Beth Fukumoto switching parties

[Pandaguineapig]

I feel this is relevant because this is the second time in a little over two years the Hawaii house minority leader has jumped ship. The republican party of Hawaii is turning into a small rump party

http://bigislandnow.com/2017/02/02/rep-fukumoto-seeks-to-switch-parties-after-trump-criticism/

[SATW]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

[Pandaguineapig]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

Granted she was to the left of the entire caucus( and many members of the Hawaii democratic caucus) it's never a good sign when all your "rising stars" leave the party

[SATW]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

Granted she was to the left of the entire caucus( and many members of the Hawaii democratic caucus) it's never a good sign when all your "rising stars" leave the party

Yes, but not because she left. Its because she should never have been the face of the party. I am not a RINO-hunter - in fact, i usually defend moderate repubs - but Fukumoto has always been pretty left-leaning even by HI standards (as you noted).

The party has a lot of structural issues - including not having any real agenda.

[Pandaguineapig]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

Granted she was to the left of the entire caucus( and many members of the Hawaii democratic caucus) it's never a good sign when all your "rising stars" leave the party

Yes, but not because she left. Its because she should never have been the face of the party. I am not a RINO-hunter - in fact, i usually defend moderate repubs - but Fukumoto has always been pretty left-leaning even by HI standards (as you noted).

The party has a lot of structural issues - including not having any real agenda.

It sounds like she had been planning to leave for a while, she bashed Trump and his voters at the Hawaii state GOP convention and flirted with leaving the party during her speech, when she trashed the federal gop and participated in the women's march it was the last straw for the Hawaii gop and they removed her from her position. She's using that as her excuse to leave

[Maxwell]

FF! Hope she gives Gabbard a nice primary challenge.

[Knives]

FF! Hope she gives Gabbard a nice primary challenge.

This.

[Pandaguineapig]

Hawaii has the most lopsided Democratic state legislature in the country now...The upper chamber dosent have a single Republican!

The Hawaii democratic party has become a big tent party that is not really seen in other states. There are very conservative members of the democratic caucus who are democrats solely to get elected( Tulsi Gabbard is an example).

[SATW]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

Granted she was to the left of the entire caucus( and many members of the Hawaii democratic caucus) it's never a good sign when all your "rising stars" leave the party

Yes, but not because she left. Its because she should never have been the face of the party. I am not a RINO-hunter - in fact, i usually defend moderate repubs - but Fukumoto has always been pretty left-leaning even by HI standards (as you noted).

The party has a lot of structural issues - including not having any real agenda.

It sounds like she had been planning to leave for a while, she bashed Trump and his voters at the Hawaii state GOP convention and flirted with leaving the party during her speech, when she trashed the federal gop and participated in the women's march it was the last straw for the Hawaii gop and they removed her from her position. She's using that as her excuse to leave

yea, she's clearly motivated by electoral opportunism in her moves, imo.

[MAINEiac4434]

FF! Hope she gives Gabbard a nice primary challenge.

Tulsi should also switch parties.

[Tartarus Sauce]

Dear god, and I thought ultra red state Democrats had it bad. 6 out of 51 seats in the house and no seats in the senate? I never thought I'd feel pity for a Republican state party in the age of Trump.

[MAINEiac4434]

Dear god, and I thought ultra red state Democrats had it bad. 6 out of 51 seats in the house and no seats in the senate? I never thought I'd feel pity for a Republican state party in the age of Trump.

Soon to be five.

It's amazing, some Hawaii Republicans would be Montana Democrats.

[Zioneer]

Whenever I feel depressed about being a Utah Democrat, I look at the Hawaii Republicans and laugh.

[Indy Texas]

And to think, when Hawaii was admitted as a state, there was an assumption that it would be a Republican-leaning state that would offset the anticipated Democratic-leaning state of Alaska.

[henster]

The talk of primarying Tulsi is self defeating if she loses she will just run as a Indie and then caucus with the Republicans.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The talk of primarying Tulsi is self defeating if she loses she will just run as a Indie and then caucus with the Republicans.

That's probably not legal in Hawaii (it's not in most states, it's just that Connecticut in 2006 was one of the few that didn't have such a law) and even it is it's a huge assumption that she'd win the general as an indie.

[smoltchanov]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

Yeah. You value right-wingers only. Religious bigots, Trumpish idiots and their like. 40 years ago Republicans had Jacob Javits and Clifford Case, while Democrats - Bob Stump and Phil Gramm. And it was good and interesting. Now - yawn. In most cases there are 2 hordes of fanatics..

[mds32]

Republicans in Hawaii will have to evaluate ways to distinguish themselves in the near future and create a little bit of distance from the Democratic party in order to grow their party. Fukumoto still hasn't switched parties, the HI GOP should be shutting its mouth imo though and not risk losing another seat they would have to fight to get back just to get a little less irrelevant.

