang Resigns in Disgust
Honolulu, Hawaii – Just days after HIRA News chief correspondent Kai Lorinc raised critical questions with Hawaii GOP national committeeman and Oahu GOP chairman Nolan Chang, Mr. Chang tendered his resignation effective immediately and shut down the county party organization indefinitely.
Nolan Chang with Laura Nakanelua in 2024 when they were elected national committeeman and national committeewoman respectively at the Hawaii GOP state convention held in Mililani, Oahu
On the heels of state chair Art Hannemann and several other top Hawaii GOP officers who bailed after only a few weeks in office, Nolan Chang jumped ship on his county chair job after less than eight months and simultaneously said ‘goodbye’ to his national committeeman job (a four-year term) after less than 18 months. His top reason? The “sustained pattern of misconduct, mismanagement, and abuse of authority” by the state GOP’s top executive officers and “their close collaborators”. Whoa!!!
Citing some of the very same reasons as Hannemann when he resigned, Chang pointed his finger at the remaining party leaders whose loyalty is primarily to failed former state chair, Shirlene “Big Shirl” Ostrov, who now leads the struggling organization as its ‘interim’ state chair following her campaign to be Hannemann’s second fiddle on “Team Art” back in May at the Hawaii GOP’s most recent state convention. That was before Ostrov stabbed Hannemann in the back and pushed him out the door with the help of her cronies on Oahu and the Big Island.
Just before 7pm Saturday night, November 15th, party insiders and members of the news media were greeted with Chang’s sudden e-mail resignation from both high level party posts.
Chang – who publicly blamed government space lasers for the Maui fires that killed more than 100 people and destroyed homes and businesses two years ago – listed more than a dozen powerful reasons for vacating the top party posts after riding his notoriety into both offices with the support of other tinfoil hatters. His surprisingly sane reasons for quitting are summarized here.
You can read Chang’s entire resignation letter HERE, which is posted on the Oahu GOP county website; a site which the country club establishment RINO wing of the Hawaii GOP has long hoped to force offline as it usually conveyed more conservative sentiments than the very nonthreatening state party website.
Visitors to the Oahu GOP’s official website got to see this page (shown above) which boldly asserts that Chang’s departure renders the work of the Honolulu county party “paused until further notice”. Moreover, both the new web page and an auto-reply email sent by HIRA News to OahuGOP@gmail.com stated that “official county business is on hold”. It also contained the directive that urgent inquiries and urgent matters are now being handled by the state party’s highly compensated ($6,700/month) executive director Ronette “Ola” Souza. Ms. Souza should have time to assist the defunct county party since it’s not known if she’s actually done anything to earn her salary for the past four months; not even updating the party’s own outdated state GOP website which contains names of party officers who have long been gone since the mass exodus began with Art Hannemann’s departure (still listed as state chairman).
With the 2026 general election taking place less than one year from now, it’s unknown if the party can make up for lost time since the 2024 election. Or if party leaders plan to ask the state elections commission for more time to organize, recruit candidates and campaign by pushing the general election back until mid-2027 (if that’s even legal). According to the party’s official budget, nearly $800,000 was supposed to have ALREADY been spent on political advertising since July 1, 2025 through the end of November 2025 in order to soften up Hawaii voters and make them more open to voting Republican. However, absolutely NONE of that money has been spent and is still sitting in the bank (with the exception of funds blown on Ronette Souza’s insane salary to oversee a campaign of nothingness). This means that Hawaii voters only know about what Republicans stand for when they hear it from the mouths of Democrats and their mouthpieces at Hawaii News Now, Civil Beat, and the Honolulu Star-BirdCageLiner. Perhaps that was Team Ostrov’s plan all along, like it was during her previous stints as state chair during the disastrous 2018 and 2020 election campaigns.
After Nolan Chang was backed for the top jobs by BJ Penn’s dubious campaign team Andy Crossland and Lynn Surayan (pictured above and below) over at Surfing 4 Truth – as well as failed Hawaii GOP chair Tamara McKay and other ‘iffy’ endorsers – Chang led an internal campaign in recent weeks which demanded financial transparency, adherence to party rules, and an end to the turf warfare which has plagued the troubled Hawaii chapter of the Republican National Committee for decades.
However, his sad echo of concerns about the Hawaii GOP raised perennially by HIRA News made no impact as a party insider who was regarded by many as a nutjob, possibly because he believes that government space lasers destroyed Lahaina, rather than state and county government incompetence and longstanding Democrat failure to prepare for wildfires. Those who wish to join Nolan Chang on the crazy train can learn from the many YouTube videos showing how to make your very own tin foil hat.
In fact, Chang’s internal campaign for change at the state party appears to have petered out (leading him to prematurely terminate his own unproductive tenure in office); with crooked interim state chair Shirlene Ostrov fully expected to seize a golden opportunity to remake the Hawaii GOP in her image now that Art Hannemann and Nolan Chang and other former top leaders are out of her way thanks to a flurry of resignations reported on by HIRA News. In fact, Ostrov has already begun installing RINO loyalists like Jill “Lani” Stone-Kaaa, Sheila “chief election interference coordinator” Walker, Fenton “Kaulana” Lee, and Boyd “Not-So” Ready. More Ostrov loyalists are expected to be named in the near future so the internal destruction of the party can accelerate with all hands on deck pouring gasoline and lighting matches.
