Jonah Kaauwai’s departure as state Republican chairman was inevitable once supporters of former Gov. Linda Lingle and former U.S. Rep. Charles Djou started gunning for him.

And the change probably was necessary if local Republicans are to present a more moderate message needed to compete in Democratic Hawaii as Lingle eyes a U.S. Senate race next year and Djou seeks a rematch for the House seat he lost to Colleen Hanabusa.

But it would be unfair to fault Kaauwai alone for the moribund state of the local GOP — divided, disorganized, debt-ridden and dead in the water with no statewide offices and only nine seats in the Legislature. Lingle gets a full share of the blame for that.

Kaauwai restored some measure of respectability to the party by fielding candidates for nearly all legislative seats last year after the disgraceful 2008 campaign in which the GOP failed to compete in 40 percent of the contests.

It was in the big races for governor and the U.S. House that Kaauwai proved himself a liability as a narrow thinker playing to a small base.

GOP gubernatorial candidate James "Duke" Aiona needed to assure Hawaii’s religiously diverse electorate that he respected the line between church and state despite his personal conservative Christian beliefs, and Aiona himself did a decent job of handling the issue.

But Kaauwai undermined him and polarized voters by sending emotional appeals to the "body of Christ" hailing Aiona as the only "righteous" candidate.

Djou may well have kept the House seat he won in a special election with a smart campaign that hit Hanabusa on local issues she was vulnerable on — 36 percent pay raises for legislators in a crushing recession, the $75 million Ko Olina aquarium boondoggle, leading the ouster of former Attorney General Margery Bronster as she investigated the Bishop Estate scandal.

But Kaauwai instead ran the local GOP campaign out of the national conservative playbook, which has never sold in Hawaii.

That he’s leaving the party with little to build from is more Lingle’s doing than his, however.

She traded on being Hawaii’s first Republican governor in 40 years but did little to grow the party during her tenure.

Instead of focusing on electing local Republican candidates to help enact her agenda, Lingle spent election years padding her national résumé by stumping on the mainland for the party’s presidential tickets. The GOP lost 11 seats in the state House and four in the state Senate on her watch.

She controlled state patronage for eight years — a golden opportunity to recruit and nurture bright young Republicans — but failed to capitalize and left behind no budding stars to carry the GOP forward.

Don’t put that on Jonah Kaauwai.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.