Hawaii GOP repudiates Gabbard's challenger and makes a plea for decency

[bluedye33139]

Hawaii's Republican Party chairman is denouncing the GOP candidate challenging Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, calling the comments she made about the congresswoman “racially-bigoted” and “religiously-intolerant,” according to Roll Call.

Chairman Fritz Rohlfing said GOP House candidate Angela Kaaihue’s remarks about Gabbard's and former Rep. Colleen Hanabusa’s religion are not representative of the Republican Party, and urged other Republicans in the state to “disavow her candidacy.” Kaaihue also criticized Gabbard's appearance.

“Her vulgar, racially-bigoted, and religiously-intolerant descriptions of Democratic Party candidates are offensive, shameful, and unacceptable in public discourse,” Rohlfing said in a statement. “I unconditionally denounce her despicable statements. I strongly urge all Hawaii Republicans to join me in disavowing her candidacy."

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/292253-hawaii-gop-chairman-denounces-republican-challenging-rep-gabbard

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I'm always a little tepid with Gabbard because of her anti-gay history and continued odd beliefs about LGBT people, but on the other hand she is a fairly solid vote for equality and freedom of conscience when it comes to LGBT people. When people dislike lesbians and gays, I suppose the best we can hope from them is that they will recognize that their own religious views should not dictate the personal lives of people who do not belong to the same faith.

AND the bigger point for me is that, as a yellow dog Democrat, I would pretty much vote for anyone on the D ticket. Gabbard is one of ours, and the attacks from Kaaihue are literally insane. Good on the Hawaii chairman to recognize that Kaaihue's attacks are beyond the pale of what should be tolerated in politics.

And I hope that Gabbard is re-elected. I haven't seen data on the district, but I think she's going to be ok.

[mostlyalurker]

1. Gabbard is in no danger of losing her seat.

Tulsi is not my favorite but, her closest democratic challenger was miles behind in the primary and Kaaihue only got 7000 or so total votes in her primary.
In addition to being batshit insane, Kaaihue has the added problem of being a republican in Hawaii. Mostly though, she's an illiterate nut job who (as far as I can make out) is running to be a US Representative to congress because she's mad at her homeowners association and seems to think the governor is the problem. It is truly bizarre. It makes you feel kinda sorry for Rohlfing, but it's pretty entertaining for us here in Hawaii.