Since the sale of the only existing headquarters for the state party was engineered by Ostrov and former state chair Tamara McKay last year, the now homeless party exists solely as an occasional and highly choreographed Zoom meeting in cyberspace. For all practical purposes, there is no ‘party’ other than an online spreadsheet containing some names and ‘titles’, a Zoom videoconferencing subscription, and several mysterious bank accounts which nobody seems to have answers about.
Rumors are swirling that Chang’s own resignation serves as a signal for even more disaffected party officers to abandon their posts. This rumor seems confirmed by reports that Chang sent his resignation letter to allies (self-described “patriots”) in the party along with instructions on how they too can formally resign their posts as he did. Given the overwhelming number of party posts already held by those on Team Ostrov, you can bank on the Hawaii GOP returning to its roots of being liberal, incompetent, corrupt, and no threat to the Democrat stranglehold on Hawaii. Tamara McKay did a great job during her term as state chair in achieving those four traditional goals of RINOs. But Shirlene Ostrov is expected to be even more masterful in her ‘controlled opposition’ approach to libtard leadership of the state party going forward. While the rats might be jumping off the sinking ship, new rats are needed to help Ostrov ensure the Hawaii GOP reaches the very bottom of the ocean and stays there; right where Democrats want us to be.
Finally, as to those very serious questions from HIRA News put to Nolan Chang – but left decidedly unanswered by him – only a few days before he pulled the plug on his own career at the Hawaii GOP, it appears we may never know more about the sordid tales of how party leaders affiliated with Chang and McKay unlawfully campaigned and raised secret, unreported funds for an illegal noncitizen to run for office in Hawaii in order to assist ‘statehood deniers’ to pursue their anti-American ‘sovereignty’ agenda to separate Hawaii from the USA.
HIRA News’ Kai Lorinc worked to expose illegal fundraising for a noncitizen campaigning to “overthrow the Hawaii Republican Party to aid in overtaking the State of Hawaii for implementation of a Political Kingdom”
Sadly, Shirlene Ostrov did the same thing in 2018, using party resources to assist an illegal noncitizen (who had already voted illegally in Hawaii elections) to run for state house until HIRA worked with state elections authorities to have that illegal candidate hoping to replace corrupt liberal gubernatorial aspirant Andria Tupola in the State House removed from the ballot. Chang’s associates also tried (with some success) to install anti-American activists into party leadership posts across the state in furtherance of their ‘statehood denier’ agenda. Wait until Donald Trump hears about this treachery!
Likewise, as to HIRA’s unanswered questions, we may never uncover the full story about how secret and very NON-TRANSPARENT Signal communications were used by Chang, McKay and other party officers to improperly circumvent Hawaii GOP committees and secretly coordinate ‘actual’ party policies which rivalled the corrupt and nontransparent machinations of past and present party leaders, including Gaudencia “Lynn” Finnegan, Diamond “Still No Wife or Girlfriend” Garcia, and “Big Shirl” Ostrov-Blackburn.
Ultimately, there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the failed ‘leadership’ brought by ‘Surfing 4 Truth’ and the always terrible ‘leadership’ brought by the old guard RINO’s who appear poised to take back 100% of the power in the powerless organization.
In the end, one clear answer that HIRA News did obtain merely by watching all of this unfold is that fake patriots like Nolan Chang never intended to stick around to do the heavy lifting of unseating Democrats and elected Republicans; the work of repealing bad liberal policies and enacting solid conservative reforms. Hawaii is now nowhere closer to realizing a successful Republican movement with wasted year after wasted year spent watching unqualified influencers and political neophytes pretend to have leadership skills and political experience. We are all victims of the Hawaii GOP’s failed experiments with rotten leaders rearranging deck chairs on this sinking ship. Until every last one of these RINOs is gone from leadership of our party, don’t waste a penny of your money or a second of your time if they come asking. From our perspective, every single reason Nolan Chang just gave for quitting is 100% true. With his departure, every single problem he pointed out just became 1,000 times more intractable. Campaign 2026 in Hawaii Nei is nothing more than pure hype now. Going through the motions to put more Kurt Fevella and Kanani Souza types into office is still the plan. Stay tuned for HIRA News’ assessment of the “Republican” candidates being fielded next year. It’s not pretty. And Hawaii Deserves Better.
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HIRA News
EXCLUSIVE: HAWAII GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE FOUND GUILTY ON BOTH COUNTS — Assault of Law Enforcement Officer + Driving Without a License
Honolulu, Hawaii – “Alright Ms. Akana, you will rise for the reading of the jury’s verdict at this time.” With those words, following a three-day trial last week, a jury found 2026 (and 2022) gubernatorial candidate, financial grifter, and rabid statehood denier Kelei Taylor a.k.a. “Kelei Akana” guilty in the 1st degree of the Class C felony of assaulting police officers and guilty of driving without a driver’s license in a traffic stop in Ewa Beach that was deliberately escalated by Taylor into an altercation back on May 5th of this year when she violently resisted arrest while claiming to be a “repatriated citizen” of the nonexistent Hawaiian kingdom – a ‘kingdom’ where she imagines anyone without a license can drive a car with expired tags anywhere they like on kingdom roads and then abuse police officers with the complete blessing of the monarchy.
