 Aloha and welcome to Ehana Kako. We're here every week on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Kili Iakina, president of the Grassroot Institute. As we speak today, the Electoral College is meeting, and we have just heard that they have pronounced President Donald Trump, the next president of the United States of America. There are people across the mainland jumping up and down with glee because Republicans have swept these elections except in Hawaii. That's the bluest of the blue states. During the past election season here in Hawaii, we lost seats amongst the Republican Party, and we also lost having a two-party Senate. We have the only state Senate with the defeat of Senator Sam Sloan that is purely Democrat. Now, that's an interesting situation. But today I have somebody who is going to answer the question, where are the Republicans? Where is the Republican Party? Because he's the brand new executive director of the Republican Party of Hawaii. His name is Jack James, and I welcome him to the program. Thank you. Jack Aloha, welcome to the program. Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here. Boy, do you have a job cut out for you? Not a small one, for sure. I'm going to ask you about that. But first, what do you feel about the presidential elections this year? We're so excited. We're excited that Mr. Trump went over the 270 vote just maybe less than an hour ago, and that we heard the news. So it's an exciting day for America. It's an exciting day for those that supported Mr. Trump, and particularly an exciting day for Republicans. So it's official across the nation. We have a Republican Senate, a Republican Congress, and we have a Republican president. In addition to that, we've got 32 governors. I think it's something like a majority of the legislators across the nation. So Republicans are faring well. So Jack, why does this strike fear and terror in another part of the population? Maybe just a little under 50 percent. Well I think they were so sure they were going to win that they had not prepared themselves for losing, and I think they're still in that period of time of disbelief, and they just can't believe Donald Trump is going to be the next president of the United States. What's behind some of the efforts to do recounts and to attempt to nullify the vote in some way? They're far-fetched, of course. They are far-fetched, and I don't know why they sent Jill Stein out to do that and literally waste that money when it was evident that Donald Trump had won in Michigan, had won in Wisconsin, had won in Pennsylvania, but still they wanted to fight that battle. And they had a right to. It just, it didn't seem to make sense. So let's come full circle to Hawaii, which actually got bluer during this past election. What happened? Let's talk, first of all, about some of the local races. The election for Senator Sam Slome's seat, he lost Stanley Chang. How did that happen? Well, let's get... Because Slome is a long-term incumbent. He is. But let's give Stanley due. Stanley is as hardworking a campaigner as there is in the state of Hawaii, and he has no clock, so he just, from day to day like the dark, he is campaigning. Sam was relying on history, on his support, and he campaigned, but I don't know that he felt that Stanley's campaign was going to be as vigorous as it was. And Stanley, boy, did he mail a campaign. He was in the mailbox constantly. And Chang already had a following that overlapped the district because he was a councilman. That's exactly right. He did overlap geographically the district, so it wasn't that he was unknowing. Right. He was just... He had a loyal following already. He did not feel that he'd be that strong against Sam on his first try, but he was. Now, I know your work as executive director of the party has more to do with getting candidates elected than actually the politics that take place with sitting Republicans. There are a few left in the House. What do you think the prospects are for their effectiveness this term? It's going to be a challenge. And they have to... The six that we... Our caucus, our minority caucus has to be very pointed in what they want to get accomplished. They're going to be faced with several significant issues, but they're going to have to pick and choose. And I'm not sure that it's a long menu at this point in time. We have to rally as Republicans and bring them support in 2018. We can't ask six people to carry our banner alone, so we've got to bring them... Well, switching back over to the Senate now. I'm trying to envision this. There are two caucus rooms with very long co-a-wood tables in the Senate. One is going to be a very crowded room because you'll have to fit the entire body of senators into it. I'm having to bring chairs in. And the other one will be empty. What are some of the real implications of the absence of an opposition party in the state Senate? Well, my biggest concern is 2020, that we have representation in the Senate by then, because we've got apportionment coming right after that. And the way the rules are in the House and the Senate, if people on that body are... You have to have representatives in each body to be appointed to the board. So if we want new lines drawn or whatever, we can't be all Democrat. We have to have at least one Republican in the Senate to have equal time on that board on that. Well, you've got your job cut out for you. We do. We're going to. We're going to be trying to seat