HIRA News
BACKSTABBER: Conniving Shirlene Ostrov’s Full-Blown Coup D’Etat to Oust Art Hannemann and Take Over His Job as State Chair
Honolulu, Hawaii – HIRA News just completed an exclusive on-the-record interview with the Hawaii Republican Party’s newly-resigned state chairman Art Hannemann, who has been leading the state party organization since May 2025 and representing Hawaii Republicans at the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Party leaders and members locally and nationally should pay close attention to the revelations about why Hannemann made the difficult decision to step down and to step away from HRP. Big problems lie ahead, now that a leadership coup planned for weeks by Art’s second in command Shirlene Ostrov has been executed in a manner which would make Augusto Pinochet and Muammar Gaddafi proud.
The shocking situation at HRP is a LOT more dire than either Art’s resignation letter or Shirlene’s subsequent ‘statement’ about Art’s resignation reveals. With five resignations of top HRP officers since the May state convention (resignations that were kept secret from other party leaders and from party members), there’s no point in pretending that everything is just fine as we get ready for the 2026 election.
For starters, even though Art’s resignation letter yesterday was pointedly vague about the intrigue and civil war raging inside HRP, it was clear from our interview with him that the #1, #2 and #3 reasons Art Hannemann resigned is because of the backstabbing and conspiring undertaken by his vice-chair Shirlene Ostrov; someone that Art believed in enough to support being his running mate.
As a Trump supporter, Art was impressed by Ostrov being named the head of Hawaii Trump campaign and Hawaii’s delegation to the Republican National Convention. He really believed in her and had no idea he was only being used to help Ostrov regain power. Hannemann was also really shocked that his lifelong friend and comrade Bob McDermott joined forces with Ostrov to stab Art in the back.
Last night, in the wake of Hannemann’s resignation, Ostrov moved quickly to consolidate power by taking over Art’s top job while moving to fill other top jobs that nobody outside of Ostrov’s circle even knew had been vacated. It seems that Ostrov had been scheming for some time to jettison Hannemann, as it recently became clear that Ostrov had only been using Hannemann to get back into the party leadership following her disgraceful exit four years ago in the wake of multiple embarrassing scandals centered around Ostrov. [If you know, you know. If you don’t know, stay tuned.]
Frankly, thanks to the bad taste left in the mouths of so many party members, Ostrov could never have been elected at any state convention since she was forced from the state chair job by one embarrassing revelation after another in news stories following the 2020 elections. One of those scandals resulted in a $60,000 fine to HRP which the broke state party had to rely on the RNC to cover. Another scandal was loony and antisemitic messaging from HRP. More about these and dozens of other Ostrov scandals coming soon.
Art made the mistake of not vetting Ostrov before agreeing to put her on his “Team Art” leadership slate at the May 2025 state convention on Kauai. Somewhat starstruck by her association with the Trump campaign, he assumed she could be trusted and that she wanted the best for HRP. Hannemann found out the hard way that two of his running mates intended for his two-year tenure as state chair to be very brief . . . just enough time to emerge from his shadow and quickly take over. Ostrov was one of those running mates. The other is Hannemann’s lifelong friend and political ally Bob McDermott.
And quickly take over they have. Based on our reporting and our interview with Art, during a secret emergency meeting of HRP’s few remaining executive officers called together by Ostrov last night, HIRA News can report that Art Hannemann was replaced by Shirlene Ostrov as state chair. Moments later during this same meeting, Ostrov moved quickly to consolidate power with loyalists . . . operatives who are as corrupt, liberal and incompetent as she is . . . but most importantly – LOYAL TO OSTROV.
Dennis Mataia resigned and was replaced as treasurer by former Democrat staffer Lani Kaaa (a wannabe political operative with a long losing streak who herself fell short back in March when running for Honolulu GOP county chair, despite VIP endorsements galore). Susan Duffy resigned and was replaced as vice-chair of coalitions by election cheating and interference specialist Sheila Walker. Steve Yoder resigned (another specialist in cheating and election interference) and was replaced as vice-chair of communications by Ostrov loyalist Fenton “Kaulana” Lee. Ostrov loyalist Boyd Ready resigned (apparently as a pretext to accuse Hannemann of wrongdoing) and was reappointed as chairman of HRP’s powerful Rules Committee by Ostrov, who knows she can count on Ready to do her bidding.