As a convicted felon whose comical ‘Hawaiian sovereignty defense’ went nowhere, the self-described “Queen of Hawaii” Kelei Taylor now awaits sentencing in February when she could possibly receive the maximum penalty of five years in prison plus a fine of up to $10,000. In addition, she owes the State of Hawaii money for an earlier cancelled jury trial back in August after some of her antics in court didn’t pay off, not to mention restitution to the officer whose arm she bit (seen above in an HPD bodycam video) while she was punching and kicking officers trying to remove the uncooperative Taylor from her husband’s Mercedes with the expired tags. In addition to the cost of medical treatment, the bitten officer had to be tested for HIV and Hepatitis. [Ms. Taylor is fortunate that the woke DEI prosecutor opted to drop the original third criminal charge, which was for resisting arrest.]
Ms. Taylor goes by the alias of “Mrs. Kelei Akana”, alleging that the man who stood by her throughout this legal ordeal is her husband, perennial Hawaii GOP congressional candidate Joe Akana, whose character and judgement the Republican Party repeatedly assured everyone could be trusted. To be sure, top GOP leaders and candidates and elected officials never warned voters that Mr. Akana was harboring dual hatreds for the United States and for law enforcement. But HIRA News has uncovered shocking truths about both Akana’s. For now, know that Mr. Akana is deeply involved in Ms. Taylor’s many problems, including this criminal conviction. But, more about all of that later.
So what REALLY happened that day? The story of that day (and leading up to that fateful day) is quite simple. The Akana’s had been evicted from a rental home in Ewa Beach for nonpayment of rent. While they crashed at his elderly parents’ Maaloa Street home in Nanakuli, Joe’s parents reportedly evicted an allegedly ungrateful Kelei from their house after she called them “pedophiles” (a term which, like her other favorite epithet “traffickers”, Ms. Taylor calls anyone she doesn’t like, despite their having zero involvement in pedophilia or trafficking). Reportedly, Joe Akana was recovering from surgery after Kelei had attacked and injured him during a fight while they were actually in a car driving down the road, possibly even this same Mercedes. After being kicked out of his parents’ Nanakuli house, Ms. Taylor took Joe’s Mercedes and drove to Pu‘uloa Beach Park in Ewa Beach (a.k.a. “Hau Bush”) where she was basically staying the night and living in the car (though she later pretended she was there at this infamous city park to ‘minister’ to victims of trafficking).
The police and prosecution say that Ms. Taylor was sitting behind the wheel in the driver’s seat of a Mercedes in the early morning hours at Hau Bush in Ewa Beach. Police officers on patrol encountered the expired tags on Joe’s car and an unidentified woman sitting in the car (who did not match the gender of the owner). The police radioed and found that the registration and safety stickers for that Mercedes were EXPIRED. Police intervention was guaranteed at this point.
From HPD’s first interaction with her, she was uncooperative; demanding names and badge numbers. When asked why the car’s vehicle tags were expired, Akana replied, “We going through hard times right now.” Police reportedly asked Taylor multiple times for her driver’s license to which she refused (“No!”); instead handing officers a pamphlet claiming that her name was on it, while demanding to see the USA’s “treaty of annexation” for Hawaii. Police again requested she provide her driver’s license or identification card as the name shown on the pamphlet (“Kelei Akana”) was not coming up in their checks as someone with a valid license. According to the City Prosecutor’s office, Akana continued refusing and argued with officers for several minutes, accusing the officers as having participated in human trafficking and for being pedophiles, while also insisting the officers had “no authority” over her and that the police “are a cabal deep state operation” and that she does not need provide identification to the police because she is “not a citizen”.
Akana also proceeded to deny that officers had any right to stop her as she was “traveling”. Yes, traveling. In case you weren’t aware, these ‘sovereign citizen’ nutjobs across the country attempt to differentiate between “driving” and “traveling” in a lame tinfoil hat attempt to circumvent traffic laws. They claim that “driving” refers to commercial activity, while “traveling” is a right provided by the U.S. Constitution. In the grand delusion shared by Mrs. Akana with her crazy compatriots, this distinction without a difference allows them to argue they don’t need licenses, registrations, or insurance when “traveling” in their personal vehicles, since it’s obviously not the same thing as “driving”. Yeah, right.
One of the fake ‘sovereign citizen’ kingdom plates used by many of Kelei Akana’s compatriots in Hawaii’s statehood denier movement of anti-USA extremists
Anyway, each refusal to comply, each refusal to answer questions, each refusal to provide identification, and then blowing them off for 17 long minutes while they ordered and tried to convince her to exit the vehicle was met with more of Ms. Taylor’s sovereignty nonsense and increasing hostility. It’s as if she was daring them to do something. And clearly she was daring them. Why provoke an incident? You’ll understand the likely motive shortly.
With the Taser’s barbed, dart-shaped projectiles still attached to Kelei Taylor, and with wires stretching to the Taser gun, Taylor tearfully yet reluctantly surrenders after the needless yet very deliberate standoff with HPD.
