The son of Korean immigrants, a West Point graduate who is now an accomplished businessman, David S. Chang, a bright and energetic 31-year old, is writing America’s success story.

So how did he get so involved with local politics that he wound up running the state Republican Party?

Early this month, Chang was unanimously elected by the GOP state committee to succeed Beth Fukumoto, the interim chairwoman, who took over after Jonah Kaauwai stepped down.

This is no casual challenge. The local GOP is in debt, its presence at the state Legislature and in county government is minimal. And the entire congressional delegation puts a "D" after its name.

"I realized I would be in the best position to unite the party. A better Hawaii needs dialog and a viable two-party system," says Chang.

Chang is a quick study. He came to Hawaii as an East-West Center fellow after graduating from West Point. After that, he served at Schofield and joined the National Guard when he left active duty. His family was born in Korea and speaks Korean at home, but the family actually lived in China before moving to America in the 1970s.

As party chairman, Chang says he is trying to steer the GOP on a course of encouraging solid candidates to fill slots in the state Legislature. Previously the GOP tried to make sure there was a candidate for every House and Senate seat. And before that the plan was to go for the top and won with Gov. Linda Linge. But attempts to use patronage to fill out the GOP legislative ranks didn’t work.

In fact, none of the plans worked very well — so Chang is attempting a more studied approach.

"In a perfect world there would be a highly qualified candidate for every seat," he said. "Obviously I won’t get that, but I want to recruit highly qualified candidates."

If Hawaii Republicans find most things just a little bit more difficult, the replacement of Kaauwai was pure torment. Kaauwai represented conservative Christians, an important part of the GOP core. But his sometimes overly enthusiastic proselytizing made the small business, libertarian and anti-big government Republicans in the party uncomfortable.

So the forces loyal to Lingle, and those worried about the party’s financial footing, moved Kaauwai aside.

But wait — this isn’t just a political story. This is a love story, too.

Last year Fukumoto was running as a Republican for the state House from Mililani and Chang was running for the House from the Chinatown-to-Downtown district. Both lost their races, but found each other.

"Beth and I are engaged. We met during the campaign and hit it off," Chang says.

"Sparks flew immediately for me, but he was entirely focused on his campaign — so sparks were later for him," Fukumoto, 28, jokes.

Chang confides that their dates are spent mostly discussing politics.

"She likes dialog and discourse, and our date nights are spent talking about the political environment we are in," he says.

Confesses Fukumoto: "Honestly, dates are mostly us sitting around in front of our laptops."

If this is love on the campaign trail, it is also love between two extremely focused high achievers.

Fukumoto says they plan to marry in June — not so much to be a June bride, but because that is a natural lull before the start of the 2012 campaign season.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.