The Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters — which previously backed the political action committee that mounted a multimillion-dollar campaign against former Gov. Ben Cayetano’s bid for Honolulu mayor against the rail
project — is funding a
new super PAC in hopes of influencing voters in the 2018 primary election.
Over the weekend, new super PAC Be Change Now began running television advertisements in support of state Sen. Josh Green. who is among a throng of big-name hopefuls seeking the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.
The carpenters council is the only group connected to Be Change Now, and Green is the only candidate the super PAC is supporting at this time, Be Change Now said Monday in an email
response to questions.
“There may be other
candidates the organization decides to support
although that hasn’t been determined at this point,” the group said in its email.
The carpenters council has been involved with several other super PACs in recent years, including the Pacific Resources Partnership PAC in 2012, which campaigned against Cayetano’s bid for mayor. Cayetano was the biggest-name opponent of rail against
incumbent Peter Carlisle and eventual winner Kirk Caldwell.
Be Change Now filed its organizational papers with the state Campaign Spending Commission on April 30. The super PAC, like all
16 others identified by the Campaign Spending Commission, does not need to file its first spending report until Aug. 1.
Critics of super PACs want Congress to ban them, arguing that they allow powerful entities with lots of money to exert too much influence over an election.
Traditional noncandidate committees are limited to the amount of money they can contribute directly to a candidate for a state or county election: $6,000 per election for a statewide four-year seat, $4,000 for a nonstatewide four-year seat and $2,000 for a two-year seat.
But the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Citizens United v. FEC gave rise to a new form of noncandidate committee that’s come to be known as a super PAC, which the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission also defines as an independent expenditure committee.
A super PAC like Be Change Now is allowed to spend an unlimited amount to advocate election or defeat “of a clearly identified candidate” so long as there are no direct candidate contributions and there is no coordination between the super PAC and any candidate or party.
Green told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Monday that he has yet to see any of Be Change Now’s ads and that he first learned of the group’s campaign in support of his candidacy over the weekend. “My mom called me and told me she saw an ad on CNN,” he said.
“I’m running my own campaign independently, which is the right thing to do,” said Green, whose campaign committee has also been running television ads.
Green (D, Naalehu-Kailua-Kona) is among a crowd of high-profile Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor in the Aug. 11 primary election. Others include Kauai County Mayor Bernard Carvalho, state Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), former state Board of Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto and state Sen. Jill Tokuda (D, Kailua-Kaneohe).
“We believe Dr. Josh Green has a solid track record of investing in public education, protecting the environment, women’s rights as well as his tireless work in solving our homeless crisis,” the Be Change Now email said. “As lieutenant governor, we believe Dr. Green will continue advocating for stronger laws on domestic violence (and) protecting women’s reproductive rights while supporting college affordability and better teacher pay.”
The carpenters council endorsed Green last month.
The council also endorsed U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa in her challenge to incumbent Gov. David Ige in February, but it has not thrown its support behind anyone seeking to replace Hanabusa in Congress, the third closely watched statewide election this fall.
While the Regional Council of Carpenters is the sole financial backer of Be Change Now, it may accept contributions from other donors, including PRP, before the 2018 election season is over, the email said.
There is already a tie between Be Change Now and PRP. Josh Magno, listed as the chairman and treasurer of Be Change Now, is an employee of PRP, which is funded jointly by the Regional Council of Carpenters and more than 240 Hawaii contractor companies.
The PRP PAC, which still exists but has been inactive since 2014, spent $3.6 million on advertising trying to persuade voters to reject Cayetano’s mayoral campaign. Cayetano subsequently filed a defamation lawsuit against the PAC, which was settled when PRP agreed to issue a public apology and donate $125,000 to two charities.
Cayetano said Monday that the political climate has changed since 2012. The former governor said he believes the late U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye played a key role in ensuring pro-rail candidates won six years ago. “The stakes are different now,” he said.
“PACs are formed to
influence votes. That’s known and that’s legal, and I guess it’s acceptable,” Cayetano said. ‘The issue is how they go about doing it.”
Regarding the Regional Council and PRP, Cayetano said, “My sense is they’ve probably learned their lesson from last time.”
Green said, “I always encourage everyone involved in all campaigns to stay positive. That’s my approach.”
In the 2014 election cycle, a super PAC known as
Forward Progress spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars helping County Council candidates across several islands.
Forward Progress was funded by PRP, also known as the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program Fund.
In 2016, Workers for a Better Hawaii, another super PAC funded by various Hawaii union organizations including the Hawaii State AFL-CIO, the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters, spent nearly $1 million in support of Caldwell’s re-election bid for Honolulu mayor.
That group is listed as an active super PAC in 2018, but it listed $9,527 in available cash.