Officers then offered “Kelei Akana” a choice: (1) To provide her license and be cited for the expired safety and registration and exit the undriveable vehicle as it would have to be towed away –or– (2) She would be arrested for driving without a license and for obstruction. Not happy with either option presented by police (or sensing an opportunity to go viral), Ms. Taylor a.k.a. “Mrs. Akana” reportedly escalated her argumentativeness, started the vehicle and attempted to roll up her window. Officers instructed her to exit the vehicle and proceeded to prevent her from rolling up the window. That’s when, prosecutors say, Joe Akana’s wife became combative; ultimately striking one officer when he attempted to reach into the vehicle and secure her hands. Ms. Taylor was ordered multiple times without success to stop resisting. Another officer went around to the passenger side of the vehicle and entered to assist the first officer who was being repeatedly struck and kicked by Joe Akana’s ‘wife’, who then grabbed the first officer’s right forearm arm and bit him for 5-10 painful seconds, refusing to let go. WIth Akana continuing to resist by punching and kicking officers working from both front doors of the Mercedes, they needed to increase the level of force used to detain her, with one officer using strikes to her face and head area; ultimately using a Taser more than once to subdue her. The zaps from the Taser made it possible to grab her arms and finally handcuff the self-employed mother/consultant/minister/politician/grifter.
Excerpt from police report for Kelei Taylor’s arrest on 05 May 2025.
Following her arrest in Ewa Beach, Kelei Taylor was transported to nearby Queen’s hospital where she could begin faking injuries and justifying the need to utilize a sympathy-inducing wheelchair. The jury was a lot less impressed than Taylor’s social media influencer comrades.
Unspoken in the trial was the video on social media of anti-statehood sovereignty activist Regina “Nani” Peterson which went viral just days before Kelei Taylor’s incident. The English-speaking Peterson regularly drives around Oahu without a license and uses fake “Hawaiian Kingdom” license plates and a fake ‘kingdom’ driver’s license; making a political statement rather than paying for vehicle registration fees, safety inspections and auto insurance like the rest of us. In the viral video, the police encounter a highly uncooperative “repatriated citizen” of the kingdom who repeatedly refuses to cooperate because Hawaii is a “fake state”, leading her to taunt them by pretending to only speak Hawaiian and ignore their orders. Ultimately, police smash Peterson’s window in order to open her door so they can rightfully arrest her. This viral video appears to be the source of Kelei Taylor’s inspiration for how she stupidly reacted in Ewa Beach. With Taylor already upset at being kicked out of her “husband’s” parents’ home the night before, why not try to ‘go viral’ like statehood denier and anti-USA role model Regina “Nani” Peterson and become a heroine to the Hawaiian sovereignty community?
Statehood denier and Kelei Taylor role model Regina “Nani” Peterson showing off her fake ‘kingdom’ license plates, fake driver’s license and fake ID card
Or, why not? For those who actually saw the mountain of evidence against Taylor (which included multiple body camera videos), the guilty verdict was not at all surprising. Jurors could be seen rolling their eyes at the nutty defenses both Akana’s tried to give in court, while Judge Kevin Souza worked evenhandedly to rein in Joe and Kelei’s many sad and apparently perjurious attempts at jury nullification. It’s no wonder that a verdict was reached in just 30 minutes. As they say these days, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
But, prior to trial, the Akana’s and their severely misguided social media ‘influencer’ allies did everything they could since the May 5th incident to portray Kelei Taylor’s self-inflicted fate as “attempted murder” and “attempted assassination” by the Honolulu Police Department. Their dramatic fantasy retelling of the Ewa Beach ‘police attack’ story at the Honolulu City Council elicited a profuse apology from braindead, pandering Councilwoman Andria Tupola who recently divorced her husband, widely known to be an HPD officer (though Tupola’s husband’s cover at HPD was publicly blown by Taylor’s friend Shelby “Pikachu” Brown). [Will Tupola now apologize to the police officers and to the community for siding with her Kamehameha Class of 1998 classmate Ms. Taylor and for endorsing her B.S. story? How about some post-verdict apologies from Taylor’s influencer allies who always omitted Ms. Taylor’s horrible behavior in their completely phony retelling of her story?] In their crusade to turn Taylor into a celebrity, you’d even see Taylor, Joe Akana and their statehood denying influencer buddies going to meetings of the Honolulu Police Commission where they whined about the fake state’s unreasonable laws requiring cooperation during a traffic stop, rather than being able to punch, kick and bite police officers while resisting arrest in the name of the kingdom. The Akana’s and their ilk are truly an abomination.
Kelei Taylor testifies at a meeting of the Honolulu Police Commission, with former HPD chief Joe Logan looking on.
Various GOP affiliated groups like Karl Dick’s Kleen House Hawaii, Maui Freedom TV, and others jumped on the Kelei Akana bandwagon in a desperate and reckless attempt to be relevant. Among them, braindead influencer and fellow “statehood denier” Andrew Aker claimed that “Honolulu Police thugs brutally beat and repeatedly tased Kelei Akana“, frequently providing her an online platform for her shameless victimization nonsense. Some loser influencer in a yellow plastic mask (calls himself “Pikachu”) wildly proclaimed online moments before the verdict was announced that “the prosecution cannot prove on the video evidence of her assaulting an officer and committing the bite which the officer complains about . . . there’s no video evidence.” Except there was evidence galore, including video evidence. Sadly, just like Ms. Taylor, this delusional “Pikachu” also claims that the trial was being held in the “Hawaiian Kingdom”, adding the revealing comment “Hopefully, we can find her not guilty.” Yep, there’s definitely one born every minute.
