In one of the more peculiar outbursts of the Hawaii political season, Republican congressional candidate Angela Aulani Kaaihue has issued a news release rejecting “this local dumb mentality” and offering to withdraw from her race if Gov. David Ige and “his Japanese constituents” will settle a lawsuit over land her family owns in Waimalu.
“I most certainly don’t want to or need to affiliate myself with this local dumb mentality. Go vote for your HINDU and your BUDDA leaders, I’ll drop out TULSI and COLLEEN, and I’ll stop mudslinging your campaign. Just have GOV. IGE, my neighbors leave our lands alone and compensate me for my losses. You heard!!”
Angela Aulani Kaaihue
From a news release in which she offers to withdraw from the race for U.S. representative
Kaaihue describes Hawaii as a “devil Democratic state” in the undated news release emailed Tuesday, and suggests she has little chance of winning her race with U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard anyway.
“Then Hawaii, YOU can have YOUR so-called ‘perfect’ pathetic Hindu 1000 GODS leader along with YOUR pathetic ‘career politician’ Buddhist Hanabusa, and your pathetic American Traitor, and my family and I will go our merrily way,” Kaaihue wrote in the release. “It’s obvious Republicans always lose and for TULSI she won’t have to face any more ridicules concerning her (looks) and her beliefs.”
Gabbard, who is seeking her third term in Congress representing rural Oahu and the neighbor islands, is Hindu. Hanabusa is Buddhist.
Kaaihue on Saturday officially became Gabbard’s Republican general election opponent after emerging as the top GOP candidate with 7,449 votes in the primary.
Kaaihue earlier this year attracted some unfavorable notice for fielding a campaign banner advertising herself as “healthy and cancer free,” which many interpreted as a reference to U.S. Rep. Mark Takai’s fight to overcome pancreatic cancer. Takai died this summer, and a memorial service was held at the state Capitol on Thursday.
Kaaihue said in an interview Tuesday she is a real estate developer who lives in the Waikele area, and filed for office because she has been locked in a years-long legal dispute with the Newtown Estates Community Association that effectively blocked her efforts to build a home on her family’s 82-acre Waimalu property.
Ige is not a direct party to the lawsuit, but Kaaihue said the governor could help resolve the dispute by calling meetings or writing letters explaining whether he supports what the community association is doing.
“I haven’t heard anything like that,” she said. “It’s like he’s ignoring the problem. How can you ignore the problem of your own community association?
“That’s why I wanted to go public with this, because I didn’t want to be ignored, I didn’t want to lose our property quietly,” she said.
As for the political race, “If Tulsi wants me out, do something about this problem and I’ll be out,” Kaaihue said. “If you want me out, I’ll get out, you can reduce the competition, give it all to Tulsi. Just leave my property alone, leave me alone, and compensate me for our losses. I want to build my family a home.”
Kaaihue said she has been particularly disappointed that the Hawaiian community hasn’t rallied to support her cause, and her news release complains of “non-existent support from the Hawaiian community and Kaaihue family.”
“I most certainly don’t want to or need to affiliate myself with this local dumb mentality,” she wrote in the news release. “Go vote for your HINDU and your BUDDA leaders, I’ll drop out TULSI and COLLEEN, and I’ll stop mudslinging your campaign. Just have GOV. IGE, my neighbors leave our lands alone and compensate me for my losses. You heard!!”
Republican Party Chairman Fritz Rohlfing said Tuesday he has not discussed the news release with Kaaihue and does not know what it means.
“I don’t understand what her point is, and so I’m mystified as to what it is she’s trying to accomplish,” Rohlfing said. “I haven’t had any prior discussions about these topics with her, so I’m at a loss.”
