HIRA News
REPUBLICAN MELTDOWN IN PARADISE: Hawaii GOP Weaknesses Exposed in the 2024 Primary Election

Other than liberal Scott Saiki, the speaker of Hawaii’s Democrat state house, losing to a radical socialist transvestite who declared war on his/her own party (which has controlled the Aloha State for 70 long years), there were no real nail biting races to watch this past Saturday night. “I wasn’t just campaigning against him. I was campaigning against the entire Democratic establishment,” victorious Kim Coco Iwamoto told Hawaii News Now. Saiki was endorsed by nearly every single Democrat heavy-hitter from Josh Green on down (even the supposedly apolitical and nonpartisan prosecutor Steve Alm) and still lost. It’s too bad that the Hawaii GOP didn’t bother to campaign against that same Democrat establishment. Too bad indeed.
The BIG lesson of the 2024 Primary? There was ABSOLUTELY ZERO excitement for Republican candidates among island voters. The proof is in the numbers. With a mixture of intent and inaction, the Hawaii GOP did NOTHING to generate any excitement. If the party had just one job, it would be making it harder for Democrats to get elected and easier for Republicans. That’s the job. It’s that simple. But no dice. FOUR TIMES as many voters chose to vote as Democrats rather than Republicans (200,000 to 50,000). That’s a trend which only the most delusional meth smoking election deniers could expect to swing the other direction once General Election voting starts in just a few short weeks. In other words, Democrat politicians, policies and special interest groups will completely control Hawaii for the next two years and face no opposition from the GOP. Period.
The meltdown of the weakest state GOP in the country can be witnessed in so many races. For starters, one of the biggest losses showcases how the Republican Caucus in the State House failed miserably in ‘primarying’ one of its own members. The top race in all of 2024 (according to the handful of ‘active’ Republicans) pitted RINO’s Diamond Garcia, Elijah Pierick, Lauren Cheape, David Alcos and Gene Ward against their GOP colleague Kristen “Kanani” Souza who regards that quintet as a cult. Plucked from obscurity was somebody named Sheila Medeiros to run against Souza. It was unmistakably the cause of the century inside the tiny circle of GOP influencers to replace Souza with Medeiros. Forget about ousting Democrats. Forget about increasing the numbers of Republicans in elected office. Nope, Souza had to go and the RINOs would be bringing their A game to change the composition of their caucus. Well, after going ‘all in’, the final tally was incumbent Souza 1,100 to challenger Medeiros 800. C’mon RINO blowhards. If they can’t even deliver their own handpicked challenger across the finish line, it’s no wonder they get no legislation passed and typically vote just like Democrats. They are as worthless a political force as a legislative force. It’s also no wonder why Democrats didn’t even bother to run for the office, just like no Democrats bother to run against Gene Ward. Why bother? The result is the same. So, Kristen “Kanani” Souza is automatically back in for another two years. Game over. Pathetic. Exhibit #1.
Here’s another example of a meltdown. Mazie Hirono received more than SIX TIMES the number of votes cast than her GOP opponent, Bob McDermott. And why not? Penniless non-campaigning RINO Bob McDermott and the silent Hawaii GOP did nothing to explain why Hirono is so dangerous to the livelihoods and futures of these voters. NOTHING. And among the tiny cadre of Republicans who voted in the primary, McDermott received virtually the same number of votes as his five unknown GOP opponents. McDermott bailed on his reasonably safe seat in the State House; handing his Ewa Beach office over to Democrat Rose Martinez, now running for her second term since Bob decided in 2022 to bail on his state house colleagues to run against Mazie Hirono’s colleague Brian Schatz for a U.S. Senate seat. Not surprisingly, McDermott lost to Schatz by a 3-to-1 margin. You can already imagine the blowout in this year’s general election against Mazie. Remember, it doesn’t matter if YOU know that Hirono is horrible. What matters is that virtually nobody else knows this, because they aren’t being told or shown by the silent Hawaii GOP and Mr. Zero Fundraising McDermott.

Keep in mind, neither the presidency nor the governorship were being voted on in Hawaii’s Primary. So you can’t say that local voters were inspired to heavily vote Democrat by Kamala Harris or Josh Green being on the ballot. Nope. The top partisan races saw Mazie Hirono, Ed Case and Jill Tokuda completely escape any scrutiny from the Hawaii GOP’s nonexistent communications effort and nonexistent ground game. Likewise, the Democrat controlled state legislature and county councils and mayorships received ZERO attention from the state and county GOP organizations. If you thought party leaders had been working feverishly since the last election to degrade the “D” brand in Hawaii, you were sorely mistaken.