Kelei Taylor with her post-arrest fan club comprised of Shelby Brown, Karl Dicks, Robert Santillan and Joe Akana
In the end, the 12 reasonable jurors weren’t buying what she was selling, even if she gave it away for free. To ensure a fair outcome, the judge made it clear in his jury instructions that Hawaii courts don’t dabble in sovereign citizen, Hawaiian kingdom nonsense. Only U.S. and State of Hawaii law applies in state court. Tell that to Regina “Nani” Peterson and the many other delusional hooligans who play this game on a regular basis while their friends in the news media provide cover for them by NOT reporting their antics or the consequences. Stay tuned for stories exposing recent and ongoing cases mirroring Ms. Taylor’s antics.
For HIRA News, it was truly cringe-inducing to watch Hawaii Republican Party icon Joe Akana lying down on the floor outside the courtroom on Day Two of the trial, apparently in a panic from knowing he and Kelei were being caught in lies and knowing that nobody was buying their bullshit, even after months of peddling said bullshit all over social media with the help of their disgruntled anti-USA allies. To be sure, this is the very same Joe Akana whose character and judgement the Hawaii GOP regularly told us we could trust and who still DENIES losing the last few congressional elections he decisively lost against Jill Tokuda and Kai Kahele. On the bright side, investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were in court to observe the Akana’s and got to see Joe and Kelei perjuring themselves. Why would the SEC be interested in the Akana’s, you may ask? More about that in a shocking story coming soon from HIRA News.
The well-run trial was a model of criminal justice. While the Akana’s tried to turn the entire process from May to October into a circus, everyone else kept their cool and remained focused on whether or not any laws were actually broken. Judge Kevin Souza is a 1988 Kam School graduate (10 years before Taylor and Tupola and six years after Joe Akana) who was endorsed by fellow part-Hawaiians for his “cultural credentials” during his elevation from defense attorney to a $200,000+ per year state judge in 2019. The David Ige judicial nominee been criticized by some as a liberal for several allegedly pro-criminal rulings, but appears capable of finding criminals guilty and sentencing them with just punishments. Typically, left-leaning judges are par for the course in the Hawaii judiciary where Republicans have zero role in putting judges on the bench. According to Judge Souza, HIRA News is the first news organization which he has ever allowed to provide ‘extended news coverage’ in any of his cases. Mahalo for that.
What’s next? Can Kelei Taylor appeal the verdict? No, not successfully. Any grounds for an appeal in this case simply do not exist. She insisted on representing herself. The evidence introduced by the prosecution was very typical. There was no entrapment, no attempted murder, no assassination attempt, and no government conspiracy to silence her. The lawbreaking was proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Hawaii Revised Statutes §707-712.5 makes it crystal clear: “Assault against a law enforcement officer in the first degree. (1) A person commits the offense of assault against a law enforcement officer in the first degree if the person: (a) Intentionally or knowingly causes bodily injury to a law enforcement officer who is engaged in the performance of duty.” Punching, kicking and biting police officers are obviously intentional actions designed to cause bodily injury to those officers. Case closed. As for the ridiculous claim stated by both Joe Akana and Kelei Taylor that Joe dropped off Kelei in his Mercedes and left her alone at the dangerous Hau Bush beach park in Ewa Beach – so, therefore, she wasn’t driving without a license – not even the person who vacuums the courtroom was buying that manufactured alibi. Guilty as charged.
Kelei Taylor and the deputy prosecutor Cherise Braxton-Brooks stand while the verdict is read
Mrs. Akana, a ‘pro se’ defendant who represented herself in court, repeatedly refused to obtain a lawyer or even accept the Judge’s repeated plea for her to be represented by the public defender (which sounds funny since people who made a fortune in cryptocurrency scams and drive Mercedes cars typically retain high powered private attorneys or even notorious self-promoting lawyers like Hawaii News Now talking head Michael Green). In front of HIRA News and the entire courtroom during pretrial hearings, the judge CLEARLY advised Taylor that she could be imprisoned and fined if things don’t go her way. But she, like her husband Joe Akana, believes that Hawaii is a ‘fake state’. So, to keep up appearances as a statehood denier, she had no choice but to go along with the cliche and hackneyed martyrdom act of pretending she is a ‘repatriated Hawaiian National’ (which Kelei told the judge is precisely when she added “Akana” to her name and dropped the “Taylor”). As a result of the statehood denying cosplay, she ignored every chance of negotiating a plea deal with those devils from the corporate entity America Inc. and those fake prosecutors in the fake state court . . . even when facing a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for the felony assault charge and a one year sentence to prison plus a $2,000 fine for the misdemeanor drivers license violation.
