The State Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Hawaii on Saturday (March 31) rejected Laura Thielen‘s request to run for office in the 2012 primary election.

In a press release, Thielen, the former DLNR director under Republican Linda Lingle and daughter of GOP Rep. Cynthia Thielen, said that the decision was reached behind closed doors and that party leaders refused to explain their decision.

Quote from Thielen:

Many of the Party leaders, especially on Oahu, are clearly uncomfortable with independent thinking. This is a clear attempt by some Party insiders to limit voter choice to their hand-picked candidates. I and a number of other Democratic Party members think that this is wrong.

Thielen sought to run for the state Senate District 25 seat held by Pohai Ryan, who barely won the primary two years ago; the seat was vacated by the retiring Republican Fred Hemmings. The district includes Waiamanalo, Kailua and Portlock.

NOTE: Sen. Ryan emailed Sunday (April 1)  to remind me that she defeated her GOP opponent in the general election by 1,700 votes. I should have made clear I was referring to the closely contested Democratic primary, where Ryan took 28.7 percent of the vote, defeating Chuck Prentis (26.2 percent) and Andrew Jamila (23.4 percent).

Thielen, who says she has never been a registered Republican, said she decided to run for office “after seeing the Legislature strip laws protecting the environment and shut down transparency in government process and contracts.”