Comparing the statewide results with the combined results of the two unknown Republicans running for Congress in Hawaii’s 1st and 2nd Districts, professional politician McDermott received a measly 27,815 while Patrick Largey and Steve Bond together received 36,783 votes . . . 9,000 more than McDermott, whose race saw nearly 5,000 blank ballots
Another 2022 statewide GOP candidate has flamed out. Despite being perennial wannabe governor Duke Aiona’s running mate just two years ago, Junior Tupai came in a distant fourth place in the much smaller 2024 race for Big Island mayor. Getting just 11% of the votes cast, Tupai (last reported to be living at home with his mommy) trailed the top tier candidates and only bested three minor candidates who seemingly didn’t campaign at all. If you believe GOP leaders on the Big Island such as Holly Osborn, 4th place finisher Junior Tupai (the one-time common law affidavit salesman during the Covid pandemic) actually won the mayoral contest, but Democrats rigged the election…
Even Sheila Walker, who thought she was capable to be the state chair for the Hawaii GOP, was barely able to consolidate the tiny Republican vote behind her, with more than 500 leaving the ballot blank in her race to her less than 1,500 votes received. Needless to say, the Democrat Angus McKelvey received roughly 4,400 votes – more than TRIPLE the votes cast for Walker. This is a sign to the nondelusional among Walker’s donors and volunteers that she isn’t really mounting a serious campaign and that the Hawaii GOP isn’t really trying to unseat McKelvey. In mainland states where Republicans have their act together (even ‘blue’ states), you simply DO NOT SEE margins of victory and defeat this MASSIVE.
Waianae Cost Republican Teri Savaiinaea lost bigly to GOP rival and angry ethnic justice warrior Samantha Decorte, notwithstanding the fact that Savaiinaea is a high-ranking officer with the Hawaii GOP. Ironically, she serves as vice chair for candidate recruitment and training, which apparently didn’t pay off for the party insider. But, even if you add their votes together, they barely got more votes than either of the two Democrats in that hotly contested race. With a Hawaii Democrat Party which historically takes post-Primary ‘unity’ seriously in order to keep Republicans from winning, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the GOP could push RINO Decorte across the finish line.
Incumbent GOP state senator Brenton Awa – whose downright un-American and highly vocal opposition to ‘transplant’ Americans moving from any other state to the State of Hawaii – got only a fraction of the votes in his Windward Oahu district than his two Democrat rivals. It was another case of 3 Democrat voters for every 1 Republican voter. Fired KITV news anchor Brenton Awa appears destined for the one-term and out dustbin of former politicians. Again, where was the Hawaii GOP??
Speaking of one-term politicians, even the Hawaii Trump campaign was unable to help former Andria Tupola staffer and Hawaii Trump campaign honcho Braedon Wilkerson’s girlfriend and client and campaign donor Natalia Hussey-Burdick You remember this far-left nutjob, don’t you? She’s the one who tattled on her fellow Democrats and blew the whistle to HPD that her colleagues at the State Capitol were holding booze-fueled parties INSIDE the building, in hopes that they’d be arrested for DUI (presumably as political payback for not supporting her bill relating to the legality of using midwives for delivering babies). Well, it didn’t take Democrats long to find some willing candidate to ‘primary’ Ms. Hussey-Burdick, who was outspent by a small fortune by the upstart Mike Lee and his generous benefactors. The Republican who’ll be facing Mr. Lee in the General Election, poor unknown Tim Connelly, only received 1,000 votes to the combined 6,000 Democrat votes on Saturday. Clearly, the Hawaii GOP was just as useless in 2024 as it was when it let its 2022 candidate Kathy Thurston lose to Ms. Hussey-Burdick by 3,000 votes. Needless to say, after such piss poor treatment, Ms. Thurston decided not to run again.
The Honolulu mayor’s race was a total disgrace, with Kirk Caldwell clone and fellow Democrat Rick Blangiardi facing no serious GOP opposition when high taxes, massive debt, rising crime, endless pay raises, pay-to-play kickbacks and an endless housing crisis SHOULD have been major issues. On Hawaii News Now, Hawaii’s Democrat governor Josh Green let the cat out of the bag when he said into the camera: “Congratulations, Rick. You are a superstar and I just love you. And I voted for you, man.” That’s when HNN anchors nauseatingly referred to the ‘bromance’ between Green and Blangiardi. Where was the Hawaii GOP? Nowhere, as usual. But state chair Tamara McKay’s cheerleaders used their social media accounts to continue singing her praises, as if oblivious to the fast-moving political calendar and the total meltdown at Republican HQ.
Even the Hawaii GOP’s national committeewoman (and interim state chair) Laura Nakanelua appeared powerless to help her husband do any better than a distant third place in a race for the Windward Oahu seat on the Honolulu City Council. Incumbent Democrat Esther Kiaaina got more than TRIPLE the votes of Kelsey Nakanelua. You might recall how Kiaaina joined with Fake Republican Val Okimoto in supporting a 64% pay raise for politicians at Honolulu Hale, which saw Kiaaina’s nearly $70,000 City salary explode to $113,000. Voters simply needed the Hawaii GOP and a strong candidate to explain how politicians like Kiaaina are sodomizing their standard of living in order to enrich special interest groups. But, alas, top Republican leaders have zero intention of persuading voters they are being ripped off since these same party leaders are mostly liberals, incompetents, and malcontents who obsess over party titles and perks rather than the important work of unseating destructive Democrat politicians who’ve steered the way to a $1,150,000 median housing pricetag and multigenerational households each with 10 cars parked on the street (including the spare room renters) becoming the norm. Now, Kiaaina is on her way to getting another four years at city hall after the November general election. Way to go, Hawaii GOP!!
With high profile 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate BJ Penn coming in a distant 3rd in a three-way race for county council on the Big Island with a dismal 16% of the total vote in the nonpartisan 2024 race, you can already hear the gang from Surfing 4 Truth, Audit the Vote, Klean House Hawaii and Maui Freedom TV screaming about a rigged election. But the sad reality is that Penn’s platform – that the #1 issue facing Hawaii is “election integrity” and NOT the cost of living – is cringe-inducing tinfoil hat blather which has ZERO relevance to long-suffering Hawaii residents to whom the Hawaii GOP fails and fails and fails to make its case to. In Penn’s own words (click link to watch video), “Cost of living, although how bad it is and how terrible it is, it is NOT the #1 problem in Hawaii. The #1 problem in Hawaii are these hidden and fake elections where we don’t know who is voting This is the #1 problem in Hawaii.”