Republican politician Joe Akana being sworn in at the trial of his ‘wife’ for assaulting a police officer after being stopped for driving his car with expired tags
Weeks ago, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Akana posted a video on social media in which she said she expected to collect money from the City in a ‘settlement’ resulting from her forthcoming lawsuit concerning this ‘attempted murder’ in which “someone tried to kill me that day”, possibly from the “deep state cabal” who are ‘trying to stop Joe and Kelei from their work as ministers’ . . . or perhaps simply from HPD “targeting of native Hawaiians” in West Oahu. Such paranoid sentiments from someone who repeatedly refused to show an ID or driver’s license and then worried why these police unsurprisingly asked for another form of identification, such as her name, her birth date and her social security number. Paranoid? Or maybe she’s just a world class bullshitter whose luck finally ran out when a jury of her peers voted unanimously to convict her lock, stock and barrel.
Before the judge imposes sentence on convicted felon Kelei Taylor in February 2026 (three short months from now), personnel from the Hawaii Paroling Authority (HPA) will investigate Taylor to help determine the minimum length of her imprisonment and also if she is a good candidate for probation. Based on what they learn about Ms. Taylor and her other crimes which HIRA News will soon report on, the HPA may come to realize that the longer she spends behind bars, the safer we will all be from this violent and unpatriotic grifter . . . not to mention her ‘husband’ Joe Akana, whom the Hawaii GOP and many, many other Republicans repeatedly vouched for. Auwe!
COMING SOON – More Stories HIRA News is working on . . .
- Which political figures violated our trust when vouching for Joe and Kelei Akana?
- Is Akana a grifter running a fake sex trafficking advocacy group?
- Who tried to clog the courts with ‘sovereign citizen’ nonsense and ‘paper terrorism’?
- Who illegally acted like Kelei Akana’s lawyer and hasn’t been prosecuted yet?
- Does the Statehood Denier sovereignty defense work in Hawaii?
- How many lies did Kelei Taylor and Joe Akana tell under oath on the witness stand?
- Did Kelei Akana snap because the Feds are readying charges against her?
- What were Kelei Akana’s craziest defenses and defense strategies?
- Which Hawaiian Sovereignty organizations is Kelei working with?
- Who is breaking financial laws with ‘fake state’ justification and mentality?
- Who from HRP has been advising criminal defendants to use the sovereignty defense?
- Who calls state judges and leaves angry, threatening voicemail messages?
- Which prosecutor let Kelei Akana off lightly due to her woke, liberal philosophy?
- What surprising ways Kelei Akana defines and uses “trafficking”?
- Why were Kelei’s kids taken away from her? Domestic abuse cases?
- Is Kelei Akana part of a network of fake ministers chasing after money?
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HIRA News
BACKSTABBER: Conniving Shirlene Ostrov’s Full-Blown Coup D’Etat to Oust Art Hannemann and Take Over His Job as State Chair
Honolulu, Hawaii – HIRA News just completed an exclusive on-the-record interview with the Hawaii Republican Party’s newly-resigned state chairman Art Hannemann, who has been leading the state party organization since May 2025 and representing Hawaii Republicans at the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Party leaders and members locally and nationally should pay close attention to the revelations about why Hannemann made the difficult decision to step down and to step away from HRP. Big problems lie ahead, now that a leadership coup planned for weeks by Art’s second in command Shirlene Ostrov has been executed in a manner which would make Augusto Pinochet and Muammar Gaddafi proud.
The shocking situation at HRP is a LOT more dire than either Art’s resignation letter or Shirlene’s subsequent ‘statement’ about Art’s resignation reveals. With five resignations of top HRP officers since the May state convention (resignations that were kept secret from other party leaders and from party members), there’s no point in pretending that everything is just fine as we get ready for the 2026 election.
For starters, even though Art’s resignation letter yesterday was pointedly vague about the intrigue and civil war raging inside HRP, it was clear from our interview with him that the #1, #2 and #3 reasons Art Hannemann resigned is because of the backstabbing and conspiring undertaken by his vice-chair Shirlene Ostrov; someone that Art believed in enough to support being his running mate.
As a Trump supporter, Art was impressed by Ostrov being named the head of Hawaii Trump campaign and Hawaii’s delegation to the Republican National Convention. He really believed in her and had no idea he was only being used to help Ostrov regain power. Hannemann was also really shocked that his lifelong friend and comrade Bob McDermott joined forces with Ostrov to stab Art in the back.
Last night, in the wake of Hannemann’s resignation, Ostrov moved quickly to consolidate power by taking over Art’s top job while moving to fill other top jobs that nobody outside of Ostrov’s circle even knew had been vacated. It seems that Ostrov had been scheming for some time to jettison Hannemann, as it recently became clear that Ostrov had only been using Hannemann to get back into the party leadership following her disgraceful exit four years ago in the wake of multiple embarrassing scandals centered around Ostrov. [If you know, you know. If you don’t know, stay tuned.]
Frankly, thanks to the bad taste left in the mouths of so many party members, Ostrov could never have been elected at any state convention since she was forced from the state chair job by one embarrassing revelation after another in news stories following the 2020 elections. One of those scandals resulted in a $60,000 fine to HRP which the broke state party had to rely on the RNC to cover. Another scandal was loony and antisemitic messaging from HRP. More about these and dozens of other Ostrov scandals coming soon.