local candidates in a state that overwhelmingly voted for Bernie Sanders and then voted for Mrs. Clinton. How do you expect to mount a challenge in such a Democrat voting state? Well, I'll tell you what, that's not as... The Bernie Sanders voter. And I can talk about a specific case. Sure. I know in House District 34 where I was a campaign manager this time. Right. And that was for J.C. Augustin. Yes. Pearl City, Pacific Palisades in Waimawa. And by the way, before you get to your story, congratulations for a challenger against a seated incumbent, a Democrat, she did remarkably well. What was the percentage of the vote that she got? As in the mid-40s, it was about 42 to 43 percent. Well, that's incredible. It is. It is. And we're very, very pleased with... We're not pleased with not winning, but the effort was there. We increased J.C.'s totals over 2014, and I was very, very proud of the entire team. The point I was making that we ended up like having six or seven very vocal, very active Bernie Sanders supporters come on board with J.C. and support J.C. Well, that's interesting. And it was a reason for that. Yes. That's what I was going to ask you. And what those people saw, what those Sanders supporters saw, was someone in J.C. that got out in the community and worked, was in the Pearl City Community Association, in the Lions Club, in the Rotary Club, in the PTA, was holding office. They saw someone that was cared about the community and was involved in the community. They related to that, and they came on board and supported them. And wouldn't you say a good number of the Bernie Sanders supporters in Hawaii are actually Democrats who are disappointed in the leadership of the Democratic Party at this time and exactly where the party is overall? Yeah, a lot of people want to point to the Republican Party is having problems. Well, we're not going to spend a lot of time on it, but the Democratic Party today have their own issues. And they're bending very far left in Hawaii as they are nationally. And I think that leaves an opportunity for me and those Republicans to appeal to that centrist Democrat, to that Reagan Democrat, to bring them on board. So we already mentioned that you lost a seat in the state Senate. But the Republicans also lost a seat in the House. Lost a seat in the House District 47. And it was a close race, a fakey head, and we thought we would have a puha, but we thought it we had, but we just didn't quite make it. So I'm disappointed in that race. I had thought that we would hold that race, hold that seat. So there was some ground lost there. There was. There was. In light of that, what do you see can, what can take place to get Republican candidates elected next time round? And I want to back up just a little bit. We were talking about you being the campaign manager for JC Augustine, right? She did. She had to do something right to get 43% of the vote. She did. What were some of those things that you did as a campaign? Well, for instance, we won election day. Okay. And explain what that means. That means that votes are our cast either early voting or she lost the early voting. No. No. I didn't say that. She, we don't know. I haven't looked at early voting. We've lost absentee. Okay. Okay. But got it. Okay. And there's a difference between walking and absentee. But we won election day. So in all three precincts, which was pretty phenomenal. That meant if you were out in the community and you saw her, you voted for if you met her. If you were more sedentary and did not get out in the community lot, didn't come to your door when it was knocked on, you may not have voted for her. In other words, if you'd had your mind made up, if you filled out your ballot in advance and mailed it in, you weren't as exposed to the public campaign that you put forward. And so you're saying that that public image of JC being out there, on the street, going door to door, made a difference. It did make the difference. It makes all the difference. And if you don't reach that population that's voting absentee and not participating in the system, you're going to lose them. So you have to find a way to get to them. And we're going to find that way. What I almost hear you saying, and maybe you are saying this, is that even in a completely Democrat region like Pearl City, with a historic Democrat voting pattern, a Republican can win if she or he will get out there and be personable, let people see them, that that in and of itself can transcend party line. Is that what you're saying? Absolutely. And I believe that most of the people in House District 34, they've been known to be Democrats. But they're really fiscally, they're conservative. They don't want tax increases. They didn't want the gas and fuel tax increased. They wanted to see rail finished. They told us that, but they didn't want to see any more money spent on it. They wanted to see it done for the money that was in place. So they're basically conservative, fiscally. Socially, they're compassionate, they're willing to help, but it's a very conservative-minded people. They have traditionally voted Democrat. And we have to give them a reason to look at the Republican candidate in the Republican Party. What I hear you saying is that these people have traditionally gone with a brand, the Democrat brand. And yet when you look at the issues, they seem to line up with Republican issues. I remember the Star Advertisers, when they gave J.C.'s opponent the