Yes, even perennial Hawaii GOP candidate Joe Akana experienced a similar meltdown when asked in 2020 (click photo to watch the video) why he lost to Kai Kahele for a congressional seat.
REPORTER: “Do you think the election was stolen and you should be congressman right now?”
JOE AKANA: “Yes, I do. I’d be remiss if I said I didn’t.
Crazy Joe lost to Kahele in 2020 by a 2-to-1 margin and then lost in 2022 to Jill Tokuda by the same 2-to-1 margin. Believing in this election denier garbage while knowing that the Hawaii GOP is worthless and weak is enough to cause a brain to explode . . . which is probably why we haven’t heard from Joe Akana for some time.
If you are a Hawaii voter who is barely making ends meet, then you’ll probably vote for a candidate who (even if lying) says things that really matter and (even if lying) promises to make things better. Even Donald Trump, who last month saw the value of simplifying the GOP’s national messaging with a concise platform, didn’t think to make ‘election integrity’ his top agenda item in 2024. But the Hawaii GOP is controlled by nutty election denier types who have conned candidates like BJ Penn and too many others into believing the only thing keeping them from winning is a fair counting of the ballots. Sadly, local ‘influencers’ Surfing 4 Truth has already declared in the wake of Primary 2024 that island voters don’t bother voting because they don’t have confidence in mail-in voting. Sorry, but experienced political operatives and marketers know that island voters don’t bother voting because the choices don’t excite them enough to bother voting.
The Hawaii GOP and its officers and its candidates bear 100% of the responsibility for the lowest voter turnout in state history in the 2024 Primary. When nutjobs like Corinne Solomon of ‘Audit the Vote Hawaii’ (and a 2024 candidate for State House in East Honolulu) embrace the delusion that Donald Trump might have WON the 2020 election here in Hawaii despite GOP presidential candidates typically losing by 2-to-1 margins, you have a recipe for political disaster. The disaster? Nobody at the Hawaii GOP does their jobs and candidates become complacent and the local news media gets to sit back and watch the resulting Republican crash and burn in 2024.
Saturday’s Primary was merely a harbinger of bad things to come. Stay tuned for an exclusive HIRA News report on the massive and deliberate failure by the Hawaii Republican Party to make any political inroads in 2024. It’s a story of political malpractice on steroids. Let’s just call it what it really is: a shitshow. HAWAII’S REPUBLICANS ARE LETTING DEMOCRATS WIN. IT’S THAT SIMPLE.
The General Election is less than three months away. And, STILL, no voters have been told by the Hawaii Republican Party and its statewide operation that Democrats suck and why they suck. No ‘red wave’ will be reaching Hawaii, like we keep being told by moronic local influencers. No case has been made to voters. No coordinated campaign. No ground game. No coalitions. No messaging. No nothing at all. The GOP ship is going down while Captain Tamara McKay and her pathetic crew allow Hawaii residents to drown instead of trying to save them. So much for completely broken promises of “strong leadership” and “the right experience.” Old Guard RINO’s are poised to retake the party in 2025 after this debacle. Auwe!
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HIRA News
HANNEMANN’S SIX EXECUTIONERS: Mufi’s Cousin Art Prepares to Conduct Trials and Purges
Honolulu, Hawaii – More details are emerging about how the new leaders of Hawaii’s distant second place political party intend to seek retribution on perceived internal enemies at the now homeless party which only meets via Zoom meetings since losing its longtime headquarters a year ago. Yes, a circular firing squad is how the tiny organization’s donor dollars and precious campaign time are being spent.
As HIRA News just reported on Monday, the Hawaii GOP’s state chair Art Hannemann (Mufi’s cousin) is pushing forward with a plan to launch a “Disciplinary Committee” to conduct actual trials of party officers and party members who are not to the liking of the old guard establishment which recently retook control of the party after nearly two years in the wilderness.
Even though no such committee exists anywhere in the party’s rules and hasn’t for the party’s hundred twenty-five year history in Hawaii – since the state GOP was established in the year 1900 – that simple fact hasn’t stopped Mufi’s cousin or his eager and starstruck enabler Boyd Ready from plucking six easily manipulated people from relative obscurity so they can sit in judgement over fellow party members that Hannemann has explicitly told a state judge he is coming after to obtain justice for convicted felon Christina Everett and her increasingly widely disseminated criminal record for smuggling many tons of illegal aerial fireworks into Hawaii, reportedly in a criminal conspiracy with Art’s cousin Mufi Hannemann according to Ms. Everett herself.
While such news probably helps Democrats to sleep even better at night here in the islands, the very first meeting is being held TONIGHT according to our source.
We are sworn to secrecy. But our source says it’s one of the six Disciplinary Committee members that was overheard discussing their new role in the party with glee, who are in no particular order:
NEW HAWAII GOP DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE
a.k.a. “The Six Executioners”
Sylvie Madison
Larie Manutai
Rich Harper
Scott Smart
Dalene McCormick
Steve Bond
Art Hannemann flunkie Boyd Ready will be on hand to tell them what to do, what to think, and how to vote. Most importantly, Mr. Ready will help select the targets for Hannemann’s purge. As we’ve previously reported, immediate past state chair Tamara McKay and her supporters are at the top of the list for removal or, as they like to say, “discipline”.
