Shirlene Ostrov Oversees Bankrupt, Do-Nothing Political Campaign Running Out of Time

Honolulu, HI – There can be no doubt:  The Primary Election is OVER.  The General Election campaign season is HERE.  But if you’re a Republican in the Aloha State, it’s time to start worrying.  And it’s time to radically adjust your outlook from “there’s a red wave ready to sweep the islands” to “how many fewer elected Republicans will be working at the state legislature after November?”

Long story short:  The Hawaii GOP is broke, nonfunctioning, and merely pretending to exist.  Shirlene Ostrov and her RINO cronies who control the party has only $8,000 in the bank, while Democrats and their allies have millions for advertising, polling, and the inevitable ground game which gets out the vote for their candidates.

That’s right.  Nobody noticed (except HIRA News) that the party’s most recent CSC and FEC reports reveal disaster – the party is broke, broken, and flatfooted for the general election campaign, with the next round of ballots arriving in mailboxes in only a few short weeks – 60 days to be exact.

Wait, what?!?  Just three months ago at the GOP state convention, state treasurer Lani Kaaa clearly stated that the party today has $1.1 million in assets.  What the hell happened that Ostrov, Kaaa and their cronies only have a measly $8,000 left to work with from now to November??

Well, first, let’s verify precisely how bankrupted Big Shirl Ostrov’s dysfunctional party really is. Maybe things are just fine.  To be sure, Hawaii Republicans have two bank accounts and the transactions for those accounts get reported to government agencies for transparency.

According to the party’s latest report to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), their “federal” account holds just $11.02 as of June 30th.  That’s right:  ELEVEN DOLLARS AND TWO CENTS is the “Ending Cash on Hand”.

According to the party’s latest report to the State Campaign Spending Commission (CSC), their “state” account holds $8,035.14 as of July 24th.  EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS AND CHANGE.  That’s their cash on hand from this account.

Added up, the party has a mere $8,046.14 left from $1.1 million just three months ago.  And $8,000 seems to be about how much the party spends per month in useless overhead, based on its own public reports.  This means that the party is over for all practical purposes.  If Hawaii GOP leaders tell you otherwise, they’d be lying.

One year ago, HIRA News warned about party leaders flushing money down the toilet and setting the stage for a disastrous Campaign 2026.  They adopted a $2 million budget just for the 2nd half of 2025 . . . which, with just $8,000 left in the bank, has clearly been ransacked if state treasurer Kaaa claimed three short months ago that the party had $1.1 million in assets.  Party chairs on the mainland get kicked to the curb when things are even half this bad.  Heck, Hawaii’s Democrat Party kicked its chair Dennis Jung to the curb less than three years ago due to “lackluster fundraising” and other serious problems.  Concerns about that party’s solvency came more than a year before the 2024 General Election.  Ballots, as mentioned earlier, arrive in mailboxes in just 60 days and there’s only $8,000 in the bank.

A future story from HIRA News will attempt to get to the bottom of WHERE all that money disappeared to.  Since you’re probably curious how a party with $1.1 million goes broke 60 days before ballots appear in mailboxes for the General Election, here’s a sneak preview of the waste, fraud and abuse:  $21,600 per year to pay an accountant to file very slim and mostly blank campaign finance reports.  $9,400 per year for a Quickbooks subscription to perform very, very little bookkeeping.  $4,000 per year wasted on a super-expensive mailbox rental downtown, since the party no longer has a headquarters.  THAT’S RIGHT, THEY SOLD THEIR HEADQUARTERS AND ARE NOW HOMELESS.  There’s another $3,500 per year to e-mail party members with meaningless internal newsletters.  $4,800 per year to store the party’s belongings in a storage locker, since the party no longer has a headquarters.  $2,400 per year for Gmail, so the party officers can send each other messages to compare notes about how little is being done by these same useless party leaders.  $6,000 per year for a copier/printer the party no longer even has in its possession.  And $125 per year for Zoom videoconferencing, so that party leaders can pretend to have a functioning political party with no actual boots on the ground and nobody doing any real campaign work.

When keeping it real goes wrong, it goes really wrong.  At that same state convention back in May 2026, Civil Beat reported that Ostrov told convention delegates that the party is united “by something greater than ourselves.”  Well, frankly, it appears they are actually united by being broke and helpless going into the last 60 days before ballots arrive in mailboxes.  Yes, GOP candidates (and their supporters) are being set up for failure by a party sitting back and watching things crash and burn.

Adding to the lunacy from this chronically broken and dysfunctional political party, state chair Ostrov boldly told KHON News viewers last week that the party looks forward to ‘voter engagement’:  “The Hawaii Republican Party is engaged in areas that they believe are worth fighting for.”  Well, Big Shirl, you CAN’T fight if you have NO money, NO headquarters, NO capable or motivated party officers, NO voter registration drives, NO voter identification campaign, NO phone banking, NO canvassing, NO persuasion campaign, and NO Get Out the Vote (GOTV) campaign.  So whichever ‘areas’ Ostrov says ‘are worth fighting for’, $8,000 and zero ground game won’t get Republicans very far.  Maybe Colonel Ostrov’s Political Armed Forces can claim victory at a beachhead on Kahoolawe where no voters live.

