This morning’s Star-Advertiser features a good story on the gubernatorial campaign by AP writer Herbert Sample, who talks to both Republicans and Democrats for perspective on what factors played into the somewhat surprising margin of victory for Neil Abercrombie.
One missing perspective is that of one of the GOP’s most vocal internal critics, Eric Ryan, who sent out a press release following the election calling for the resignation of all party leaders. It’s a scathing critique of the party’s overall strategy. I apologize for the pdf, which cuts off some lines at the top and bottom of pages. I’ll try for a better copy later but, in the meantime, hopefully you’ll get the basics of what he has to say.
Although Ryan is on the conservative end of the GOP spectrum, his assessment doesn’t really rest of ideology. Instead, he criticizes party leaders for appropriating party resources and channeling them to only a favored few candidates rather than spreading then through “down ticket” legislative races where, he believes, modest financial backing from the party could have made a real difference.
Just look at the voting percentages received by Republicans. If you remove the general election results for incumbents Ching, Pine and Slom, the average Republican candidate in Hawaii received 27.57% of the vote if running for State Senate or 30.42% if they were running for State House. Clearly the party did not do anything at all over the past two years to improve the public’s perception of Republicans, nor to diminish their perception of Democrats. Our voter base is abysmally puny. The proof is in the numbers.
Ryan then attacks the party’s focus on HB444 and the issue of civil unions. In Ryan’s view, this was at the expense of Republican arguments about the economy, which he says would have carried more weight.
Ryan says party organization was weak, claiming the GOP’s executive committee and state committee had continuing trouble getting quorums for their meetings, but key individuals put their effort into the top campaigns rather than the Republican ticket.
Candidates statewide had to mount organizations from scratch and communicate with voters who’d never even heard from Republicans before, yet had heard plenty from Democrats in their neighborhoods during the past two years. Why? Because districts and precincts and obviously counties and the state party itself were extremely poorly organized, if organized at all; during both the off-season and during the campaign. This is not very righteous either. The party’s job is to set the stage in advance of the campaign so that our candidates look like heroes coming over the hill. They are not supposed to be set up to fail year after year after year while all resources get diverted to Miriam Hellreich’s clients and Jonah Kaauwai’s former boss and Dylan Nonaka’s client and Lynn Finnegan’s running mate and so on and so forth.
Ryan also calls for an audit of party finances.
Also, I hereby demand a full independent audit of the party’s finances and that the millions of dollars that were looted from the party and diverted to races for Djou and Aiona/Finnegan without any legal authority should be immediately repaid. In particular, tens and tens of thousands of households in CD1 received at least FIFTEEN different expensive glossy color mailers in recent months for Djou alone which were clearly marked “Paid for by the Hawaii Republican Party.” Likewise, online advertising and television commercials were paid for by the HRP in support of Djou, not to mention those useless newspaper attack ads with the ancient hippie photo of Abercrombie, paid for by the HRP for the benefit of Aiona. I’m sure this spending is just the tip of the iceberg. No such budget was ever approved nor would it ever have been approved by a State Committee which would not want to see so many candidates and especially the Republican brand thrown to the wolves in 2010 for the sake of one or two longshot campaigns, whose loyalists were signing party checks and diverting party resources for the nearly exclusive benefit of their patrons.
Overall, it’s quite an interesting take on the state of the Republican Party.
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Cannot open the Ryan press release. Am looking forward to readinng it.
Can’t open the PDF either but Eric is making a lot of valid points, judging from what you’ve excerpted.
As a CD1 household, we received well over 15 mailers from the HRP during the last 3 weeks alone. An astounding amount of money seems to have been spent on that stuff.
Eric’s also right about the chronic lack of support for down-ticket candidates. I know of a candidate who was recruited to run during the 2008 cycle & then received absolutely no support, either financial or other (e.g., Lingle endorsement or appearance). Needless to say, that person is done with the Rs for the foreseeable future.
Sorry about the link. It should work now.
I notice that Ryan really makes no apology for the vicious and unfair attack ad run by the Hawaii Republican Party at the last minute against Neil. His complaint seems to be only that it didn’t work. And, while I get his point about spending more in support of Republican candidates farther down the ballot, it isn’t done because almost all of them have absolutely no chance. (Even at the top of the ticket; ie: Cam Cavasso?? Get real!!) On the other hand, most of the polls — which, of course, were wrong — at least seemed to give Aiona and Djou a chance.
I guess Eric Ryan’s idea of a sound campaign strategy is to photoshop democratic candidates on flyers showing them in marijuana dispensaries and in front of desks piled with misgotten cash, as Eric did in the Ewa Beach flyers he distributed against Will Espero, Rida Cabanilla, and Jason Bradshaw.
That and distributing patently false stories on the flyers and websites smearing his candidates’ opponents in an obvious win-at-any-cost strategy that insulted the voters.
Ryan is a bottom feeder in the political consulting business. More financial aid to the low end of the GOP candidate spectrum would mean more potential business for him. He’s crying about not getting his share. Nothing noble to be seen here…keep walking people.