Mind you, this party which you’d expect would spend some time between elections putting Josh Green, Mazie Hirono, Brian Schatz, Jill Tokuda, Ed Case and other Democrats on trial so that the public might make different choices when their ballots arrive in the mail. However, ousting Democrats is NOT the priority. As time gets closer to the 2026 election, ousting Republicans IS what truly matters to Mufi’s cousin.
This move comes after Art Hannemann and three others were publicly censured in recent months; with those censures still posted on the official website for the Honolulu County GOP: http://www.OahuGOP.com. Art and his enforcers have been trying to get those censures taken down ever since they went up on that county website. But it looks like they’ll need to sick the Disciplinary Committee on Oahu county chairman Nolan Chang and purge him from the party in order to sanitize the website and maybe replace those censures with a prominent “Nolan Chang is no longer associated with the Hawaii GOP” message for all to read.
Needless to say, what is the true purpose of a political party but an audition for the public to see how its members would run the government if given the chance. Putting enemies on trial is probably not what island voters crave in their politicians with so many very real problems. And Hawaii voters probably won’t be impressed by GOP priorities in Hawaii while the cost of living continues to spiral out of control and politicians care more about posting selfies on social media than about delivering real victories for struggling taxpayers.
Ultimately, after only three months in control of the Hawaii GOP, you can clearly see the REAL priorities of Art Hannemann’s new regime as they explicitly promised to have advertising running for the past two months and spend $1 Million between now and the end of 2025 turning the Hawaii GOP into a political juggernaut which raised $2 Million during the same six month period. But, instead they totally lied. There’s no advertising. There’s no case being made for better leadership and real solutions vis-a-vis the Democrat supermajority. There’s no ‘unity’ in the party. Instead, we just see lots of time spent infighting and now purging. Helping to pervert priorities, GOP politicians like Lauren Matsumoto, Diamond Garcia, Garner Shimizu, and Samantha DeCorte attend party meetings and blindly vote in support of Hannemann’s every move.
Fortunately, this party is leaky, so we have information to share. Unfortunately, the party is also sinking, so it’s just more bad news all around. There’s still a $750,000 lawsuit against the party by the convicted felon mentioned earlier. And Hannemann did promise the judge in an unsolicited communication that the new Hawaii GOP would discipline those responsible for discussing that plaintiff’s criminal record.
The BIG QUESTION arising from this sudden interest in ‘justice’ is this: If this party knows that Robert’s Rules of Order calls for hearings and trials to take place whenever the membership of a party member is on the line, where was any committee before under some of these same recycled party leaders? Heck, Art’s right hand thug Shirlene Ostrov ran over justice repeatedly during her two terms as state chair before she resigned over allegations of anti-Semitism (and her embrace of Capitol rioter Nick Ochs). AND NOW SHE’S BACK — HANDPICKED BY HANNEMANN. Ostrov was directly involved in two money laundering scandals with party funds. She even fired her own executive committee for not going along with her insane agenda; later bringing them back into the fold when it was too late to prevent the 2018 election disaster. And Ostrov unilaterally banned the party from protesting failed Democrat policies while using her position as state chair to support liberal politicians and even an illegal noncitizen for state office.
Will the Discipline Committee start with Ostrov? Probably not. But the selective enforcement and selective use of a ‘just process’ casts doubt on any possible good reason for what Hannemann, Boyd Ready and the Six Executioners are planning to do in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Auwe!
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HIRA News
NEW LEADER TRASHES PREDECESSOR: New GOP Honcho Tells Judge ‘Throw the Book at Ousted Officers’
Honolulu, Hawaii – In a devastating development for immediate past GOP state chair Tamara McKay, past vice chair Sheryl Bieler and other defendants being sued along with the Hawaii GOP organization by 2026 Republican candidate Christina Everett for defamation, tortious interference and conspiracy back in May 2025, McKay’s successor Art Hannemann (a.k.a. ‘Mufi’s cousin’) has filed a highly damaging letter with circuit court Judge Steven Nichols accusing the defendants of being 100% responsible for committing each of the misdeeds that McKay and associates – including current Honolulu GOP chair Nolan Chang – are accused of in the civil complaint. In fact, Hannemann charges these former party officers including McKay and former vice chair Teri Savaiinaea and current district chair “Bingo” with doing far more harm to Ms. Everett and to the party than the plaintiff herself originally charged in her lawsuit.
As the highest ranking Republican Party officer in Hawaii, Hannemann told the judge in no uncertain terms: “The body of officers who represent the Hawaii Republican Party presently are appalled at the unprofessional, abusive and dismissive interactions by the former Party officers,” while refusing to deny that McKay, Bieler, Chang, “Bingo”, and Savaiinaea committed “the alleged acts of defamation, tortious interference and civil conspiracy alleged in this complaint.” Moreover, though the Hawaii GOP is presently a co-defendant in the $750,000 lawsuit, Hannemann appears to acknowledge that the named defendants engaged in “Defamation & Character Assassination, Neglect of Duty and Political Retaliation, and Failure of Leadership Response.”