If you think that’s sad, Ostrov emphasized that the party was rebuilding its structure and positioning itself as a competitive political force heading into upcoming election cycles.  Meanwhile, when you strip away the bluster and focus on reality, here’s the bitter truth:  After 70 years of destroying Hawaii, the Democrat Political Machine is getting a free ride in 2026 as Ostrov blows through money, whistles past the political graveyard and nothing changes for the better.  It’s a real debacle as another two years is being wasted since the 2024 election campaign.  No case made for change.  Just silence and inaction.  You’ve seen this movie more than once, we know.

Advertisement

For months, HIRA News has heard stories about checks bouncing at the Hawaii GOP, about phony reports filed to the FEC and CSC to help cover up many, many questionable transactions, and about its paid staff going without paychecks.  To this end, reportedly Ostrov’s handpicked, work-from-home executive director and failed candidate Ronette “Ola” Souza has not been paid for many months.  The last time she got a paycheck, according to the CSC, she received two payments totaling $13,500 back in January and not a penny during the 5+ months since then.  That’s gotta be bad for staff morale.

THAT SUBJECT IS OFF LIMITS:  To date, Ostrov has insulated herself from internal criticism or even questions about her and Kaaa’s finances; reportedly through instant shushing of anyone who has the nerve (or fiduciary duty) to ask questions about party monies and party spending during tightly controlled and highly choreographed Zoom meetings of top party officers over the past year.  Yes, we must remember to thank these useless sycophants and hangers-on in party leadership on election night when each and every electoral disaster in race after race from Hilo to Hanalei is announced on the TV news.

FUTURE STORY:  Someday, somebody needs to ask Ostrov about the half million dollars it appears she may have pocketed when the party’s longtime headquarters got sold two years ago.  A previously nonexistent ‘nonprofit organization’ suddenly appeared out of thin air in Ostrov’s name and home address and took hold of $549,839.41; the same amount the party got for selling that HQ on Kapiolani Blvd.  Even party gadfly and blogger Andrew Walden wrote desperately about the missing funds:  “the money is nowhere to be found.”  But it appears to have spent serious money already.

NET ZERO:  Just a quick reminder that while two Republicans replaced two other republicans over the weekend, leaving a net gain of zero R’s in office.  In reality, Democrats lost two of their closest allies this weekend.  Although Kristen “Kanani” Souza and Kurt “Mufi” Fevella haven’t been the only fake Republicans serving at the State Capitol — and they certainly weren’t the only RINOs on the ballot in 2026 — the party of Josh Green and Mazie Hirono was much sadder with the loss of these two closet Democrats than anyone in the Hawaii GOP’s rank-and-file membership.

But HIRA News repeatedly warned all Republicans years ago how totally bogus the conservative credentials for Fevella and Souza were when they first ran for office with R’s after their names.  However, true to form, the official Hawaii GOP repeatedly vouched for these two ousted legislators at the beginning of their political careers saying what GREAT REPUBLICANS they were.  Instead, during their two terms in office, taxpayers suffered greatly as they showed their true colors.

That’s why you should never forget the bad judgement of the closet Democrats who control the Hawaii Republican Party.  These ‘party leaders’ also vouched for Beth Fukumoto, Charles Djou, Kymberly Pine, Aaron “Ling” Johanson, Karen Awana, Mike Gabbard, Ann Kobayashi, Gil Riviere and so many other turncoats.  NEVER FORGET.  Sure, Hawaii’s GOP is plagued by severe incompetence, corruption, and alleged lawbreaking.  But its apparent doubling and tripling down on the party’s woke direction is the guiding principle for Team Ostrov which doesn’t mind putting big spending, high taxing liberals like Val Okimoto and Andria Tupola into office.

Finally, we must ask:  Is Team Ostrov deliberately losing?  It seems they’ve fumbled, bumbled and thrown elections before.  Otherwise, it makes no sense that party leaders would do the worst imaginable job of running a political party and a statewide campaign with so much at stake.  You can forget all their ‘red wave’ talk.  The evidence is undeniable:  Ostrov and her cronies are merely rearranging the deck chairs on Titanic and spending their time and energy preparing to make excuses and blame others.  Don’t believe us, click HERE to read a copy of the broke and broken party’s ‘Action Plan’ which nobody is actually implementing at all under Ostrov’s horrible direction.  It’s a complete work of fiction, which should be found in bookstores in the Fantasy section.

As the same time, though it’s not easy, please keep your hopes up.  We’re not a Democrat state.  The RINO-controlled GOP just keeps surrendering year after year after decade.  We can fix both of these problems once we’ve decided that enough is enough.  But. with 2026 on the line, the next two months leading to Election Night will be a bumpy and enraging ride as more people come to realize we are stuck (for now) with fake Republicans controlling a “Republican Party of Hawaii” in name only for the apparent benefit of the Democrats.

But hey, on the bright side, Hurricane Lala could have been much worse.

#    #    #    #    #