When we have the luxury of hindsight, we can probably find a few close races where the Republican legislative candidate might have won had they received a bit more support from the state party.
But was Eric Ryan better at knowing which those races were than Dylan Nonaka and Jonah Kaauwai? I doubt it.
Ryan talks about Republican Party money as if it could have been spent in ways other than how it was. That is not clear to me either. A lot of money going to the parties is earmarked for specific races or activities. Corporations and individual who have maxed out their direct contributions give them to the party with the understanding they will aid the preferred candidate. So I question how much of the money spent on Aiona and Djou would have been available for the down-ticket races.
This is Monday Morning Quarterbacking and with a particularly nasty tone.
I believe the GOP made major mistakes with their over-reliance on the Christian Right. But I also believe they have laid the groundwork for election success in the future by drawing so many volunteers into hands on political activity.
The GOP will have to broaden their strategy to include other groups beyond the Christian right. Lingle was very successful in reaching out to Hawaiians and Filipinos and that strategy was attempted this year as well. Aiona did well among Hawaiian voters, but it was not as lopsided as they had hoped (a lot of Hawaiians like Neil). And Finnegan on the ticket was not enough to lock in the Filipino vote, as Neil has a VERY strong record of accomplishment and supporters in that community.
In my view, a large part of the GOP Hawaii’s challenge is how to harness the enthusiasm of the religious right and Tea Party movements without alienating too many other voters who are put off by the intolerance and anger of those two groups. Hawaii, as a more tolerant and multi-cultural place, is less accepting of the political style of those two groups than most mainland states.
This is one Democrat who will set aside any “gloating” over he local results and recognize the local GOP actually accomplished a great deal this year. Even if the official scorecard doesn’t register many victories for them.
I do dispute the Republican talking point that they made progress in the Legislature by increasing the number of Republican legislators. They gained two House members and lost one senator. By my math, one senator is equal to two House members. So there is really no gain for them at the Lege.
On the downside, I am going to miss the fight between Sam Slom and Fred Hemmings over who gets to be Senate Minority Leader. Sam appears to have the position locked up.
I can see why you excerpted Eric Ryan’s piece, but all need to know that nearly everyone who has worked with him will attest that there he has a chemical imbalance and mental instability. He was kicked off the GOP Platform Committee last year by a near-unanimous vote (only his nutty buddy cohort voted against it).
Honest, frank, assessments of the GOP performance is welcomed, but to give nutters a platform only fuels gloat to the victors.Giving Ryan an audience on your blog is almost like giving the yelling nutter on Fort Street a TV show. Don’t do it.
BTW good comments, Kolea. We’re on opposite sides of the ideology but I really honor your insights.
Thank you, Kimo. I know we have clashed before, but all evidence to the contrary not withstanding, I actually like it when I can find common ground with a conservative Republican.
While I agree with your comments about Eric, and readers SHOULD be aware of how isolated he is personally, I think his extended comments provide a useful vehicle for discussing the elections. He makes specific criticisms, some of them with a great deal of credibility. From reviewing the online comments from other Republicans, I welcome his somewhat out of character orderly presentation. Once you strip away the personal nastiness, of course.
Perversely enough, I WANT a strong two party system. I WANT there to be Republican advocates who make strong, hard to ridicule policy proposals. In my view, the GOP is in the grip of an outbreak of madness affecting many of their members. Too many reasonable Republicans are cowering in fear and remaining silent. or worse, are mouthing insane talking points in the hope the wrath of the Tea Partiers, birthers, born-agains will “Pass Over” their doorways.
This is NOT good for democracy.
Kolea, I’m not sure what reasonable Republicans in Hawaii are “cowering in fear and remaining silent”. The top candidates (those with > 40% of votes) in this election were all quality people that were not extreme nutters.
Ryan brings a common but baseless complaint that the party didn’t support the candidates. Only the candidates that wouldn’t/couldn’t fundraise or execute best practices weren’t helped.
Those that ran a campaign like you’re supposed to run a campaign had all the support they needed.
It’s natural to look elsewhere for blame. The simple fact of the matter is the Democrats ran a fantastic ground game and when you combine that with a spirited primary, a downticket draft of -17 points and it’s easy to how the Dems made it very, very hard to overcome.
That all being said, we’ll be back. 🙂
Mr. Ryan needs to control his out of control emotions and try to maintain some form of professionalism if he wishes to get his point across. If Mr. Ryan was working for any sort of professional business he would be fired for the vulgarity of his letter alone.
The Hawaii Republican Party is at a crossroad that can lead to victory in the coming years or suffer an internal defeat by baseless accusation. Mr Ryan wants to pass a torch full of charcoal around in a letter when proper leadership would have him approaching different channels and not looking for his one minute of fame in the news.
If claims by Mr. Ryan are legitimate then they need to be brokered in a professional manner and not this way.
Mr. Ryan, we in the Republican Party want to see L.L.I.F.E in the Hawaiian Islands and although we took a beating this year, in 2012 we need to come back strong with all guns blazing. We do not need to shoot ourselves in the foot with vulgar and reprehensible comments released to everyone with an ear to hear. By the way if you would have spent anytime around the Hawaii Republican Party in the last 10 months or so you would know the meaning behind L.L.I.F.E. as it is, it is apparent you have not.
