HIRA News
Money Down the Toilet: RINO Cabal Lavishes Crony With Donor Funded Job
Honolulu, Hawaii – If you haven’t already heard the shocking rumors over at the troubled and homeless Hawaii Republican Party (HRP), then HIRA News is here to confirm these stories and provide context.
For the first time in years, HRP is hiring paid staff and is planning to raise more than two million dollars and then go and spend more than a million dollars on those staffers plus other expenses between now and the end of 2025. You’ll be stunned at who made the cut for these party jobs and how much more money party leaders plan on lavishing on their cronies before 2026 even rolls around.
First, here’s the most recent breaking news which HRP hasn’t bothered to tell its members via email or social media or any other manner. On June 26th, Art Hannemann’s first act as new state party chairman was to hire and start paying (or perhaps lavishing) $6,700 per month to Ronette “Ola” Souza to be HRP’s first ‘Executive Director’ in nearly a decade (since back when Fritz Rohlfing paid Jack James $4,000 per month).
So, WHO exactly is Ronette “Ola” Souza and who are the folks that picked her? Well, Ms. Souza is a Kamehameha graduate and aa self-described “Christian single mom” plus a failed GOP candidate for state house in HD18. HRP’s new paid leader for the Election 2026 campaign got absolutely destroyed back in 2018, losing decisively to Democrat Mark Hashem in the very Republican East Honolulu district by a whopping 36%, despite Souza receiving active support from then state chair “Big Shirl” Ostrov and campaign funds from the likes of SHOPO, the Hellreich’s, and even from Al Frenzel, Ostrov’s vice chair and a vocal opponent of Hawaii’s statehood. In 2024, Souza toyed with running for office again; pulling papers at the state elections office. But, she failed to file those papers, and left the very winnable district without a GOP candidate and setting incumbent Democrat Mark Hashem unopposed and on a speedy path to victory at the State Capitol. Now, despite proving she’s good at losing, she’ll be in charge of HRP’s entire 2025-2026 campaign.
Crooked former state chair “Big Shirl” Ostrov signwaving with Ola Souza in 2018
In her own house district (HD18), Souza has quit her posts in HRP on multiple occasions after taking the jobs; quitting in 2019 and then in 2025, only days after getting elected. Souza joined then quit the 2025 committee for planning the Honolulu GOP county convention. She held the post of the Honolulu GOP’s ‘County Candidate Advisor’, but reportedly didn’t do the job of actually helping any candidates.
Notably, Souza illegally donated large sums of cash to several GOP candidates and then demanded reimbursement from HRP funds in further violation of state campaign finance laws, unreported, under the table cash paid on 11 September 2024 to the campaigns of Waianae politician Chris Muraoka, fellow East Honolulu politician Corinne Solomon, and Kailua politician Tim “General” Connelly. So, that’s what we know about HRP’s new executive director.
In Team Art’s first big decision since the Hawai’i GOP state convention earlier this month, these neophyte party leaders who don’t know anything about how to win an election picked Ola Souza, who (like Art Hannemann and his fellow officers atop HRP) also lost badly.
So, WHO made this hiring decision? Well, the folks who gave Ronette “Ola” Souza her new, cushy job working from home for $6,700 per month might not know how to win elections themselves and they sure know that Souza doesn’t either. Here are the decision makers . . .
New HRP chair Art Hannemann
LOST by 3-to-1 in his own state senate race in 2022.
New HRP Vice Chair Shirlene Ostrov
LOST by 3-to-1 in her congressional race in 2016.
New HRP Vice Chair Bob McDermott
LOST by more than 2-to-1 in his recent US Senate race in 2024.
New HRP Vice Chair for Comms Steve Yoder
LOST by a whopping 40 percentage points in his state house race in 2024.
New HRP Finance Chair Sheila Walker
LOST by a 2-to-1 margin in her state senate race in 2024.