endorsement, they said he had served reasonably well. I thought that was a left-handed endorsement, if you would. But they talked about how well she had communicated in the district and how well she had done with seniors. And they gave her a lot of props, but they returned to give him the endorsement. Well, when I look at the campaigns across the board for the Republicans, it looks like J.C.'s was one of the more successful campaigns. Are there lessons there to be taught to other campaigners? We hope so. We're going to be deploying some of the strategies and tactics that we used in House District 34 throughout the state. And I look forward to what we're doing right now is getting out and organizing our districts. We have precinct elections coming up in February and a state convention coming up in May. So we have to get prepared for this. As we come to the end of our first half, are Republicans writing on the coattails of their champion, President Donald Trump? We absolutely are excited about the next four years and we're excited about the next 24 months. How do you convert that enthusiasm for the president to wins here in Hawaii for local races? We know that he's going to bring a positive message and it's our job to get that out on the streets of Honolulu and make sure people know that that prosperity and hope and opportunity that people are enjoying on the mainland that they can enjoy it here in Honolulu. Well, I have to commend you in your efforts in the party because for a state that was so Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for the election of President Trump. There is and we get phone calls at the office every single day. Do you make America a great again red hat or a T-shirt? We're constantly getting calls for Trump memorabilia. In fact, I think you're going to be doing something in celebration of the upcoming inauguration. We are. We've got a pre inaugural gala at Olau Ballrooms on Wednesday, January 4th. And people, there are still tickets available, although sales have been very, very brisk and we're very excited about that. Former Governor Linda Lingo will be back and be our guest speaker for the evening. They'll be dancing, a dance floor and it's going to be a gala. I think you're even going to be there. I'm going to be there, of course. I have been invited and I appreciate the opportunity to be part of the program a bit. January the 4th. So Linda Lingo is going to be there and do you have to be a card carrying Republican to attend? You do not and I'm sure many in the room will not be, but a lot of people that haven't seen Linda in a number of years are turning up to see her. Well, Jack, we're going to take a quick break and if you want to go to a pre inaugural ball, one is coming here to Hawaii on January the 4th and just get ahold of Jack James down at the Republican Party. I'm Kayleigh Akina with the Grassroot Institute and we're talking to the new executive director of the Hawaii Republican Party. I'm going to ask him where the Republicans are. What's going on in the party itself? What's the condition of the party when we come back after a short break? Don't go away. Hi, I'm Donna Blanchard. I'm the host of Center Stage, which is on Wednesdays at two o'clock here on Think Tech. On Center Stage I talk with artists about not only what artists they do and how they do it, but the meat of the conversation for me is why they do it, why we go through this. A lot of us are not making our livings doing this and a lot of us would do this with our last dying breath if we had that choice. And that's what I love to talk to people about. I hope you enjoy watching it and I hope you get inspired because there's an artist inside G2. Join us on Center Stage at two o'clock on Wednesdays. Bye. Aloha. My name is Reg Baker and I'm the host of Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday at two o'clock. We highlight businesses and individuals that are successful in Hawaii and we learn their secrets to their success. I hope you can join us and listen in because we always have a pack of information on successful stories in Hawaii. Aloha. Welcome back to our closing segment of A Hana Kako here every week on the Think Tech Hawaii broadcast network. I'm Keeley Ikeena with the Grass Root Institute. We like to say at the Grass Root Institute A Hana Kako. That sounds like a venerable old Hawaiian saying A Pule Kako. A Pule Kako means let's pray together. At Grass Root Institute we say let's work together. Let's work together for a better government, economy and society. Because think of the terrible alternative. If we don't work together nothing gets done. Well there is a party that is working very hard and fast to become the second, well they are the second party but to become a real challenge to the dominant political party in Hawaii and that is Hawaii's Republicans. But where are Hawaii's Republicans? We don't have a lot of them but today we do have the executive director somebody who is tasked with getting more Republicans into office, Jack James, welcome back to the second half of the program. Thank you, I'm glad to be here. It wasn't that funny when we entered the studio today we met a producer who first of all asked us what's going on with all the infighting in the Republican Party and he talks about a little splinter group known as the Hawaii Republican Assembly. I don't really want to talk about any other groups here today but Jack I want to tell you something I'm surprised at the number