Willes Lee, the state Republican Party chairman, will not run for re-election this weekend at the party's state convention on the Big Island, sources say.

Lee said he has not mounted a serious re-election campaign and has cleaned out his office at party headquarters in Honolulu. But he said he has not made an official announcement. "I haven't said whe-ther I am or not," he said yesterday.

Four candidates are expected to run for chairman, including Jonah Ka'auwai, a state corrections administrator and former deputy chief of staff to Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona whom many Republicans say is the favorite. Other candidates are Paul Smith, who leads the conservative Hawai'i Republican Assembly and is married to Linda Smith, Gov. Linda Lingle's senior policy adviser; Mike Palcic, an activist who helps run the Mac Mouse Club computer store; and Jimmy Kuroiwa, a veteran activist.

Aiona, a GOP candidate for governor in 2010, and Lingle are scheduled to speak to the convention tomorrow.

Republicans, who have lost seats in the state Legislature under Lingle, are trying to find a compelling message to compete with majority Democrats. Aiona is considered more conservative than Lingle, particularly on social issues, and the contenders for chairman are all from the party's conservative wing, suggesting a possible shift to the right.