Who's Leading The Hawaii House GOP? Nobody Knows
It’s been almost three months since the 2020 election, but Republicans in the Hawaii House of Representatives can’t decide on a caucus leader.
Contrast that to the 47 Democrats in the 51-member chamber, who settled on their leadership shortly after Nov. 3.
The GOP is split with Reps. Val Okimoto and Lauren Matsumoto disagreeing with Reps. Gene Ward and Bob McDermott. The impasse means there is no minority leader to direct caucus action on the House floor and no package of bills to emphasize GOP priorities.
And, in a development that happened over the weekend, Shirlene Ostrov, the chair of the Hawaii Republican Party, resigned her post in the wake of official tweets appearing to offer praise to QAnon and a Holocaust denier.
More on that in a moment.
If the four House Republicans cannot reach an agreement, House Speaker Scott Saiki, a Democrat, will probably have to break the tie — something he says he’d rather not do. But the entire House needs to vote on leadership positions as a pro forma matter.
“The GOP caucus knows that I am perfectly willing to go in and cast a deciding vote for them, but what I have told them is that I want them to make this decision on their own,” Saiki told me Friday, adding that he decided to let the Republicans serve on committees and informational briefings in spite of the organizational deadlock.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/02/chad-blair-whos-leading-the-hawaii-house-gop-nobody-knows/
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