One way that Boyd Ready proved himself to Ostrov was by helping to create a brand new “Disciplinary Committee” for dealing with alleged party ‘rulebreakers’. Ostrov herself ensured just one month ago that Art Hannemann, her running mate at the state HRP convention just weeks earlier, would be referred to that committee to stand trial for accusations made by supporters of Art’s predecessor Tamara McKay, whom Art bested at the state convention and unseated. Normally, Ostrov wouldn’t care about complaints levied by opponents of “Team Art”, especially the likes of Honolulu GOP county chairman Nolan Chang or Maui GOP county chair Tammy Perkins. But at a special secret meeting a few weeks ago (to which then state chair Hannemann wasn’t even invited to), Ostrov pushed for the new disciplinary committee to fast track an investigation into some pretty questionable allegations against Hannemann and to set the stage for putting Hannemann on trial.
Here’s where our interview with Art and the timeline of events gets interesting . . .
Days before this secret meeting last month to lay the groundwork for ousting Hannemann, Art had caught wind that Ostrov and McDermott were actively plotting against him (including lying about Art and his alleged misdeeds to influence and recruit other party leaders to join their coup) and learned they had only used him as ‘top of the ticket’ on the ‘Team Art’ leadership slate so they could get into power at HRP. Once Art understood what they were up to, he asked them both to resign their executive officer posts at HRP; a bold move which Hannemann now knows forced their hand and caused them to dig deeper and expedite their plans.
Little did Art know how much work these two had already done to set in motion the campaign to eliminate Art Hannemann as state chair. With his insistence that they step aside, they moved even faster to tighten the noose. Days later, in early October, Ostrov (possibly the most corrupt state chair HRP has ever endured) had secured enough votes on HRP’s executive committee to launch her nuclear option: approve her motion to file a set of charges with the new Disciplinary Committee and obtain expedited handling of the ‘case’ to ratchet up the pressure on Hannemann . . . because she ‘cares’ so much about integrity, transparency, and obedience to party rules that she was willing to sacrifice the leader of “Team Art” to maintain the illusion that her opportunistic power grab was actually about ‘doing the right thing’ because “Art declared he would never follow the rules”. Hannemann tells HIRA News this fake quote was peddled by Ostrov to secure the votes to put him on trial.
With lightning speed, the new ‘disciplinary committee’ made recommendations that Art’s power be taken away while he is put on trial to answer for the allegations made by a Hannemann opposing dissident faction of HRP, which is usually ignored by party insiders like Ostrov, McDermott and their allies, such as Big Island county chair Monique Perreira. Suddenly, Team Ostrov was ratcheting up the pressure on Art to resign; demanding a special meeting to present Art with the charges against him. This is when Art saw the writing on the wall and probably wished he had learned more about Shirlene Ostrov before agreeing to allow her to be his running mate.
Some background about that slate: Hannemann started promoting his interest in running for state chair after the November 2024 General Election. As he put the “Team Art” slate together, he told his running mates that he was busy launching a new business in Samoa, so he’d not be able to attend every single meeting of party leaders. Ostrov did indeed lead many if not most party meetings held since May. But Hannemann did actively organize and fund trips to the neighbor islands, where he and Bob McDermott provided training of grassroots volunteers for canvassing.
As a former candidate for office himself, Hannemann knew that anyone willing to run as a Republican in Hawaii needed party members living in those precincts and districts to do the door-to-door organizing which helped candidates to increase their chances of success. His highest priority was organizing the party and partnering with like-minded organizations (such as Turning Point) for canvassing and identifying issues, to make it easier for candidates to succeed in hopes of getting as many as a dozen new Republicans elected in 2026. Developing this network cost Hannemann personal money to fly himself and McDermott for these party-building initiatives.
But, in the wake of all the subterfuge and backstabbing, Art has now left the building. Having donated $5,000 to HRP plus making recurring contributions of $250 per month, he has no plans to go near the Hawaii GOP again. He remains a Republican and a conservative and an activist. But Shirlene Ostrov and Bob McDermott revealed their true colors and he feels very, very betrayed and disappointed. And it’s clear that if they have the support from other party leaders to behave this abominably, they can’t expect Art Hannemann or others objecting to such chicanery to stick around. Art told HIRA News today that he doesn’t want to hurt the party, since so much is at stake in Hawaii and across the country. But he is pulling out of HRP altogether.