Hannemann’s Letter to State Judge
This is where non-lawyer Art Hannemann significantly expands on Everett’s more narrow lawsuit – a complaint which provided hundreds of pages of evidence to support her charges but didn’t actually connect the dots to show how the defendants allegedly manipulated processes to deny Everett from participating in the recent state convention at which new party officers were elected three months ago, such as Hannemann ousting defendant Tamara McKay for the top spot. Hannemann’s court filing unmistakably referred to that manipulation as “conspiratorial gridlock at the highest level of our local party leadership at the time,” an allegation which takes Everett’s case well beyond the defamation issue. Indeed, should Everett file an amended complaint which incorporates the same arguments levelled by Hannemann concerning the alleged rigging of the state convention through manipulating Everett (and presumably others), the defendants might be less confident that her lawsuit as presently constituted will be thrown out. Perhaps this letter was meant by Hannemann as a stalling tactic for the court’s deliberations on Everett v HRP as well as a signal from Hannemann to Everett to file a stronger and more comprehensive lawsuit to go with the hundreds of pages of documentary evidence already provided to the judge which illustrate far more questionable activity by the defendants than mere defamation.
The Lawsuit That Started It All: Everett v. HRP (2025)
In any event, with HRP formally taking the position that past party officers named in the civil suit are all guilty of everything Everett is claiming – including the alleged election interference leading up to and including the state convention which appeared to incite the alleged defamation –- it’s entirely possible that Hannemann’s declarations could have two outcomes which put the defendants at greater risk. First, Everett’s case stands a better chance of succeeding in court than before. Second, the alleged wrongdoing could lead to the ouster of these same defendants from their currently held positions in the party as well as the termination of their party membership should the allegations documented by Everett be used in internal disciplinary processes being put in place by Hannemann and his loyalists.
Could this happen? DEFINITELY. In his letter to Judge Nichols, Hannemann tries hard to impress the judge with a ‘breaking news story from inside the party’ which makes no bones about HRP itself acting on the specifics of Everett’s complaints about McKay and the other defendants – problems previously dismissed and ignored by those party officers – to help Everett get justice from the party. Mufi’s cousin Art writes: “In reality, the new HRP leadership has moved quickly to establish a new Discipline Committee (with 6 members already appointed and ready to strike), whose charge it will be to address matters just like this case, beginning with the formal complaint filed internally by the Plaintiff on May 23, 2025 . . . (T)he actions taken by the HRP’s new leadership very intentionally create a pathway for the due process that was denied the Plaintiff back in late May.” In other words, both the state court and the state party should punish these defendants.
THE PURGE BEGINS: One of the defendants who might be in trouble with Hannemann’s new “Discipline Committee” is high-ranking party officer Nolan Chang who holds two top posts simultaneously; as chairman of the Honolulu county GOP as well as national committeeman for the state GOP, one of two representatives of Hawaii Republicans on the Republican National Committee. Chang’s counterpart is national committeewoman Laura Nakanelua, whom Hanneman claims has been persisting in “holding leadership accountable” by utilizing “her connection to the Republican National Committee to seek guidance on behalf of the Plaintiff” after suffering from actions which Nakanelua deems to be “not acceptable.” From what HIRA News has learned, there is no love lost between Chang and Nakanelua, both of whom were elected to their current four-year terms on the RNC in 2024.
Notably, Hannemann cites HIRA News’ investigation and reporting of this lawsuit as solid proof that McKay, Bieler, “Bingo” and other party officers negatively impacted Christina Everett in a number of ways. The new state chair quotes Everett in her contention that, “The tone and content of (HIRA’s) media inquiry show that my past was deliberately re-circulated and weaponized by certain members of the Hawaii GOP leadership in order to damage my public image and candidacy.” Speaking for the new leadership of HRP, Hannemann tells Judge Nichols that, “Once again, we call the Court’s attention to the Plaintiff’s own sworn statement that her past was weaponized by ‘certain members of the Hawaii GOP leadership.’”
Plaintiff and GOP candidate Christina Everett with Art’s Cousin Mufi Hannemann
Mufi’s cousin Art Hannemann seemingly had no forgiveness in his heart for one particular former party officer at the center of the controversy which led to this lawsuit. “Perhaps the most egregious of the Plaintiff’s allegations,” Hannemann writes, “is when co-defendant (Sheryl) Bieler writes that she is ‘sure the news and Social Media would love to get their hands on’ a 2010 news article on the Plaintiff’s prior conviction (for smuggling illegal aerial fireworks into Hawaii), which was copied onto the email. Later in the email thread, the Plaintiff asks, ‘who is responsible for monitoring this behavior? Who is holding people like Sheryl accountable?’ The answer to the Plaintiff’s question is, under the HRP’s organizational structure, co-defendant and former State Chair McKay was the immediate supervisor of co-defendant Bieler, who held the position of Vice Chair for Coalitions at the time.” While Hannemann hopes the judge will absolve HRP of responsibility for paying damages to Everett, he definitely wants to see McKay, Bieler and the rest forced to pay up for exposing Everett’s criminal record and then (allegedly) jerking her around.
https://archives.starbulletin.com/content/Woman_gets_6_months_for_importing_illegal_fireworks
MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS: Laughably promising the judge with mock sincerity that a Hannemann-led HRP would always empower “the Party’s governing State Committee” to deal with problem party officers, Hannemann insincerely decries how, “This conspiratorial gridlock among a tight circle of the HRP’s top leaders at the time kept a close hold on the challenges the Plaintiff was experiencing and insulating it from the general oversight of the Party’s governing State Committee, which could only convene subject to the call of co-defendant McKay.” While Hannemann has yet to actually give the State Committee the very power which party by-laws grant that governing body – malevolently choosing since being elected state chair to hobble and restrict that power through his (and Shirlene Ostrov’s) own version of ‘conspiratorial gridlock’ even as Hannemann freely admits his knowledge to the judge that “the Party’s State Committee exercises general oversight of the Party’s affairs” – there’s no denying that Mufi’s cousin strategically aligns himself and the new HRP against this alleged abuse of power by McKay and her co-defendants – abuse which left aspiring candidate and convention delegate Everett feeling thrown to the wolves by party leaders.