Together, these election losers decided to hire fellow election loser Ronette “Ola” Souza, who herself got destroyed by a 3-to-1 margin in a Republican, East Honolulu district in 2018.
Today, HRP is a homeless party run by election losers with a work-from-home executive director who can’t even win in a Republican district. Yes, at $6,700 per month, rewarding a crony is an expensive business.
So, WHERE will this money come from? That’s a million dollar question. Actually, it’s a two million dollar question.
Just two days before Souza was hired by Hannemann’s team, ‘Team Art’ pushed for the hasty approval of a massive and unprecedented $2 MILLION budget for the state party with the help of their allies on HRP’s State Committee during a rushed and highly manipulated 1-hour Zoom meeting on the night of June 24th.
Here’s that story . . .
On June 24th, new state chair and Mufi’s cousin Art Hannemann (elected at a state convention on Kauai weeks earlier) curtly informed HRP’s 72-member governing entity – the State Committee – that they could only meet for 60 short minutes to review a 100-Day plan, a $2 Million State Party budget, and also review a detailed legal challenge to the outcome of HRP’s state convention. That’s right, only 60 minutes was allowed for all of these weighty matters, with the pledge of allegiance, roll call, a prayer, and introductions eating into a good chunk of that insanely brief time allotted.
Since Hannemann and his slate of newly-elected fellow executive officers clearly planned to ram through all of these items in less than an hour, you’d guess there’d be ZERO TIME for an obligatory presentation on the budget or any time for questions about whether it would be realistic for the new party leaders to raise the promised and extremely unprecedented $2 MILLION in the next six months . . . and you’d be right. You’d also be right if members of the State Committee received ZERO INFORMATION about how those $2 MILLION would be spent by these drunken sailors at the helm.
Here are some highlights: Hannemann’s proposed HRP budget presented a host of shocking spending plans . . . including financial rewards for his cronies. $6,000 per month will go to Hannemann’s “Marketing Director”. As already reported above, $6,700 per month will be paid to Hannemann’s “Executive Director” (“Ola” Souza). $4,200 per month to “Young Republicans”, presumably to an individual to head up this group (such as Rocklin Youngstrom, shown in center of photo) who helped Art Hannemann with Bob McDermott’s disastrous campaign last year). Again, no details were furnished before voting, leading to speculation about WHY (of all HRP’s auxiliary organizations) was Young Republicans about to receive its first ever infusion of money in Hawaii GOP history? Hmmm.
Team Art leader Rocklin Youngstrom, head of the Hawaii Republicans, earmarked for a generous infusion of HRP funds, flanked by Art Hannemann, Bob McDermott and their spouses.
In addition, $4,400 per month will be spent on ‘Contracts’ for unnamed individuals. Again, no questions were allowed and no presentation of details was given. A parliamentarian chosen by Art Hannemann will get $1,200 per month to help ‘keep order’ at meetings so that Hypocritical Hannemann can keep ramming through his agenda using the same manipulation and weaponization of rules which produced this new spending spree. And $10,000 per month will be spent on “Travel Expenses” so that self-important state party leaders can fly around on the party’s dime, even though each island already has party leaders (and even though past party leaders have always paid their own way). Keep in mind that HRP has no ethics rules to prevent kickbacks, favoritism, or abuse of these funds. If you have the votes, you can do whatever you want with party funds, legal or illegal. Just ask Art Hannemann’s ethically challenged sidekick Shirlene “Big Shirl” Ostrov, his new vice chair for coordinated campaigns.
In addition to massive new spending budgets of a Quarter Million Dollars for “Candidate Focused Advertising” to take place in the current 2025 (even though candidates don’t file for office and don’t emerge from contested primaries until later in Election 2026), plus $420,000 in commercials between now and the end of 2025, Hannemann officially plans to spend over a million dollars of party funds before 2026 has even begun. Call it unrealistic if you want to, but the politically inexperienced Art Hannemann has never done this before (and neither has Ola Souza), so what’s wrong with wasting yet another election cycle and wasting all this money?
