The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has bought a third round of television advertis ing for former Gov. Linda Lingle’s Republican cam paign for the U.S. Senate and has deployed regional offi cials to the islands to appear on her behalf.

The chamber’s latest 30second ad extolls Lingle as a bipartisan leader. It is a $250,000 purchase that fol lows about $500,000 in ad vertising for Lingle earlier this year.

While the chamber’s ads are independent of the Lin gle campaign, the timing dovetails with Lingle’s me dia rollout over the past sev eral weeks intended to influence voter turnout for the August primary. Lingle does not have a competitive primary, but hopes to use the opportunity to identity voters and build momentum for a November general elec tion against either U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono or former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, the leading Democrats.

“Let’s face it, when there’s a hot primary campaign go ing on the lion’s share of the media attention is going to be focused on the people in volved in that primary campaign,” said Dick Castner, executive director of the chamber’s western region. “And we want some focus to be on the candidate that we want to win, not just on the two people that we’re not supporting.”

Castner and Darlene Miller, president and chief executive officer of Permac Industries, a Minnesota pre cision parts manufacturing company, have events for Lingle scheduled on Maui, Hawaii island and Kauai.

The U.S. Chamber has re leased poll results that show Lingle with a slight lead over Hirono in a potential Novem ber matchup.

“Her past record as gover nor of Hawaii really lends it self to her credibility, especially in creating jobs and bringing tourism back to Hawaii,” said Miller, who serves on the chamber’s board of directors.

Political analysts had pre dicted the U.S. Senate cam paign in Hawaii would attract national attention from inter est groups. Locally, Working Families for Hawaii, a labor group, has purchased radio ads for Hirono. The Univer sity of Hawaii Professional Assembly has bought televi sion and radio time on behalf of Case.

Hirono said campaign spending by interest groups such as the U.S. Chamber shows the need for the DIS CLOSE Act, which would re quire interest groups to give the Federal Election Com mission the names of donors who contribute more than $10,000. The legislation was drafted in response to Citi zens United v. FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that al lows unlimited independent political spending by corpo rations and labor unions.

Senate Democrats failed this week to get the 60 votes necessary to break a GOP fili buster on the bill. Republi cans think the bill would chill free speech and aid labor in terests more likely to have donors who would not meet the disclosure threshold.

Hirono said in a state ment, “If elected, would Linda Lingle stand with her Republican leadership in the Senate and vote against campaign spending trans parency or do right by the American people and say no to protecting secret special interest backers?”

Case also supports the DISCLOSE Act, which he called in a text message “a good start at desperately needed campaignfinance re form, and yet another glaring example of the need for fili buster reform in the Senate.”