Association to make donations on behalf of Cayetano
By Derrick DePledge
June 14, 2014
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STAR-ADVERTISER The Pacific Resource Partnership followed up their apology Thursday to former Gov. Ben Cayetano for a negative advertising campaign during the mayor's race in 2012 with donations of $100,000 to the University of Hawaii Medical School and $25,000 to the Hawaiian Humane Society in hiss name.
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The Pacific Resource Partnership, in addition to apologizing to former Gov. Ben Cayetano for a negative advertising campaign during the mayor’s race in 2012, will donate $100,000 to the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine and $25,000 to the Hawaiian Humane Society in Cayetano’s name.
The agreement settles a defamation lawsuit that Cayetano filed against PRP shortly before his election defeat. Cayetano lost to Kirk Caldwell for Honolulu mayor.
The former governor had argued that PRP’s negative ads unfairly tarnished his reputation.
PRP is a consortium of union carpenters and private contractors. The group favored the city’s rail project, which Cayetano had vowed to block if he was elected mayor.
PRP spent more than $3.6 million in its campaign against Cayetano and an undisclosed but substantial amount of money on a pro-rail ad blitz.
A letter from John White, PRP’s executive director, to Cayetano that includes the apology and the donation pledge will appear in a half-page ad in Sunday’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
PRP, through a public relations firm, declined to comment on the donation pledge Friday. White said in a statement Thursday that both parties are satisfied with the settlement.