by Andrew Walden
Hawaii Republicans are--for the third time this year--looking for a new State Party Chairman.
Just two months after being elected at the abortive May 6, 2023, Republican state convention in Hilo, latest Chair, Tim Dalhouse, has resigned, explaining:
Despite my best intentions and efforts, and the confidence of the Delegates at the State Convention in Hilo on May 6, 2023, it has become evident to me that I am not the correct person to lead the Party into the 2024 elections.
The legal and financial issues that existed prior to my tenure, severe dysfunction and factional fighting, subversive activities and blatant violations of confidentiality agreements, as well as the complete lack of focus on doing anything to achieve the goal of getting Republicans elected, have proven insurmountable with me as the State Chair and the current make-up of the Executive & State Committees.
I hope the HRP can find a way to refocus on what needs to be done to win elections in 2024 and that they find the right leader to be the State Chair.
Under Hawaii GOP Rules, the Hawaii Republican State Committee is responsible to select the next Hawaii Republican Chairperson at its next meeting.
There is an element of irony in this.
Hawaii Republicans have burned through Chairmen so quickly because the Chair candidates all suffered from the illusion that members of the State Committee were going to 'work as a team' to solve the party's challenges. This has never been the case. In reality, key party volunteers have always been recruited from outside the State Committee.
Dalhouse defeated Charlotte Rosecrans at the Convention with a vote of 160-119. Rosecrans, along with fellow State Committee members Karl Dicks and Edward Santillan, was a plaintiff in a failed 2022 crackpot lawsuit seeking to strip the Hawaii Republican Party of its ballot spot. (See: August 22, 2022 S.Ct SCEC-22-0000490.)
The purpose of eliminating the Republican Party was to elevate the Aloha Aina Party to the status of ‘second party’ in Hawaii. Aloha Aina Party leader Dan Decker echoed Rosecrans’ suit in Decker IV v. State of Hawai‘i Office of Elections (See: August 26, 2022 S.Ct SCEC-22-0000498).
Instead of expelling Rosecrans for disloyalty, about 40% of delegates voted for her to be chair, but it is not clear that anybody bothered to inform delegates of the Rosecrans litigation record.
As Chair, Dalhouse closed the party HQ citing ‘mold spores’ on June 5 and then attempted to initiate efforts to sell the Headquarters. He quit shortly after being challenged over his HQ sales plans at a State Executive Committee meeting.
Fortunately, after months of erratic leadership, Hawaii Republicans have only accumulated a manini $60K in debts outstanding. This could easily be paid off with a fundraiser or two.
Nonetheless, similar to the recently exposed theft of the ‘Gook Doo Sam Heung Society’ temple in Kalapama, grifters are circling around the Republicans.
Several Republican leaders contacted by this writer were surprised to learn that Rosecrans’ and Dicks’ ‘Klean House Hawaii’ website (KHH.pacig.com) is hosted on pacig.com which is the website of '‘Pacific Investment Group, LLC” (PACIG) a company which describes itself as a “hard-money lender…helping finance real estate.” As the PACIG website explains: “Hawaii Hard Money costs 1% per month, interest-only and takes 15 business days to close, start to finish. Hard Money is fast, easy to obtain, but not cheap.”
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