Where will the Super PACS go to celebrate tonight? Will the billionaires be dancing tonight because their hidden millions put their candidate over the top?
Or will it just be a quiet phone call to remind the newly elected what they owe and to whom?
Either way, as my favorite philosopher and former medical examiner George Pacheco used to say: "It goes like this for a while and then it gets worse."
If all politics is local, then the big local Super PAC is the Pacific Resource Partnership, which has spent an estimated $3 million in negative ads attacking the reputation of former Gov. Ben Cayetano.
The front man for PRP is John White, its executive director. He is an unsuccessful City Council candidate and former political operative for the late Duke Bainum and U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono. With his concurrence and the guidance of several public relations and political consulting firms, PRP has managed to change Hawaii’s political landscape.
"Its false, secretly funded, $3-million-plus character attack on candidate Cayetano gambles that more voters will be fooled or just turn away from voting than will vote against that extreme negativity," said former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, a Cayetano-for-mayor supporter.
No amount of public shaming will get PRP to stop its tactics, especially if after tonight’s election it proves that carpet bombing political stink bombs does the job.
Politicians and political consultants say negative campaigning usually works. It is a truism in local politics that Hawaii’s political discussion does not get nasty as fast as it does in mainland markets where the actors are anonymous. You just aren’t going to tell lies about someone who you are likely to be standing next to at Longs.
Now, thanks to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, Super PACS can drive their own political campaign without ever disclosing where the money came from. Super PACS, like PRP, don’t have to say where they got their money, who gave, when they gave or how much money they have.
Now any faceless billionaire can play in Hawaii waters. And they are.
Records show that the Fund for Freedom Committee, linked to the Republican Governors Association, put $335,000 in local advertising for former Gov. Linda Lingle’s Senate campaign. Also, Citizens for a Working America sponsored the glossy multipage Lingle brochure that even features Lingle with President Barack Obama.
That Super PAC probably wasn’t looking for pictures of the Hawaii-born president when it ran ads for Rep. Michele Bachman, R-Minn..
Lingle’s campaign fires back that Majority PAC is running big advertising campaigns against Lingle. According to OpenSecrets.org, Majority PAC is getting some of its money from Democrats, including film producer Steve Bing and liberal investor George Soros.
None of this is good for local political values or even local politicians, but there is little that can be done.
After the last campaign trolley has been ridden and the last email blast delivered, what is more likely is this: If an issue is worth enough money or has national impact, Hawaii’s vote will be for sale to the highest anonymous bidder.
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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