As you either guessed or may have heard, Hanneman and Crooked Shirlene Ostrov weaponized the party rules to force through this wasteful, unrealistic and hastily approved budget during that one hour meeting, during which members with objections and concerns were muted, shouted down, and improperly silenced.
A huge mystery is WHERE all the money might be coming from in July, August, September, October, November and December. Hannemann’s budget promises to raise $1,956,000 over these six months. July 1st is this Tuesday. Ola Souza’s first paycheck is due quite soon and HRP plans to spend nearly $167,000 by July 31st, one month from now. Well, here’s a solid theory about the source of the monies.
Both HRP and the Ostrov-controlled Oahu League of RINO Women are EACH sitting on more than half a million dollars representing the proceeds of the 2024 sale of HRP’s longtime Honolulu headquarters on Kapiolani Blvd. In case you forgot, HRP is homeless. The HQ is no more. HRP is merely a virtual party now, existing only on Zoom video conferences, with extremely short meetings where discussion is frowned upon. There’s no physical office. There’s no tables for phone banking and envelope stuffing. There’s no ground game. There’s no finance committee. There’s no money coming in. But, since Hannemann doesn’t want to answer any questions or provide any details while muscling his new spending plan into approval, it stands to reason that Hannemann plans to use the monies from the sale of HRP’s longtime headquarters as “seed money” rather than actually raising the promised $326,000 per month, which is nearly as much as former state chair Ostrov planned in her own ‘pie in the sky’ budget to raise over a period of 12 months in 2018, BUT NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENED, even with double the time frame of Hannemann’s delusional budget. After all, this spending spree has been approved to begin THIS WEEK, on July 1st.
WHAT’S THE LESSON HERE?: When fake political leaders who have no idea what they are doing manufacture a fantastical, fabulist delusion which brainwashes their easily-deluded followers into approving a big-spending, big-revenue plan for a party which has been running a distant second place for decades, there’s big trouble ahead. Big trouble and BIG disappointment.
You take a highly hypocritical ‘man of God’ who rams Ola Souza’s salary and benefits package down the throats of unwilling patriots on the state committee, while sycophantic members of that governing body eager voted ‘yes’ like they were receiving communion – even though no presentation was made to explain the ‘take it or leave it’ budget’s mysterious line items or answer any questions about the insane figures provided – you can’t help but recall how Jim Jones worked up enough of his followers to drink the Kool Aid. Anyone reviewing this spending plan for HRP knows that it’s not anywhere near realistic, especially when HRP’s very own Jim Jones deliberately surrounded himself with some of the most corrupt, ethically challenged and downright lazy Kool Aid drinkers known to Hawaii politics.
Scott Smart (right) presides over the May 2025 HRP state convention at which Team Art was elected to all eight executive officer posts for the troubled state party while all eight members of the Team Tamara slate were defeated.
Scott Smart, Mililani’s HD37 district chair and husband of past HRP treasurer Mary Smart, is one of those who eagerly drank the Kool Aid (in the wake of the HRP state convention he just presided over) as he enthusiastically told fellow StateCom members during last week’s extremely truncated budget discussion, “We need to have a budget. The fundraising aspect seems very aggressive to me. On the expenditure side, I think some things need to be perhaps looked at in a little more detail. We’re in a situation where we need to get this budget approved. So that’s why I suggest that we approve it at this time. Thank you, chair.” So, here’s how things work at HRP now. If you’re a cheerleader for Team Art, then just ignore the obvious and serious concerns and just VOTE YES because Art wants you to. Drink the Kool Aid and let’s spend money like crazy while pretending money will flow like wine!!!