Also by the sound of your letter and the constant repeating of various members of the party some could say that you have some sort of personal vendetta against them. We need to check our motives before we issue slanderous accusation that can be backed up with fact.
Kolea, where in the state Constitution does it say we must have a two-party system? The withering away of the Republican party ought to present opportunities for others to fill the gap. I thought that might already have happened, but I guess I need to wait a bit longer.
After the fact, one can pile on criticism. I would not exempt the press. The Star-Advertiser’s only question in its election guide for senate (if I remember correctly) was on HB444, so it was actually playing out a Republican strategy for the Republicans. It also supports national Republican ideology such as ending “entitlements.”
I would not dream of suggesting what Republicans (or Democrats) need to do with their funding in order to win. A few Rs do consistently win, how do they do it? If Aiona had won, would the diatribe have been different?
The people have spoken again, and both parties might undertake a bit of reflection to see if they can figure out what the people want. That is, in addition to reflecting on how they can grab even more money to con the people for the next cycle.
I thought the Djou mailers had become ridiculous and intrusive, as had the multiple phone calls. But what should he have done, conceded defeat in advance? He behaved like any other candidate. Had he not, he would have been criticized also.
After Citizens United, we’re going to see big money supporting key candidates. Corporations may or may not support the little guy, but they will fight for the majors.
It’s getting to be a very sick game, IMHO.
And we’re treated like the pawns (though the voters spoke in Hawaii, didn’t they).
If this is the same Larry I know and love, then you know I would not suggest the Constitution dictates we have two (and only two) political parties. Much of my misspent youth, when I wasn’t busty playing pool, was misspent on quixotic third party efforts and other utopian schemes.
If the GOP were to fall into pieces, I might enjoy that. But even if two parties were not written into the Constitution, I believe it is the inevitable logic of our legislative system that opposing sides align on a bi-polar axis. Too many of us looked towards the parliamentary systems from other countries and foolishly assumed if third parties worked there, why not here?
You will notice how deftly the GOP establishment prevented the rise of the Tea Party as a third party by co-opting its key leaders (and most members). That and the way the TP folks are being financed barely below the surface by the biggest and baddest corporate special interests makes me wonder how long those folks can hold their heads up in public. Shame, shame.
One of the consequences of the Citizens United case might be the diminishing importance of the major parties. Look at the “independent” operations run by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie in this last cycle, along with Norm Coleman’s group and the Chamber of Commerce. If they are able to round up campaign contributions from big donors and deliver them more precisely (and anonymously) than the GOP, what function remains for that party? Surely there will be SOME role, but it will probably be greatly transformed.
Both political parties still retain some vestige of internal democracy. But democracy runs contrary to the logic of the marketplace. Why should the policy decisions of the two parties be decided according to even the slightest form of democracy? Why not run more like stockholder meetings? Instead of “one man, one vote”(sic), it would be “one dollar, one vote.” If Karl Rove can raise the most money, why should he feel encumbered by obsolete democratic forms to restrict what he wants to do?
I will not paint a portrait of great internal democracy within the party of the same name. Howard Dean gave our internal governance a great boost, but Obama is clearly in the thrall of the Wall Street investment bankers who financed his campaign behind the scenes.
Unless we can move towards public financing of elections, our weak atrophied democracy will die. Though maybe, like a preserved Jeremy Bentham, its corpse will be wheeled out for regular meetings and we will all pretend it still breathes. We are almost there already.
one big the lesson from this campaign season is that any targeted message to a particular constituency is a message to everyone
every internal memo, email, internet video, or appearance before a group needs to be plain vanilla and edible by all — in addition the GOP should tread lightly on any religious stuff next time
My favorite part about reading comments on any blog is how those who coweringly hide behind pseudonyms are those who get the most sanctimonious and vindictive in their uninformed rhetoric. Let’s be honest, Hawaii liberals don’t want to see me succeed in moving the political pendulum in Hawaii even one scintilla. The RINO’s who control the Hawaii GOP would rather control how they lose than lose control. And the supposedly and self-appointed “reasonable” people who claim to want a two-party system in Hawaii are consistently involved in propping up the lopsided domination of Democrats, either due to ideological or financial reasons. Attack Eric Ryan all you want, but please know that your true motives are apparent (transparent, actually) for all to see . . . whether on DePledge’s blog or Ian Lind’s blog. It’s not Eric Ryan’s existence that bothers you, or the techniques I use. It’s the possibility that I might succeed which keeps you up at night.
The political pendulum in Hawaii may swing toward the conservative side some day, but you, my friend, are not going to be the one who causes it.
I am anonymous and I don’t consider myself cowering. I just enjoy participating in discussions, learning things, and contributing to the greater good.
I am also not kept up at night by hostile gadflies. If your message is meaningful and people consider you to exhibit leadership skills, then get people to back you up and elect you to be in charge. I’ll respect the majority vote.
The tendency to refer to oneself in the third person is often viewed by psychologists as a symptom of narcissism.