Art made the mistake of not vetting Ostrov before agreeing to put her on his “Team Art” leadership slate at the May 2025 state convention on Kauai. Somewhat starstruck by her association with the Trump campaign, he assumed she could be trusted and that she wanted the best for HRP. Hannemann found out the hard way that two of his running mates intended for his two-year tenure as state chair to be very brief . . . just enough time to emerge from his shadow and quickly take over. Ostrov was one of those running mates. The other is Hannemann’s lifelong friend and political ally Bob McDermott.
And quickly take over they have. Based on our reporting and our interview with Art, during a secret emergency meeting of HRP’s few remaining executive officers called together by Ostrov last night, HIRA News can report that Art Hannemann was replaced by Shirlene Ostrov as state chair. Moments later during this same meeting, Ostrov moved quickly to consolidate power with loyalists . . . operatives who are as corrupt, liberal and incompetent as she is . . . but most importantly – LOYAL TO OSTROV.
Dennis Mataia resigned and was replaced as treasurer by former Democrat staffer Lani Kaaa (a wannabe political operative with a long losing streak who herself fell short back in March when running for Honolulu GOP county chair, despite VIP endorsements galore). Susan Duffy resigned and was replaced as vice-chair of coalitions by election cheating and interference specialist Sheila Walker. Steve Yoder resigned (another specialist in cheating and election interference) and was replaced as vice-chair of communications by Ostrov loyalist Fenton “Kaulana” Lee. Ostrov loyalist Boyd Ready resigned (apparently as a pretext to accuse Hannemann of wrongdoing) and was reappointed as chairman of HRP’s powerful Rules Committee by Ostrov, who knows she can count on Ready to do her bidding.
One way that Boyd Ready proved himself to Ostrov was by helping to create a brand new “Disciplinary Committee” for dealing with alleged party ‘rulebreakers’. Ostrov herself ensured just one month ago that Art Hannemann, her running mate at the state HRP convention just weeks earlier, would be referred to that committee to stand trial for accusations made by supporters of Art’s predecessor Tamara McKay, whom Art bested at the state convention and unseated. Normally, Ostrov wouldn’t care about complaints levied by opponents of “Team Art”, especially the likes of Honolulu GOP county chairman Nolan Chang or Maui GOP county chair Tammy Perkins. But at a special secret meeting a few weeks ago (to which then state chair Hannemann wasn’t even invited to), Ostrov pushed for the new disciplinary committee to fast track an investigation into some pretty questionable allegations against Hannemann and to set the stage for putting Hannemann on trial.
Here’s where our interview with Art and the timeline of events gets interesting . . .
Days before this secret meeting last month to lay the groundwork for ousting Hannemann, Art had caught wind that Ostrov and McDermott were actively plotting against him (including lying about Art and his alleged misdeeds to influence and recruit other party leaders to join their coup) and learned they had only used him as ‘top of the ticket’ on the ‘Team Art’ leadership slate so they could get into power at HRP. Once Art understood what they were up to, he asked them both to resign their executive officer posts at HRP; a bold move which Hannemann now knows forced their hand and caused them to dig deeper and expedite their plans.
Little did Art know how much work these two had already done to set in motion the campaign to eliminate Art Hannemann as state chair. With his insistence that they step aside, they moved even faster to tighten the noose. Days later, in early October, Ostrov (possibly the most corrupt state chair HRP has ever endured) had secured enough votes on HRP’s executive committee to launch her nuclear option: approve her motion to file a set of charges with the new Disciplinary Committee and obtain expedited handling of the ‘case’ to ratchet up the pressure on Hannemann . . . because she ‘cares’ so much about integrity, transparency, and obedience to party rules that she was willing to sacrifice the leader of “Team Art” to maintain the illusion that her opportunistic power grab was actually about ‘doing the right thing’ because “Art declared he would never follow the rules”. Hannemann tells HIRA News this fake quote was peddled by Ostrov to secure the votes to put him on trial.
With lightning speed, the new ‘disciplinary committee’ made recommendations that Art’s power be taken away while he is put on trial to answer for the allegations made by a Hannemann opposing dissident faction of HRP, which is usually ignored by party insiders like Ostrov, McDermott and their allies, such as Big Island county chair Monique Perreira. Suddenly, Team Ostrov was ratcheting up the pressure on Art to resign; demanding a special meeting to present Art with the charges against him. This is when Art saw the writing on the wall and probably wished he had learned more about Shirlene Ostrov before agreeing to allow her to be his running mate.
Some background about that slate: Hannemann started promoting his interest in running for state chair after the November 2024 General Election. As he put the “Team Art” slate together, he told his running mates that he was busy launching a new business in Samoa, so he’d not be able to attend every single meeting of party leaders. Ostrov did indeed lead many if not most party meetings held since May. But Hannemann did actively organize and fund trips to the neighbor islands, where he and Bob McDermott provided training of grassroots volunteers for canvassing.
As a former candidate for office himself, Hannemann knew that anyone willing to run as a Republican in Hawaii needed party members living in those precincts and districts to do the door-to-door organizing which helped candidates to increase their chances of success. His highest priority was organizing the party and partnering with like-minded organizations (such as Turning Point) for canvassing and identifying issues, to make it easier for candidates to succeed in hopes of getting as many as a dozen new Republicans elected in 2026. Developing this network cost Hannemann personal money to fly himself and McDermott for these party-building initiatives.
