There are two takeaways from the hundreds of leaked emails in Pacific Resource Partnership’s smear campaign against former Gov. Ben Cayetano.

First, we learned that PRP framed the issue not so much in favor of rail as against Cayetano. And second, negative campaigning remains a potent option in local campaigns.

Two years ago, PRP, the advocacy group representing the carpenters and the building trades, wanted the veteran Democrat stopped because Cayetano was threatening to halt the city’s rail project, the largest construction project in the history of Hawaii.

According to the emails made available by Cayeta-no’s attorney, PRP’s consultants polled and found that rail was unpopular with Honolulu voters.

After first toying with a plan to defend rail, PRP, which controlled millions in campaign money, instead decided to try to ruin Caye-tano’s political reputation.

PRP’s polling showed that Cayetano’s election was the fulcrum on which the $5.26 billion project rested. Vote against Cayetano and save rail; vote for Cayetano and you kill rail. The important part is that PRP waged a campaign to destroy Cayetano, not endorse rail.

Any rail messaging mostly amounted to some feel-good commercials in which pretend passengers happily did their homework as they glided through Honolulu. Of course, in reality, students will not be moving to the University of Hawaii because the train won’t go to the Manoa campus, and workers won’t be going to their hotel jobs in Waikiki because that’s another stop the train won’t make.

And PRP’s campaign didn’t try to defend the towering concrete pillars that will destroy sightlines and views from Pearl Harbor to Iwilei. Instead, it chose to vilify Cayetano’s eight years as governor of Hawaii.

The result was that Cayetano lost the race. Cayetano sued PRP — and the political action committee, which refuses to reveal its membership, agreed to apologize to Cayetano.

"Governor Cayetano believes that these radio and television advertisements gave many the impression that Governor Cayetano personally had broken the law or acted corruptly," John White, PRP executive director, wrote in his published apology.

"To the extent any viewer or listener reached that conclusion, PRP apologizes to Gov. Cayetano. PRP commends Gov. Cayetano for his long record of public service to the State of Hawaii."

What is obvious is that PRP felt it had its best chance of saving rail with a smear instead of exclusively relying on a positive, pro-rail campaign.

The second takeaway from the PRP emails is that a negative campaign works just as well in Honolulu as it does in New York.

The PRP ads were largely repudiated, first by state Campaign Spending Commission officials who more than a decade ago had investigated Cayetano’s fundraising, and then by PRP in its apology. But as a strategic weapon, there is no argument that going negative, not positive, is a campaign tactic that works.

In the middle of the PRP anti-Cayetano campaign was Andy Winer, one of Hawaii’s most aggressive political tacticians.

Winer has worked in Hawaii Democratic campaigns for more than 15 years. He is now working for U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, both helping on his campaign against U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and as Schatz’s chief of staff.

Knowing the power of a negative campaign and his experience in its application, it will be interesting to watch Winer’s strategy in the closing days of the Democratic senatorial primary campaign.

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