Former Gov. Ben Cayetano is one who savors getting the last word. His 560-page autobiography, besides being a good read, is a long study in the feisty Democrat having the final say on countless political fights and grudge matches.

After he lost his race for mayor in 2012, Cayetano sued Pacific Resource Partners, saying they vilified him.

Today there is an apology from PRP and the lawsuit is ended.

So on one level, Cayetano’s victory over PRP and getting an apology for their exaggerated smear campaign is part of the Cayetano modus operandi.

During Cayetano’s uphill campaign for mayor in 2012, PRP may not have lied in the particular, but their commercials absolutely deconstructed the truth.

The irony of the PRP campaign was that it darkly claimed that Cayetano while governor ran a "pay-to-play" scheme to force money from contractors in return for government business.

First, if that were true on its face, it is illegal under state and federal laws. Second, the claim is being made by one of the biggest hidden conglomerations of people who benefit from the construction industry.

At the time in 2012, the biggest threat to the city’s heavy rail project was Cayetano, who said if elected mayor he would stop it.

The more than $5 billion rail plan is the beating heart of all Honolulu development for the next 20 years, so stopping it was a direct threat to every developer, contractor, subcontractor and carpenter hoping to make a living from building out Oahu.

The sleaze involved with PRP was the attempt to mislead voters about Cayetano’s honesty. The real issue was that the contributions to Cayetano were illegally given to Cayetano, not illegally accepted by Cayetano.

If someone robs a bank, they break the law; the bank doesn’t break the law for being the scene of the crime.

The hypocrisy of PRP came from its executive director, John White, who assisted in the campaign and defended it and today will not talk about the apology.

Mazie Hirono was Cayetano’s lieutenant governor; she also received contributions that were ruled illegal. When she served in Congress Hirono’s executive assistant was John White, but there is no discussion about "pay-to-play" involving Hirono from White.

What White and PRP did was pick and choose what facts to publicize. The effort was not so much to defend rail, although there was a small pro-rail campaign, but to use innuendo to malign Cayetano.

On a political level, the campaign from PRP was brutally effective. Cayetano’s campaign started late and was underfunded anyway, but the $5 million anti-Cayetano campaign allowed the pro-rail candidate, Kirk Caldwell, to become mayor and guarantee the construction of the rail project.

Today this paper is to feature a half-page ad taken out by PRP. The terms of the settlement prevent much of anything else from being said.

What can be said is that PRP showed the way to a new depth of negative campaigning that will hurt, not help, Hawaii.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.