But, in the wake of all the subterfuge and backstabbing, Art has now left the building. Having donated $5,000 to HRP plus making recurring contributions of $250 per month, he has no plans to go near the Hawaii GOP again. He remains a Republican and a conservative and an activist. But Shirlene Ostrov and Bob McDermott revealed their true colors and he feels very, very betrayed and disappointed. And it’s clear that if they have the support from other party leaders to behave this abominably, they can’t expect Art Hannemann or others objecting to such chicanery to stick around. Art told HIRA News today that he doesn’t want to hurt the party, since so much is at stake in Hawaii and across the country. But he is pulling out of HRP altogether.
Sickened at being used to help Ostrov and McDermott gain power and positions – and sickened at being ruthlessly tossed aside – Art looks back and realizes that he didn’t know what kind of person Ostrov really was until it was too late. He tells us that he was warned repeatedly to not talk with HIRA News and to keep his distance from anyone at HIRA. Our team would have happily warned him about Ostrov AND about his ‘lifelong friend’ McDermott, as both are insanely corrupt, self-serving and unprincipled; perfectly capable of backstabbing and turning on a dime. As they say in politics, once you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made. And Art Hannemann put his faith in two faithless cretins who are among the biggest fakes in HRP.
OBVIOUSLY A COUP, IN RETROSPECT: When Ostrov unveiled the brand new ‘disciplinary committee’ and then worked to move her case against Art ahead of several other existing cases just last month, that was a red flag that her coup to force out Art Hannemann was gaining steam. When the state chair didn’t even get invited to that secret meeting of Art’s own running mates turned executive officers, that was just more evidence of the advance planning to jettison Hannemann, just days after Art found out what Big Shirl and Bob McDonut were up to. Resignations were kept secret and Ostrov secretly got new people lined up to take their places at last night’s secret emergency meeting. Then, last night, when Ostrov and her cronies already had people selected to fill vacant spots that nobody else knew were even vacant, that was the icing on the cake. Ostrov planned to take over the party all along, and Art was essentially just a disguise she wore to keep the attention off her past. Heck, Ostrov didn’t even attend the state convention. What a better way to keep a low profile and to keep tongues from wagging about her sordid history and downfall as state chair in 2020 than to pretend you have a wedding or a funeral to attend and “can’t make the convention”.
While Hannemann feels betrayed by Ostrov and his lifelong friend Bob McDonut and their flunkies, he’s never been told about any charges against him or about any ‘trial’ until he heard it from HIRA News today. It seems that the threatened ‘trial’ and ‘charges’ against Hannemann are likely a ruse concocted to force Hannemann to quit. Now that he’s gone, the ruse is being kept alive just a bit longer to keep Ostrov’s cabal united behind their coup and its manufactured rationale to elevate Ostrov to the top spot. With Hannemann saying that he didn’t handle any finances at all, rumors spreading about financial impropriety are also ‘more lies’. But all of this intrigue happened out of the view of party members, party donors and party volunteers who are rightfully ashamed at the sad state of affairs at HRP, while Republicans nationally are making real progress.
Finally, it comes as no surprise that Art’s resignation letter endorsed someone OTHER than backstabbing Ostrov to take his place, recommending HRP national committeewoman Laura Nakanelua. Likewise, with Hannemann’s former best friend Bob McDermott challenging state senator Kurt Fevella in next year’s Republican Primary, it’s no surprise that (in the midst of being pushed out by Ostrov and McDermott) Hannemann threw his support to Fevella. Nakanelua tells HIRA News that she’s not interested in seeking the top job. But sources at last night’s meeting seem certain that Nakanelua isn’t looking forward to seeing Crooked “Big Shirl” Ostrov take Hannemann’s place.
FRIENDLY WARNING: Looking at the individuals who NOW comprise the top leadership of HRP in the wake of this coup, there can be no doubt that financial scandals, political mistakes, leftward ideological drift, and plain old corruption are right around the corner. Art belatedly learned a valuable lesson about getting to know the players before going on the field with them. Don’t be starstruck because Ostrov got to head up the Trump delegation from Hawaii. Don’t assume that she is conservative, competent, experienced or full of integrity. She’s none of those things. The hard lesson learned by Art is just as valuable a lesson for ALL REPUBLICANS here in Hawaii. Get to know the folks in control of HRP. The more you know about them, the sooner you’ll understand why Democrats keep winning. Auwe!
Bottom Line: Hannemann left because of Shirlene Ostrov’s self-serving and destructive agenda. Don’t make the same fatal assumption that Ostrov knows what she’s doing or that she can be trusted. Stay tuned for HIRA News’ upcoming story with Top 25 reasons Ostrov is toxic to HRP. Nobody with her sorry record should be anywhere near the Hawaii GOP, let alone running the party.
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MASS EXODUS CONTINUES: Hawaii GOP National Committeeman and Top Honolulu GOP Officer Nolan Chang Resigns in Disgust
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BACKSTABBER: Conniving Shirlene Ostrov’s Full-Blown Coup D’Etat to Oust Art Hannemann and Take Over His Job as State Chair
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