Sickened at being used to help Ostrov and McDermott gain power and positions – and sickened at being ruthlessly tossed aside – Art looks back and realizes that he didn’t know what kind of person Ostrov really was until it was too late. He tells us that he was warned repeatedly to not talk with HIRA News and to keep his distance from anyone at HIRA. Our team would have happily warned him about Ostrov AND about his ‘lifelong friend’ McDermott, as both are insanely corrupt, self-serving and unprincipled; perfectly capable of backstabbing and turning on a dime. As they say in politics, once you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made. And Art Hannemann put his faith in two faithless cretins who are among the biggest fakes in HRP.
OBVIOUSLY A COUP, IN RETROSPECT: When Ostrov unveiled the brand new ‘disciplinary committee’ and then worked to move her case against Art ahead of several other existing cases just last month, that was a red flag that her coup to force out Art Hannemann was gaining steam. When the state chair didn’t even get invited to that secret meeting of Art’s own running mates turned executive officers, that was just more evidence of the advance planning to jettison Hannemann, just days after Art found out what Big Shirl and Bob McDonut were up to. Resignations were kept secret and Ostrov secretly got new people lined up to take their places at last night’s secret emergency meeting. Then, last night, when Ostrov and her cronies already had people selected to fill vacant spots that nobody else knew were even vacant, that was the icing on the cake. Ostrov planned to take over the party all along, and Art was essentially just a disguise she wore to keep the attention off her past. Heck, Ostrov didn’t even attend the state convention. What a better way to keep a low profile and to keep tongues from wagging about her sordid history and downfall as state chair in 2020 than to pretend you have a wedding or a funeral to attend and “can’t make the convention”.
While Hannemann feels betrayed by Ostrov and his lifelong friend Bob McDonut and their flunkies, he’s never been told about any charges against him or about any ‘trial’ until he heard it from HIRA News today. It seems that the threatened ‘trial’ and ‘charges’ against Hannemann are likely a ruse concocted to force Hannemann to quit. Now that he’s gone, the ruse is being kept alive just a bit longer to keep Ostrov’s cabal united behind their coup and its manufactured rationale to elevate Ostrov to the top spot. With Hannemann saying that he didn’t handle any finances at all, rumors spreading about financial impropriety are also ‘more lies’. But all of this intrigue happened out of the view of party members, party donors and party volunteers who are rightfully ashamed at the sad state of affairs at HRP, while Republicans nationally are making real progress.
Finally, it comes as no surprise that Art’s resignation letter endorsed someone OTHER than backstabbing Ostrov to take his place, recommending HRP national committeewoman Laura Nakanelua. Likewise, with Hannemann’s former best friend Bob McDermott challenging state senator Kurt Fevella in next year’s Republican Primary, it’s no surprise that (in the midst of being pushed out by Ostrov and McDermott) Hannemann threw his support to Fevella. Nakanelua tells HIRA News that she’s not interested in seeking the top job. But sources at last night’s meeting seem certain that Nakanelua isn’t looking forward to seeing Crooked “Big Shirl” Ostrov take Hannemann’s place.
FRIENDLY WARNING: Looking at the individuals who NOW comprise the top leadership of HRP in the wake of this coup, there can be no doubt that financial scandals, political mistakes, leftward ideological drift, and plain old corruption are right around the corner. Art belatedly learned a valuable lesson about getting to know the players before going on the field with them. Don’t be starstruck because Ostrov got to head up the Trump delegation from Hawaii. Don’t assume that she is conservative, competent, experienced or full of integrity. She’s none of those things. The hard lesson learned by Art is just as valuable a lesson for ALL REPUBLICANS here in Hawaii. Get to know the folks in control of HRP. The more you know about them, the sooner you’ll understand why Democrats keep winning. Auwe!
Bottom Line: Hannemann left because of Shirlene Ostrov’s self-serving and destructive agenda. Don’t make the same fatal assumption that Ostrov knows what she’s doing or that she can be trusted. Stay tuned for HIRA News’ upcoming story with Top 25 reasons Ostrov is toxic to HRP. Nobody with her sorry record should be anywhere near the Hawaii GOP, let alone running the party.
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