The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent $750,000 on positive television advertising in Hawaii to help brand former Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, as a bipartisan leader.
But the chamber’s ads in other states with competitive Senate campaigns have taken a much sharper, more partisan tone that overwhelmingly favors Republicans and targets Democrats.
In Maine the chamber dubs former Gov. Angus King, an independent who supports President Barack Obama, as the "king of spending." In Montana the chamber blames U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, for casting a deciding vote to force federal health care reform on the state. In Wisconsin the chamber urges voters to hold U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, accountable for a "record of failure on the economy."
The chamber has not sponsored any positive ads for Democratic candidates for Senate. The group’s only negative ad critical of a Republican Senate candidate was in Missouri against former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who has a primary against John Brunner, a businessman favored by the chamber. The chamber calls Steelman and U.S. Sen. Claire McCasgill, the Democratic incumbent, "two peas in a pod."
The U.S. Chamber has described the advertising as part of the largest voter-education campaign in its history. While the chamber identifies itself as bipartisan — and has praised Lingle as a bipartisan leader for Hawaii — its advertising pattern nationally would help Republicans take control of the Senate.
"We’re never going to discuss our internal strategy, however we think it’s important to educate Hawaii voters on the candidates’ positions on job-creating issues," Rob Engstrom, the chamber’s national political director, said in an email. "In the Hawaii Senate race, Gov. Lingle has a bipartisan record advancing growth and creating jobs in Hawaii, including her support of the (Obama) administration’s tourism plan.
"The chamber is a bipartisan organization that supports candidates and policies regardless of political affiliation. We think it’s important that we deliver our message however it is most effective."
Lingle has said that as a Republican in a traditionally Democratic state, she has had to work in a bipartisan fashion or she would not have been elected to two terms as governor.
Lingle said in an email that she and the chamber "agree that a major hurdle for our economic revitalization is the partisan gridlock which has stalled progress in our nation’s capital, highlighted by Congress’ lowest approval rating in history."
Democrats, however, claim Lingle’s message and the chamber’s ads are intended to freshen her image and obscure the clear goal of a Republican Senate.
A new Hawaii Poll found that Lingle’s favorability rating — 49 percent — was about 10 points lower than U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono and former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, the Democratic candidates who want to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii.
"Hawaii residents shouldn’t be fooled by the barrage of U.S. Chamber’s disingenuous ads about ‘bipartisanship,’" Nathan Click, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in an email. "On the mainland and in Washington, they are spending millions in secret money attacking President Obama and propping up Republican candidates who will block the president’s agenda. And it’s no different in Hawaii.
"The chamber is spending big bucks to help Linda Lingle because they know she will be a rubber stamp for their partisan agenda that protects tax cuts for millionaires and cuts Medicare for the rest of us."
The U.S. Chamber has sponsored positive ads this year for conservative Democrats in Georgia and Utah running for re-election to the U.S. House. The chamber also took an interest in the last competitive Senate campaign in Hawaii. The chamber endorsed and bought automated telephone calls for the moderate Case in his unsuccessful primary against Akaka in 2006.
Neal Milner, a retired University of Hawaii-Manoa political science professor, believes Lingle is closer to the center compared with Republicans nationally and can make the argument that she would be bipartisan. But he said he doubts a new senator, particularly a Republican, could effectively operate as bipartisan given the partisan climate in the Senate. He said GOP leadership would likely leave Lingle "on the margins."
"I think she’s right politically considering what Hawaii is like," Milner said of Lingle’s need to appeal to independents and moderate Democrats. "I think it’s an unrealistic expectation about what she would be like if she got elected."
