After a six-week hiatus, outside money is again dominating local political advertising.
Non-candidate political committees — from both Hawaii and the mainland — together spent at least $960,000 this week on TV ads endorsing or opposing candidates in the state’s hottest races.
The Pacific Resource Partnership, the pro-rail trade group associated with the local carpenters union, was this week’s biggest spender. Contracts available in the stations’ political files show that the group spent nearly $332,000 on 784 spots that will begin airing next week through the end of October on KHON, KITV and KFVE.
The most expensive spot cost $3,500 and will air Oct. 29 during Dancing with the Stars. PRP also paid $2,500 each for a number of spots that will air in the next few weeks during the X Factor.
True to form, the ad opposes Honolulu mayoral candidate Ben Cayetano, who has vowed to kill the rail project if elected.
PRP already spent more than $1.3 million airing its pre-primary ads, meaning that, as of Thursday, the group has spent nearly $1.7 million on TV ads this election season.
Workers for a Better Hawaii was the week’s next biggest spender. The group spent more than $293,000 on 755 spots that are airing this week through early November on all the local broadcast stations. Workers paid at least $10,800 for spots airing throughout October during NFL games.
Disclosure forms available in the group’s public files indicate that its ad pertains to Honolulu’s mayoral race, but they don’t say whether it supports Cayetano or Kirk Caldwell.
As of Thursday, the group has spent nearly $309,000 on ad time.
Djou Now On Airwaves
Republican 1st Congressional District candidate Charles Djou this week bought his first TV spots of the election season. He spent more than $48,000 on 152 spots that are airing this week on all the local broadcast stations. One spot cost $1,000 and will air Sunday on KITV during the Emmy Awards.
His Democratic opponent Colleen Hanabusa has yet to buy ad time this election season.
Civil Beat every week has been visiting the three local broadcast stations to get copies of their political contracts. These contracts indicate which candidates and independent expenditure committees have made ad buys and for much. Broadcast stations are required to make these files available to the public.
For now, those documents are only available as hard copies at each station. Only contracts with Time Warner Cable are posted online.
Super PAC Money Focuses On U.S. Senate Ads
In a move that caught the attention of national media, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has reappeared in the U.S. Senate race, endorsing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda Lingle.
The public files show that the business organization this week spent about $198,000 on 399 spots that are airing through early October on KHON, KITV, KGMB and KHNL. Its most expensive buy was a spot that cost $6,900 and will air Oct. 1 during Hawaii 5-0.
The ad touts Lingle’s independent, bipartisan and moderate leadership.
The Chamber of Commerce spent $730,000 on pre-primary ads advocating Lingle. As of Thursday, the group has spent more than $930,000 total on ad time this election season.
Lingle on her part this week spent about $71,000 on 178 spots that are airing this week on all the local broadcast stations. She spent $2,500 on a spot that aired Wednesday during the X Factor and $1,720 on a spot that aired Thursday during the Office.
As of Thursday, she has spent roughly $500,000 on post-primary ad time. That means she’s spent about $1,095,000 on ad time this election season.
Contracts that showed up in this week’s public files also reveal that two super PACs have spent $140,000 on spots attacking Lingle.
Women Vote!, the voter mobilization arm of the pro-choice super PAC EMILY’s List, this week spent more than $115,000 on ad time. The ad is airing this week through early October.
The group has already spent at least $121,600 on spots endorsing 2nd Congressional District Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard. According to this week’s contracts, the anti-Lingle spots were bought in conjunction with the national union AFSCME.
And Working Families for Hawaii this week spent $23,000 on 66 spots that are airing this and next week on KHON, KITV and KGMB and support Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mazie Hirono.
As of Thursday, the group has spent roughly $38,000 on ad time since the primary.
The Lingle campaign has criticized Working Families as a puppet of the powerful national labor union AFL-CIO.
Hirono this week spent $68,000 on 264 spots that are airing this and next week on KHON, KITV and KFVE, according to the public files. One of those spots cost $1,600 and aired Monday during the Country Music Awards.
As of Thursday, Hirono has spent $398,000 on post-primary ad time. The Democrat has spent more than $1.1 million on ad time this election season.
Candidates and committees’ cable contracts have not yet been uploaded onto Oceanic Time Warner cable’s online Public File.
Grand Totals
Total ad buys this week amount to more than $1.1 million according to Civil Beat’s most recent review of the public files. As of Thursday, total post-primary TV ad spending was nearly $2 million. Total ad spending for the entire election season was almost $7.8 million. Non-candidate political committees have spent 39 percent of that money, or more than $3 million.