As HIRA News has reported many times, when Tamara McKay and her team were in control of the Hawaii GOP, party officers spent much of their time refusing to do their jobs, while engaging in naval gazing, self-dealing and other corrupt and wasteful practices. Not only does it appear Hannemann agrees with the assessment and reporting of HIRA News about McKay and company, the new state chair takes it several steps further by telling the judge that the “Hawaii Republican Party does not adopt an adversarial posture and is not institutionally aligned against the Plaintiff’s complaint.” The letter to the judge goes even further to throw the defendants under the bus: “(W)e do vehemently contend that the alleged misconduct is confined to the specific individually-named co-defendants, whose actions were conducted outside of the color of their authority as elected officers, were not authorized and are not condoned by the Hawaii Republican Party.”
ALL IN THE FAMILY: Mufi Hannemann with “Republican” Sen. Kurt Fevella and Mufi’s cousin Art
Of course, one serious problem at this point in the case is that Hannemann is not an attorney and no company or organization is permitted to be represented ‘pro se’ by anyone but a licensed attorney. Seeing right through this gambit, the judge has every reason to toss out Hannemann’s ‘hail Mary’ pass as a cheap attempt to get HRP dropped as a co-defendant through dumping all the blame on individuals and accepting zero responsibility as an organization; not to mention the dubious ‘pro se’ filing of a letter from the financially-motivated party chair who doesn’t want to see Christina Everett bankrupting the party as she seeks $750,000 in damages. The other problem is that companies and organizations often have a difficult time getting off the hook for bad management, since those very organizations put the bad leaders in charge . . . and the organizations usually have the deep pockets to pay plaintiffs in lawsuits, rather than the officers themselves. Surely, Mr. Hannemann and his team would love to turn the page and start fresh. But, frankly, inheriting problems (including legal ones) nearly always comes with the territory of being the new CEO.
Still, in his amusing courtroom cosplay as ‘general counsel’ for HRP, Hannemann tries to kick his fellow defendants while they are down with this unmistakable final summation: “For these reasons, the Hawaii Republican Party actually supports the Plaintiff’s claim against the individually-named co-defendants, while strongly disagreeing that the HRP as an organizational entity was participatory or complicit, and therefore should not be included as a co-defendant.” In case the judge doesn’t get the message, Hannemann calls the alleged misdeeds of McKay and associates “unsanctioned acts of rogue former leaders.”
Defendants Nolan Chang, Teri Savaiinaea and Tamara McKay in court recently
While HIRA News is far from impressed with the new Hannemann regime, it must be said that Tamara McKay’s tenure was marked by incompetence, internal sabotage, fraud, and appeasement of radical leftist groups, rather than building a strong Republican base in Hawaii. Instead of standing up to corruption and advancing conservative policies, McKay enabled the same insiders who have long crippled the HRP’s credibility. Whether Tamara McKay and her team were desperately rigging the state convention delegate roster to get McKay reelected and whether their dissemination of Everett’s criminal history amounts to defamation may or may not get adjudicated in state court before Judge Steven Nichols in the days and weeks ahead, you can be sure that the new Hannemann regime will be true to its word to seek ‘discipline’ against their predecessors and should be taken at their word. Not because they want to do the right thing, but because the ‘reward your friends and punish your enemies’ culture is alive and well at the Hawaii GOP. Otherwise, how could extremely corrupt and still unpunished political thugs like Shirlene Ostrov, Steve Yoder, Bob McDermott, Sheila Walker, Mary Smart and Boyd Ready get HANDPICKED by Art Hannemann to control the party for the next two years knowing the horrible things we all know about those people thanks to reporting from HIRA News? Isn’t the pot calling the kettle black by attempting to differentiate between these rival factions led in 2025 by Hannemann and McKay?!? If we’ve learned one thing from these party factions over the past few decades – there’s PLENTY of corruption to go around in running HRP. That’s why Hawaii Democrats sleep so well at night.
What’s particularly tricky about the politics of this situation is that HRP’s Hannemann and McDermott have now politically embraced Christina Everett, no matter what. Time will tell if the Hawaii GOP and its members are well served by enthusiastically backing a convicted felon, which could easily give rise to a Democrat counter-argument that island Republicans are fresh out of high quality candidates with impressive records of accomplishment which don’t include criminal activity. We’ll see if lending the party’s ‘good name’ in court and political ‘clout’ in the community to 2026 state house candidate and convicted aerial fireworks smuggler Everett is the right way to unseat two-term Democrat incumbent Cory Chun; who represents a district just five short miles away from the New Year’s Day illegal aerial fireworks tragedy that took so many lives while disfiguring so many others. All new political problems could lie ahead which make current legal problems seem rather small. We’ll see.