[smoltchanov]

Republicans in Hawaii will have to evaluate ways to distinguish themselves in the near future and create a little bit of distance from the Democratic party in order to grow their party. Fukumoto still hasn't switched parties, the HI GOP should be shutting its mouth imo though and not risk losing another seat they would have to fight to get back just to get a little less irrelevant.

What for do you need to artificially create this distance? Among few remaining in Hawaii legislature Republicans there is couple of relatively "solid" conservatives (Ward and McDermott), couple of clear moderates (Fukumoto, Thielen) (and, again, IMHO - it's good that they may be to the left of some Democrats), and so on. Party's ideological "purity" if absolutely fine under European parlamentary system with at least 5-6 parties (say, 2-3 - conservative, 1-2 - moderate, and couple - liberal and socialist), but in US??? With ONLY 2 parties? I will not even mention that there is no "party of center", and that extreme polarization has many dire consequences for political process..

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Someday the moderates in the Hawaii Democratic Party are going to become Republicans.  After the Northern Strategy phase is over the GOP will be competitive there again.

[smoltchanov]

Someday the moderates in the Hawaii Democratic Party are going to become Republicans.  After the Northern Strategy phase is over the GOP will be competitive there again.

Not sure. They have no stimulus for that. Just as Southern conservatives win nothing now from becoming Democrats, or Massachusetts (or Rhode Island or Vermont) moderates - from becoming Republicans. It's much more profitable for southern conservatives to remain Republicans, and for Massachusetts (and other) moderates - Democrats. The same in Hawaii

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Someday the moderates in the Hawaii Democratic Party are going to become Republicans.  After the Northern Strategy phase is over the GOP will be competitive there again.

Not sure. They have no stimulus for that. Just as Southern conservatives win nothing now from becoming Democrats, or Massachusetts (or Rhode Island or Vermont) moderates - from becoming Republicans. It's much more profitable for southern conservatives to remain Republicans, and for Massachusetts (and other) moderates - Democrats. The same in Hawaii

The Democratic Party will eventually move too far left and will alienate the moderate Democrats in Hawaii.

For the record, I'm predicting this to happen after 2040.

[smoltchanov]

Someday the moderates in the Hawaii Democratic Party are going to become Republicans.  After the Northern Strategy phase is over the GOP will be competitive there again.

Not sure. They have no stimulus for that. Just as Southern conservatives win nothing now from becoming Democrats, or Massachusetts (or Rhode Island or Vermont) moderates - from becoming Republicans. It's much more profitable for southern conservatives to remain Republicans, and for Massachusetts (and other) moderates - Democrats. The same in Hawaii

The Democratic Party will eventually move too far left and will alienate the moderate Democrats in Hawaii.

For the record, I'm predicting this to happen after 2040.

And Republican - move too far to the right to alienate relatively moderate Republicans in South Carolina??

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Someday the moderates in the Hawaii Democratic Party are going to become Republicans.  After the Northern Strategy phase is over the GOP will be competitive there again.

Not sure. They have no stimulus for that. Just as Southern conservatives win nothing now from becoming Democrats, or Massachusetts (or Rhode Island or Vermont) moderates - from becoming Republicans. It's much more profitable for southern conservatives to remain Republicans, and for Massachusetts (and other) moderates - Democrats. The same in Hawaii

The Democratic Party will eventually move too far left and will alienate the moderate Democrats in Hawaii.

For the record, I'm predicting this to happen after 2040.

And Republican - move too far to the right to alienate relatively moderate Republicans in South Carolina??

I doubt it.  After Republicans realize the Northern Strategy was a bad idea, they will drop the anti-immigration rhetoric and will be more inclusive in some respects.

[SATW]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

Yeah. You value right-wingers only. Religious bigots, Trumpish idiots and their like. 40 years ago Republicans had Jacob Javits and Clifford Case, while Democrats - Bob Stump and Phil Gramm. And it was good and interesting. Now - yawn. In most cases there are 2 hordes of fanatics..

What the actual...?

If you are going  to be condescending to me...at least be right. I am indeed conservative, but I'm hardly far-right. My only litmus test in on foreign policy - a test which many moderate republicans are actually better on then arch conservatives.

Susan Collins, Shelley Moore-Capito, Mark Kirk, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, George Pataki, Christine Todd Whitman, Kay Bailey Hutchison are all moderate by today's GOP standards and I am a huge fan of all them.

People like Al D'Amato, Kelly Ayotte, Pat Toomey and Rob Portman - all conservative in my book - are considered to be somewhat moderate by actual party purists. I support all of these republicans, not the purists.

You are right that I don't value people like Jacob Javits and Clifford Case - even for me they were a bit too liberal - but I still liked people like Thomas Dewey.

I'm hardly a "religious fanatic" and I'm often at odds with the religious right on LGBT rights.

I have always supported a broad spectrum - ideologically - of Republicans. But, certain politicians will always be exceptions to the rule. Beth Fukumoto seems to be one of those exceptions.