of people whose perception of the party is that we're not only small but there's a lot of infighting. Do you get that frequently and feedback from people in the state? I do hear it and people ask me about the vitriol in the emails that are sent out by the assembly and I tell them that you know the principles of the group that is to the right but consider themselves Republicans, many of those principles are things that we all stand for. It's how they're trying to get their message across that's the problem for me and the problem for the party. Not so much the content but it's how they do it. It's unacceptable and you know when we explain what the differences are and how the message is being conveyed most people agree so it's not having a significant difference but people do ask questions. If people who are not familiar with the Republican Party, the associations, the people, the protocols, the relationship to the mainland, what is the real official Republican Party here in Hawaii? Who is that? Well, we're obviously, you know, our chairman is Fritz Roffing and we've got an executive committee, a very active executive committee, we've got a wonderful state committee. We're very active on all the neighbor islands as I may have mentioned earlier our state convention in May is going to be on the island of Kauai and we're very excited about that. So this is the official Republican Party, the party of Donald Trump, the national party's representation here in the islands. We are the Republican Party. There may be invitations out there but we are the Republican Party and you're going to see not only myself but you're going to see many of our officers and many of our members out in the public more in 2017 getting our message across. We're going to be a lot more visible. About how many members are there currently? About 32,000 which may surprise some people and we got a big bump in membership at the March presidential caucuses when Donald Trump was running. At that time prior to the caucuses about how many members were there? We were in the mid-20s. Okay, so going into the caucuses which were the equivalent of a primary here in the state, we had people come on board then the Republican Party who weren't traditionally Republicans. Is that what happened? Statewide between 8,000 and 10,000 people. So that's quite an enthusiasm. It's a boost because of the interest in the presidential election. And our telephones support that. They're constantly ringing about things about Mr. Trump. Well, what does it mean that there are people even in the bluest of blue states who are saying we want to be Trump supporters? Well, I'll tell you what it is. You know, Mr. Trump found a group of people on the mainland that had been disenfranchised. They called them the people that live in the flyover states and he related to those people. The pocketbook issues will always win in the end, in my opinion. And he related to those people's pocketbooks. He also got emotional with them. He went from let's make America great again and let's build a wall, let's drain the swamp and get those bums kicked out. And those messages resonated with those flyover people. That same group of people are here in Hawaii. There's pocketbook issues that Republicans are going to address that the Democratic Party and Democrat administrations have not properly addressed and have allowed the cost of a living in Hawaii to get out of hand. And we're going to address that and we're going to take it on. When people are trying to differentiate the party of Republicans from Democrats, what would you say are some of the key issues? I'm not going to, I won't speak as much to the Democrats, but you know, we believe Republicans believe in personal liberty. We believe in much smaller government than you know, that government is not the answer. Government is the oversight. Government is the support. But government is not the answer to our issues. Small businesses. We want to get rid of, Republicans are for less regulation, stimulate the economy by getting small businesses, entrepreneurs, getting them the impetus to get started and employ people. We're for family values in a big way. We are the party of the family. So those are just a few of the things that we stand for on an internal basis. Now if someone's in the Republican party and running for office as a Republican candidate, do they need to hold lockstep very tightly to a very detailed platform? They do not. They have a platform to run on as Donald Trump had the Republican platform to run on. But you know. Is there, is there diversity? There is diversity. Beth Fukumoto in House District 36. Beth is more liberal in some of her particular social issues and some of her fiscal issues. And you've got Bob McDermott and Gene Ward on the other side of the program, a little more fiscal, a little more conservative in their approaches. So there's, it's a big tent and it's getting bigger. And I'll tell you what, it's going to get bigger in 2017. Now there have been some voices that have said that a big tent is not the goal or the purpose of the Republican party. I hear you talking about a big tent can kind of define, if you would, your vision of the big tent for the Republican party. You know, big is relative. It's a relative term, you know. We're going to go from two parking stalls at the University of Hawaii football game to maybe four or six. OK, so we're not going to take the whole parking lot. But we are going to expand the