Kālai'āina • Politics

Jonah Ka'auwai takes his seat as chairman of the Hawai'i Republican Party July 1. - Photo: Lisa Asato

By Lisa Asato / Ka Wai Ola

Getting settled into his newly elected post as chairman of the Hawai'i Republican Party, Jonah-Kūhiō Ka'auwai surrounds himself with framed desk-top photos of his family in his Kapi'olani Boulevard office, a space dominated by statewide maps hung on the wall and a large, colorful illustration of former President Ronald Reagan, whom Ka'auwai calls "a man of deep values."

But when asked which Republican figure he admires most, the 36-year-old Ka'auwai points to the one whose name he carries: Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole, father of the Hawaiian Civic Clubs and the federal Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. "With that name comes great responsibility," says Ka'auwai, a Kaua'i native who worked in Washington, D.C., for about a year as an intern for Sen. Daniel Akaka and a lobbying firm under the late Henry Giugni, a longtime aide to U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and the first Hawaiian sergeant-at-arms to the U.S. Senate.

Hawai'i GOP members elected the former men's pastor and worship leader at Hope Chapel, West O'ahu, to the volunteer, two-year position during its annual convention May 15-17 in Kona. He's not the first Hawaiian to hold the position; Micah Kāne and Sam Aiona preceded him.

But he stepped into the post July 1, less than 18 months before the 2010 elections, which will see races from the governor's office to the U.S. Congress open up. His goals for the election? He wants to see more Hawaiians running, period – no matter their political affiliation. But for the GOP, he aims to field candidates in every election – including next month's nonpartisan special election to fill the Honolulu City Council seat left vacant by the death of Duke Bainum – and to double Hawai'i GOP membership to 40,000. He said in one-week's time he received an estimated dozen calls from people interested in running for office under the GOP banner in the next election, including several Hawaiians. Not wanting to reveal their identities, he said, "They'll be names you'll be familiar with, but they've never run for politics."

Jonah Ka'auwai shows his colors as chairman of the Hawai'i Republican Party. - Photo: Lisa Asato

As chairman, his overarching goal is "to see the depth of a two-party system in Hawai'i, where there's more than just one party in the political scene making decisions for the state of Hawai'i," said Ka'auwai, who registered more than 400 new party members in the last six months, including 17 Democrats. "I call it card-carrying liberations," he said.

Gov. Linda Lingle – the first Republican governor since statehood, whose tenure will end under term limits – has also been a proponent of a two-party system in Hawai'i, where Democrats hold all four of its congressional seats and all but eight of 76 seats at the state Legislature. While she helped make some inroads at the Legislature, those Republican gains in seats have eroded in recent years.

Looking ahead, Ka'auwai said: "The party's focus is going to be developing strong grassroots (support) in all precincts and districts in the state of Hawai'i and building a stronger recruitment apparatus and district-level campaign apparatus. I don't think we've seen that before. We've seen a party that's been more candidate-focused and more issues-focused; … we're talking about building at the lowest levels." That would include get-out-the-vote efforts, conducting community outreach and filling vacant positions in district and precinct chairs, said Ka'auwai, a 1990 Kamehameha Schools graduate who double majored in philosophy and business at Boston College.

To get the word out, Ka'auwai said that he, Jim Bryan, the party's vice chairman for communications, and the party's executive committee is working on developing and "communicating a Republican message."

In an e-mail, Bryan said the party will use "every type of multimedia at our disposal to reach out to the population of Hawai'i – voters and nonvoters alike." He said they will embrace Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and "several new forms of communication that have never been utilized in Hawai'i before" to spread the word and correct stereotypes and misconceptions about the party.

Crediting Ka'auwai's leadership, Bryan called the party's embrace of technology a "huge step for a party that has relied on 'old school' for a long time."

As for the party's values, Ka'auwai points to family values, education, cost of living and fiscal responsibility. For the Akaka Bill, he said the party's platform is "wide open right now on the Akaka Bill," the federal recognition bill for Native Hawaiians pending in Congress. He said the issue "certainly could come up" at the party convention in May.

Ka'auwai served as a deputy chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona from late 2007 until February, when he returned to his post as division administrator of Correctional Industries, a for-profit entity within the state Department of Public Safety, a job he has held for five years. In that post, he turned a floundering, debt-ridden entity into a profitable one, by implementing basic business principles and "being cash-conscious and fiscally responsible," said Ka'auwai, whose wife, Shari, (pronounced Sha-REE) is the mainland branch administrator for the Public Safety Department.

Jonah Ka'auwai takes his seat as chairman of the Hawai'i Republican Party July 1. The black chair, above, was used by the former chairman, but Ka'auwai has set it aside to remind him of the people he serves. "This chair is for the people and our children and our children yet to come," he says. - Photo: Lisa Asato

In the process, he got more inmates working eight-hour jobs, learning skills and responsibilities that helped them transition to the workforce after their release. "When you see people succeeding from the work that you've done, I thought, 'That's where Jonah was meant to be,' " said Ka'auwai.

But, he said, a positive experience through an OHA youth legislative program years earlier planted the seeds for politics. "I'll tell you how pivotal the 'Aha 'Ōpio program was on my life," he said, recalling that it taught him how decisions today will affect generations to come and "how I needed to participate in order to contribute the most to Hawaiians through the systems that are in place, such as government." One of his mentors in the program, which has evolved into a leadership program run by Nā Pua No'eau, was Kauila Clark, who imparted the idea of kuleana. "If you're a Hawaiian leader, you have to understand that in the position of leadership comes great responsibilities, and it's not just about what you can gain, but how you can end up serving other people in the process," said Ka'auwai, who named his youngest son after Clark.

"Definitely, OHA has been a massive part of developing that understanding of what it means to be a Hawaiian," he said. "I think if you take that understanding of being responsible for the people and for the land, that shaped the character of who I am today and obviously why you see me as the chair of the Republican Party."