by Andrew Walden

All eyes turn to Colorado and Maine as they remove ‘insurrectionist’ Donald J Trump from their state election ballot.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii, infighting among Trump supporters is about to destroy the Hawaii Republican Presidential Caucus--and with it, any chance that Trump and seven other Republican candidates have to win Hawaii’s 19 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Instead of removing Trump from the ballot, the ballot will be removed from Trump.

UPDATE: HIGOP State Committee, meeting Jan 2, 2024, fake-voted 24-22 to hand control of the caucus to County Chairs and abolish my position.  I wish them luck, but I know how this will end.  To the 22, I appreciate your support.  It was a good effort but all pau now.  I will hand over list of volunteers to Party Chair upon written confirmation of my removal.

Hawaii Republican Chair Tamara McKay has been irate ever since October 26, 2023, when she learned that the national Trump campaign picked her factional nemesis--former Hawaii GOP Chair Shirlene Ostrov--to lead the Trump campaign in Hawaii.  Under Hawaii Republican Rule 215-A, Ostrov and her team will have sole responsibility to pick Trump’s Hawaii delegates. 

McKay's immediate response to the news:  “Boy are we going to face a big blow back because of that leadership pick.  Who picked them?  As I am going to have to answer that million dollar question.” 

McKay then mass-emailed an internal communication from the Trump campaign announcing their appointment of Ostrov etal, thus generating a wave of harassing phone calls from her supporters to the national Trump campaign legal team.

That was just the beginning.  But first, the backstory.

Your beloved editor has been moonlighting as chair of the Hawaii Republican Presidential Caucus since I was elected by vote of the Republican State Committee September 14, 2023.  I wrote the caucus rules years ago and previously organized the Republican statewide Presidential caucuses in 2012 (10,000 voters) and 2016 (15,000 voters)--each with 40+ locations and 500 volunteer staff.

That is about to end.

By direction of Chair McKay, on Tuesday, January 2, at 630pm the Hawaii Republican State Committee will meet on line to remove me as Caucus Chair.   Responsibility will be handed over to the County chairs, most of whom have done nothing to advance the caucus process.  The vote is factional in nature so any debate will be pro-forma. 

They need a 2/3 vote--not less than 25--to do it.  Then they will elect my replacement -- but without any authority to bypass useless County Chairs. 

(UPDATE: State Committee cheated on this and acted illegally with just a majority vote.  And two of those 'majority' were faked.  The actual vote was 22-24.)

It doesn’t matter who they elect--nobody amongst their possible picks is even remotely capable of organizing the rest of the Caucus.  These people couldn’t even complete the agenda at their last State Convention--a much easier task.  Most have never even voted at a Caucus, much less organize one. 

As caucus chair, I registered eight presidential candidates bringing $85,000 to the Hawaii Republican Party.  The $85,000 was immediately used to pay off the Hawaii GOP HQ lien and back tax debts and is now being used to pay for Chair McKay’s travel expenses.  

I reserved all 44 caucus locations needed statewide and signed up 200 of the 500 volunteers needed. 

After the State Committee votes to remove me, and McKay provides me with a written acknowledgment of my removal, I will provide each County chair with the volunteer lists and ship the 44 caucus location files to GOP HQ. McKay and company didn’t even know to demand the location files.

(UPDATE: As of Jan 7, 2024, McKay still has not provided the written confirmation I asked for.)

Hawaii Republican leaders are in denial.  But on Caucus Day, Tuesday March 12 between 6p to 8p, most, if not all, caucus locations will fail to open.  Caucus materials will not be in order and votes will not be processed. 

State Party leaders will then blame me for their failure, saying I destroyed the Caucus by writing this article. 

After Hawaii fails, Republican National Committee Rule 16-f kicks in.  This allows the RNC to grant a ‘waiver’ after a State Party fails to carry out its delegate selection plan.  Traditionally, the ‘waiver’ consists of allowing a State Party Convention to select ‘unbound’ delegates to the Republican National Convention.  These are delegates not committed to back any Presidential candidate.  Sometimes State Parties can be punished by reducing their delegation size. 

(UPDATE: Actually it is worse.  If HIGOP doesn't carry out the caucus their 35 person delegation will be reduced to three delegates.)

Under the ‘waiver,’ Trump and the other seven candidates on the ballot all lose their opportunity to win delegates from Hawaii--a privilege for which they each paid $10,000.  Hawaii Republican voters will be robbed of their chance to have a say.  The Hawaii Republican Party will be stuck with its eight year old database and robbed of its biggest Party membership recruitment event.

But at least The McKay will have blocked The Ostrov from picking delegates. 

Faction over Party AND Faction over Candidate.  And, unlike Maine and Colorado, in Hawaii the Trump supporters did it to each other. 

The Never-Trumpers are smiling tonight.  So is the FBI.

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