size of our tent and bring more diversity into our program. Well, that's good to hear. Now, a lot of times though, from a stereotypical point of view, the Democratic party claims to be the party of diversity. It claims to be the party that gives a greater role to women and to minorities and so forth. How do you respond to that if people say, well, Republicans according to the stereotype are not very diverse ethnically, not very diverse socioeconomically, and they all live in one district in Hawaii Kai. You know, it's also been said that the reason Republicans aren't in politics is because they're hard at work. They don't have a lock on neither the family nor the voters of Hawaii. And we're going to bring forth issues as it relates to the cost of living, issues that relate to children in our schools, the education they're getting, issues about how Hawaii relates to the mainland. We're going to be bringing fresh new solutions. And I believe the people of Hawaii will listen to us. The Democrat party has been one of entitlements. One of trying to socially re-engineer. These are not terms that are new to anybody. Redistribution of wealth. And those things couldn't be further away from principles of the Republican party. We're a party of people that are doers individually and we come together as a group. We're not a group that come and try to find individuals. We are strong individuals that want to change the direction of the party. Let's get Jack to your job actually. As executive director, you are trying to build a party so it elects candidates. What is a strategy that you believe is going to work in the next election cycle? Basic strategy and this is not news to anybody. I won't be sitting here and discussing 2017 strategy and tactics specifically with you. We don't want you to let all your secrets out of the bag. There are things happening in 2017 that will bring attention to the Republican party. I can promise and assure you that it's going to be a wonderful year. But basically right now, an executive director is responsible for getting all 51 house districts organized from the precinct level and the district level and make sure that we've got people in those positions that are willing to get out on the street and carry the message of the Republican party. Secondly, and we've already started well ahead of where we were in 2016 to this point and I'm very excited about it. So organizing our party and having a state convention along with candidate recruitment, in fact I hope to be announcing some candidates that are made convention. Is it too early to talk about one or two bright spots that you see in terms of some of the local races, legislative races? I don't know if she's made a decision or not but a lot of people have been watching JC saying she's done so well with an upward trajectory that she's well positioned to go for a third attempt and third time maybe a charm. I cannot speak today for JC because she hasn't made a commitment. I know people have called her already and have said they'll pledge their financial support and their support and so she has built a strong following. But we do not know what she's going to do for 2018 yet. But there's many candidates. You'll probably see some people that will come out of the boardroom to run for political office in 2018. You're going to see some business people who you would have thought wow that's really interesting that they came out of CEO or COO to run for an office in the state of Hawaii but it's going to happen in 2018. Well you know that sounds almost like Trump and the Trump administration. So is business a mainstay for Republicans? Business is going to be a mainstay in 2018 for Republicans. There's going to be many new forged relationships and you're going to see some businesses not afraid to identify with the Republican party. If someone has been a Democrat lifelong, if their parents have been Democrats and if they have been part of institutions that have endorsed Democrats such as Trump and so forth, what reason would you give them for considering what the Republicans have to offer? You know if their wallet is important to them and if putting food in the refrigerator is important to them and being able to afford it and if maybe someday not having to work three jobs, maybe even two jobs and that if you're wanting to have quality time at home at night with your children the Republican party is going to be offering because we're going to offer solutions to get them home to where we can improve wages and bring better jobs to Hawaii so that they don't have to work two jobs. We're all about the family we're all about quality of life we're about improving the quality of life in Hawaii and one of the ways to do that is to improve the economic condition of every single individual and family in this state. We are in for our people. All right well good note to stop on over here a lot of promise absolutely but you are not going to stop at all. Tell people how can they get a hold of you? What's the phone number? Tell phone number is 593-818-0 at the Hawaii Republican party. You can call us well before eight o'clock and well after six o'clock somebody will be there. Very good. Jack thanks for being on the program. Thank you for having me. My guest today Jack James executive director of the Hawaii Republican Party. Akina with the grassroots institute. We'll be back again next week on Ahana Kako saying goodbye from the Think Tech Hawaii broadcast network. Aloha.