Ethically challenged and progressive HRP Vice Chair “RINO Bob” McDermott supporting Everett at her recent fundraiser
HIRA News
Maui GOPs County Chair Drops a Truth Bomb and Provokes Retaliation from Mufi’s Cousin at State GOP
Makawao, Maui — Time really flies, especially in politics. In just a few days, we’ll be coming up on three wasted months since the all-new (sorta new) leadership team was installed at the state party’s convention on Kauai back in May.
Sadly for all Republicans across the state, the team led by Mufi’s cousin Art Hannemann appears stuck on the side of the road in a ditch; failing to impress the leader of Hawaii’s second largest county GOP organization: Tammy Ash Perkins of Maui. So frustrated and disgusted is she with the lesser known cousin of that crooked guy we all blame for Honolulu’s rail transit boondoggle, that she by e-mailed her thoughts to every Republican Party member on Maui with the official Maui GOP newsletter presented below in its entirety by HIRA News; pissing off Mufi’s cousin and his sidekicks in the process.
Rumor has it that Art’s gang of losers are so upset with Ms. Perkins and her honest and highly critical assessment of their incompetence and hyper-controlling ways that an emergency meeting of these losers was hurriedly called via Zoom last night to hastily manufacture a brand new “Disciplinary Committee” designed to terminate the positions of party officers like Perkins who have the $&#@ing nerve to speak up and speak out as precious time evaporates between now and General Election 2026. [Most folks in Hawaii favor civil defense warnings of looming disaster. But establishment RINO’s hate, hate, hate any and all warnings to party members that a disastrous election campaign is already under way.]
Without further ado, here is Perkin’s controversial (and verifiably accurate) newsletter which has sent old guard RINO’s and other closet Democrats at Hawaii GOP headquarters into a frenzy, where retaliation against her and others is reportedly being planned (while absolutely nothing else is being done to unseat Democrats from office).
It would be a mistake to call this situation a ‘circular firing squad’ or mere ‘infighting’ or even a ‘he said-she said’. Based on HIRA News’ own independent reporting, the actual situation inside the Hawaii Republican Party is quite dire and we cannot see fit to make any corrections to Ms. Perkins’ assertions. Yes, in just three months, the Hawaii GOP has gone from bad to worse.
Here’s the severely eye-opening newsletter . . .
Dear Fellow Members,
I write to you not out of anger, but out of duty—to expose the truth behind what has become of our Hawaii Republican Party.Today, the Party is no longer functioning as a grassroots-driven, member-led organization. It has been captured—seized by a political establishment more interested in preserving its own power than defending conservative principles. These individuals operate behind closed doors, exploiting the structure of the party to suppress dissent and centralize control. Let me be clear: this is not just poor leadership—it’s a deliberate manipulation of our Bylaws and a betrayal of the trust placed in them by you, the members.
❖ Bylaw Violations and Power Abuse
- Section 109 of the HRP Bylaws outlines the only proper way to amend or interpret bylaws—through votes of the State Convention, not through unilateral decisions by a Rules Chair or hand-picked committees. Yet this process is routinely bypassed to create new “Standing Rules” that directly contradict the governing documents.
- Article III, Section 302, clearly identifies the State Committee as the governing body between conventions, yet power is often stripped from it through procedural manipulation and secret agendas.
- Article IV, Section 412, gives the Executive Committee limited authority between State Committee meetings, not unlimited discretion to rewrite policy, censor members, or authorize unchecked spending. Despite this, the State Executive Committee operates without transparency or proper oversight.
The State Executive Committee operates without transparency or proper oversight. They have transformed the party into a closed system—unaccountable to the very people who fund and support it.
❖ A Culture of Silence and Control
Instead of cultivating debate, our current leadership weaponizes censure and discipline to silence members who dare to ask questions or oppose unethical decisions. This is not order—it is authoritarianism, wrapped in parliamentary language.
- RONR §63:3 clearly states that even a censure must follow due process and cannot be used as a political tool. Yet members have been censured in meetings and messages to others erased without cause, with no opportunity to defend themselves, simply for challenging leadership or defending the bylaws.
Meanwhile, they hide behind procedural smokescreens, refuse to provide financial transparency, sidestep contracts, and make budgetary decisions that benefit insiders – not the grassroots. Members are left in the dark while the leadership class acts with impunity—spending party funds with no contracts, no itemized disclosures, and no accountability. This is a gross violation of basic fiduciary duty and undermines the trust that makes any organization functional.
❖ Now They’re Coming for the Counties
The power grab doesn’t stop at the state level. The same establishment that seized control of the State Party is now attempting to take over the County Committees through backdoor politics and secret meetings—often with individuals not in good standing, in violation of the Party’s own rules.
These meetings are not announced publicly. They are conducted in secrecy, with the intent to subvert local autonomy and erase what little democratic control remains at the grassroots level.
This kind of political colonization is not just unethical—it’s unsustainable. When County organizations no longer have the ability to govern themselves or follow their own bylaws, we no longer have a Republican Party—we have a regime.
❖ The Weight of the Lies
What makes this worse is that most members have been manipulated through layers of lies, half-truths, and Hollywood distractions. They are given surface-level explanations while the real decisions are made in secret. These distortions have created confusion, division, and apathy among people who once genuinely believed in the mission. I am sick of watching good people misled, silenced, or shamed for simply asking questions or demanding integrity. It’s exhausting, and it’s infuriating. And it must end.
