The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has purchased a fourth round of television advertising for former Gov. Linda Lingle’s Republican campaign for U.S. Senate, bringing the business group’s investment in Hawaii to more than $1 million.
The $311,000 ad buy focuses on job growth.
"Linda Lingle has a proven record as a bipartisan leader who will work with members of both parties to get things done and create jobs," Rob Engstrom, the U.S. Chamber’s senior vice president and national political director, said in a statement.
Interest groups that support U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, Lingle’s Democratic opponent, have purchased ads on her behalf, but not to the extent the chamber has helped Lingle.
Working Families for Hawaii, a labor group financed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, upped its ad buy critical of Lingle this week by $14,600, for a total of $78,550 so far in the general election. (Working Families also spent more than $69,000 on behalf of Hirono in the primary.) Women Vote! — the independent expenditure arm of EMILY’s List — has spent $75,000 on ads targeting Lingle.
The spots highlight the teacher furloughs under Lingle as governor.
Seth Johnson, an assistant director in AFSCME’s political action department, said by telephone from Washington, D.C., that the ads are intended to remind parents and students about the disruption of furloughs. "She’s trying to reinvent herself in this campaign," he said of Lingle’s bipartisan theme.
