RANK-AND-FILE OAHU DEMOCRATS DEMAND EXPULSION OF SENATE CANDIDATE MATT LOPRESTI FROM HAWAII DEMOCRATIC PARTY FOR ENGAGING IN ILLEGAL AND UNETHICAL CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES
News Release from Oahu Republican Party, Oct 17, 2018
Honolulu, Hawaii - In a just surfaced formal complaint submitted to Rich Halverson, Oahu County Chair of the Hawaii Democratic Party, party member and close Kym Pine aide Kevin Rathbun demanded that immediate action be taken against Senate Candidate Matt LoPresti because “LoPresti has repeatedly violated the Democratic Party Constitution and has demonstrated an extreme lack of integrity and moral character in his campaign practices.”
Rathbun specifically requested that an “investigation committee” be established as well as LoPresti’s expulsion from the party in order to “send a message to members and voters that the Party stands for fair and ethical campaign practices.”
In particular, Rathbun’s complaint to Halverson cites LoPresti’s well-documented violations of Article VIII Section 4 of the State Constitution of the Democratic Party, Ethical Campaign Practices which states, “...all members who file as a Democratic candidate for elective office shall agree to a campaign ethics code or code of fair campaign practices.”
As has been widely reported over the past three months, Matt LoPresti was caught stealing the campaign material of his opponent Alicia Maluafiti just days before the State Primary Election on August 11th (Hawaii News Now). The Honolulu Police Department is still investigating the case triggered by an official criminal complaint filed against LoPresti by one of the Ewa residents victimized by the two-term state representative. [Police report no. 18-316391 initiated on 8/20/18.]
Additionally, Rathbun reports the previously unpublished scandal involving LoPresti’s 2016 re-election campaign when the Democrat incumbent coerced and manipulated a minor to conduct a highly orchestrated smear campaign against his Republican opponent, Bryan Jeremiah. Shortly after the news story broke of LoPresti’s theft of Maluafiti’s campaign materials from blocks of homes in an Ewa neighborhood, the then 16-year old Young Democrat, publicly acknowledged and apologized for his role in working with LoPresti to attack the credibility and integrity of Jeremiah during the 2016 campaign. Rathbun provided the Democrat Party leadership with exhaustive evidence of the LoPresti-led defamation conspiracy in documents which accompanied his complaint.
Reporters and interested parties are encouraged to contact Oahu Democratic Party county chair Rich Halverson for an update on the investigation and the matter of expulsion.
Republicans and Democrats don’t often agree. But on this matter concerning the repeated misdeeds of Representative Matt LoPresti -- including his theft of campaign signs in 2016 and his abuse of a failed TRO application against eyewitnesses to cover up his theft -- there is complete agreement by Oahu GOP leaders with Mr. Rathbun’s unambiguous statement condemning LoPresti: “He is a liar, a thief, and a manipulator, and he does not represent the values of the Democratic Party,” or the residents of Ewa Beach.
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