❖ A Party Captured in Full View
What we are witnessing is not mismanagement. It is a deliberate takeover of our party by those who share more in common with machine politics than with Republican ideals. They punish conservatives, reward cronies, and push out anyone who dares to speak truth to power.
This is how corruption becomes institutionalized—by silencing the strong and manipulating the weak. They do not want an informed base; they want a compliant one. They have pulled the wool over the eyes of many good-hearted members while quietly turning the party into a personal playground and political laundering operation.
❖ A Call to Reclaim the Party
We are not powerless. The Hawaii Republican Party Bylaws were written to protect member rights and ensure accountability. But they mean nothing if we allow them to be ignored.
We must:
- Demand immediate transparency in financial matters and internal decision-making.
- Rescind all rules and policies created outside of proper Bylaw channels, including those in conflict with Section 109.
- Restore due process and member rights under RONR §61 and §63.
- Defend the autonomy of County organizations from hostile and unauthorized interference.
Right now this is not the Republican Party we pledged to build. This is not a home for freedom-loving Americans who believe in limited government, fiscal responsibility, and constitutional rights. Instead, what has taken root is a shadow organization that rewards loyalty to power, not principle—an inner circle that behaves more like political opportunists than true conservatives.
We must confront the hard truth: many of those pulling the strings are Republicans in name only—ideologically aligned with the very forces we oppose. They have cloaked their agenda in party labels while executing tactics that would make any true patriot cringe. Their actions are not only dishonest—they are destructive.
We cannot allow these distortions to define who we are as Republicans. If we don’t stand up now, we may lose the party completely to those who only wear the name but betray its principles.
I urge you: speak up, get involved, and help restore the Hawaii Republican Party to its rightful place—by the members, for the members.
The future of Hawaii’s Republican movement depends on courageous individuals like you. Let’s bring the truth to light and take our party back—one honest step at a time.For liberty and for Hawaii,
Mahalo
Tammy
Tammy Ash Perkins
chair@mauicountygop.com
MCRP Chair
Whew, that was quite a truth bomb from the Maui GOP county chairwoman, previously identified by HIRA News as a troubling antisemite! Naturally, REAL Republicans who are tired of losing in Hawaii will find it quite refreshing. But do-nothing, self-dealing RINOs don’t like to be exposed for their incompetence and corruption. So, clearly, Ms. Perkins needs to be squashed like a bug . . . which appears to be precisely what the RINO’s led by Mufi’s cousin Art and his sidekick (or the actual string-puller?) Shirlene Ostrov have in mind. Indeed, in order to do that very squashing, ‘Team Art’ has taken harsh steps to cover up their transgressions during recent months by pouring Clorox on their history of rulebreaking and other corruption by forcibly erasing formal censures that Art and other RINOs received earlier this year . . . as if these censures (still posted today on the Honolulu county GOP’s website HERE) of Art Hannemann, national committeewoman Laura Nakanelua, and RINOs partners-in-crime Kim Witt and Art’s vice chair Jackie Beckman never even happened at all.
Pouring Clorox?? That’s right. Former party treasurer and former state senate candidate Mary Smart, the zero-integrity henchwoman of failed candidates turned party officers — Mufi’s cousin Art Hannemann and Boyd Ready — made the absolutely unheard of decision to personally ‘overrule’ a majority vote by HRP’s ‘rules committee’ to leave the censures in place, even if Art’s gentle feelings are hurt and his self-esteem takes a blow. When one person abuses her power to unilaterally ignore the will of the voters to protect Mufi’s cousin’s reputation from well-deserved criticism, you know that it will be near impossible to criticize Democrats for undermining voting integrity or anything else when the same blood is on our hands. Auwe!
Finally, it really needs to be said that the failed leadership of Team Art is different from the failings of Team Tamara, Team Dalhouse, Team Finnegan and Team Ostrov. While Art Hannemann’s predecessors were all quite incompetent and corrupt, most were doing the job for free as volunteers. Today, however, Mufi’s cousin Art is paying people to do jobs which aren’t getting done or even started. Tens of thousands of donor funds and thousands of man hours appear to have been flushed down the toilet since “Team Art” took over the Hawaii GOP back in May. When these party leaders tell us in 15 months that they wish they had more time and money to make a difference in Campaign 2026, remember what Tammy Ash Perkins tried to warn party members about. Until that 1st Tuesday in November ’26, know that Island Democrats continue to sleep well at night with no fear of losing their grip on power, while Mufi’s cousin and his comrades systematically destroy any hope for a political revolution in our lifetimes, let alone 2026, all just to ensure their grip on power at a powerless party is as tight as possible.
***** COMING NEXT WEEK *****
STAY TUNED FOR OUR EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF THE TRIAL OF GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE KELEI TAYLOR, THE POLITICAL ACTIVIST ‘WIFE’ OF HRP’S TWICE -NOMINATED CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE JOE AKANA. YOU MIGHT NOT BELIEVE ALL THE CRAZY DETAILS BECAUSE THEY ARE SO CRAZY !!! REMEMBER THAT HIRA NEWS VETTED AND WARNED YOU ABOUT THEM, WHICH IS WAY MORE THAN THE HAWAII GOP EVER DID TO WARN YOU.
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