Following this Zoom meeting to ram through Team Art’s budget, it’s became clear that ‘Hypocritical Hannemann’s phony agenda of ‘unifying’ Hawaii’s Republican Party with ‘integrity’ is Dead On Arrival. Likewise, the rest of Team Art have come up empty. For instance, as HIRA News recently warned, Hannemann’s vice-chair for communications, Steve Yoder, now presides over HRP’s communications wasteland. To date, Yoder has yet to perform any strategic and political communications to lay the groundwork for any unseating of Democrats from Hilo to Hanalei. For the past month and a half, HRP’s social media accounts controlled by Yoder and ‘Team Art’ are barren deserts filled with zero posts which could have started puting Democrats on the defensive. Meanwhile, Democrats in Hawaii and their allies are firing on all cylinders, ensuring that the public remains educated, persuaded and mobilized to keep Democrats in power for another 70 years. This suggests that the entire party takeover plah hatched by Team Art is designed to protect Democrats from any threat, a.k.a. Controlled Opposition. Or it suggests these are incompetent fools who put too much faith in themselves but desire fancy titles and endless respect. Time will tell.
In the meantime, the intramural civil war for full control of HRP continues at a lower level. Art Hannemann recently attended a district election meeting for HD18, the same Hawaii Kai district represented for years by RINO Gene Ward. That district election saw Tara Gregory defeat Ola Souza’s reputed boyfriend (and former Honolulu GOP county chair who bailed out early) Steve Lipscomb for the post. Nobody at the election, including Hannemann, witnessed or reported any irregularities. But, now the heavily attended district election is on the verge of being overturned by Hannemann and his flunkie Boyd Ready, the new ‘rules chair’ for HRP. Since Tara Gregory is associated with the party members behind Team Tamara, which challenged Team Art at the recent state convention, it’s now time for infidels to be driven from the party so that the establishment RINOs can consolidate their power. HIRA News is closely monitoring this story to see if and when Team Art will drop the hammer by declaring the well-attended district election to be OVERTURNED and then issue their call for a new election in HD18. As executive director, it will presumably be Ola Souza’s job to help Team Art get revenge on Team Tamara by replacing Tara Gregory with Souza’s boyfriend. Yes, there’s nothing like a woman’s boyfriend getting scorned and getting revenge with her help as the first order of business for a party pretending to seek ‘unity’ and ‘election integrity’ under Team Art. Hypocrisy abounds.
In HD19, right next door to HD18, current district chair Ola Souza (you know, the new $6,700 per month executive director of HRP) is holding elections this coming week to select her replacement, since she is not able to hold these two positions simultaneously. Indeed, it appears from a recent HRP announcement that these elections will be held this Thursday, July 3rd, that the decision to hire of Ola Souza as executive director was determined hours after the budget was approved, since the e-blast to party members about the HD19 election was sent before Art Hannemann told his executive committee about his decision to hire Souza. Sources tell HIRA News that the contract hasn’t been signed yet, and that there’s no actual job description yet. Odd, since how is it possible to put a dollar value on a job which isn’t even defined? “Hey, Ola. We have no idea what we want you to do and no idea what your responsibilities will be. But here’s $6,700 per month. Do you want the job even though we only really know the title will be Executive Director?” “Sure thing, Art. I’ll find someone to replace me as district chair and I’ll be ready to start the new cushy job right away. Don’t forget to let me know what I’m supposed to be doing. Make sure it’s worth the $6,700 you already promised to pay me. By the way, are you sure you’re really a businessman?”
Would you trust these people with $2,000,000 over the next 6 months?
Would you trust them to raise $2,000,000 by the end of 2025?
Does it make sense for election losers to be running a party?
Would you pay another election loser $6,700 a month?
How could this possibly add up to victory in 2026?
Is there some OTHER agenda at play here?
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Stay tuned for HIRA News’ exclusive coverage of the implosion of Hannemann’s self-described “election integrity” and “earning trust” agenda. If candidates break the law and cheat in elections, should they resign from office? Should they be prosecuted and imprisoned? If they committed felonies, should they also be barred from office going forward? State law says “YES”. But what if those lawbreakers turn out to be Republicans right here in Hawaii?!? OMG. Stay tuned.
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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