Teachers union ad takes aim at Aiona

A National Education Association super PAC has made a six-figure television advertising buy in Hawaii criticizing former Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona for the teacher furloughs under the Lingle administration.

The ad, titled "Enough," is meant to ensure that voters do not forget the tumult surrounding teacher furloughs, including a sit-in by parents and students in Gov. Linda Lingle’s office at the state Capitol in 2010. The furloughs were one of the steps taken by the state to reduce costs during the recession.

Aiona, the Republican candidate for governor, has said that Lingle made the final decisions on public policy. He has also said that, unlike Lingle, he would have met with protesting parents if he was governor at the time.

The independent spending by the NEA Advocacy Fund is the first by a mainland interest group in the Hawaii governor’s race since the outreach by super PACs tied to the Demo­cratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association. The NEA is the parent union of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, which has endorsed state Sen. David Ige, the Demo­crat.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association had preferred furloughs to pay cuts or layoffs during the recession, but the union has since been critical of both Lingle and Gov. Neil Abercrombie for their approaches to labor.

"Duke Aiona can pretend that he wasn’t there during the Lingle-Aiona administration," Karen White, the NEA political director, said in a statement. "The truth of the matter is that voters are smart and they recall the bad policies that led to school closures and furlough Fridays, which denied students 17 days of classroom learning and were hard on parents and working families."

Dawn O’Brien, a spokes­woman for the Aiona campaign, called the NEA ad misleading.

"It’s disappointing that during an election year, the same unions that negotiated for furloughs are funding misleading attacks to support David Ige who voted for these very education cuts," she said in an email.

"What is clear is that the policies of the past four years have been failing Hawaii families, and a new direction is needed to lower the cost of living and grow the economy to fund an education system that we can all be proud of."