Mainland super PACs made the biggest splash this week with local political ad buys, spending more than $152,000 on Hawaii TV networks, according to Civil Beat’s latest sweep of public files.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $104,970 this week on 257 spots on KHON supporting former Gov. Linda Lingle‘s bid for U.S. Senate. The 30-second ads will run May 10 through May 23. This is after spending $136,215 last week for 609 spots on three news networks.

In the 2nd Congressional District race, veterans group VoteVets.org threw their political weight behind Honolulu City Councilwoman Tulsi Gabbard. Earlier this week, Roll Call reported that VoteVets had shelled out $75,000 to air ads for 10 days. VoteVets — a tax-exempt independent expenditure-only committee — is described as the largest progressive veterans organization in the country.

So far, the public files show that VoteVets has spent $48,000 to air 97 spots on all three local television news stations from May 16 to May 29. The most expensive: $1,050 for 30-second ads that will air during the 5 p.m. news on KGMB.

Building off the $110,000 he spent for 380 spots on local stations last week, Mayor Peter Carlisle this week spent an additional $19,500 for 81 more spots on KITV.

As of Wednesday, no other candidates had made new buys. However, the sign-in sheets indicate the campaigns continue to visit the stations to review the political ad files and keep an eye on their competitors.

There were no new candidate or campaign expenditures this week on Oceanic Time Warner, according to its online database.

By law, every local broadcast station is required to keep a public file with documents showing who’s bought air time, when the ads will air and how much they paid. Only Oceanic Time Warner puts this information online. Each week, Civil Beat plans to visit the stations to obtain paper copies that we will scan in and put online.

PACs and candidates spent a combined $172,375 on TV ads this week. Last week, that figure was approximately $366,000.