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State Rep. Patrick Branco is running for Congress as a candidate with new ideas, but his most prominent idea is awful: using disreputable tactics to solicit outside special interests to attack his opponent, former state Sen. Jill Tokuda.
Special interest political action committees known as super PACs can spend nearly unlimited amounts to support their preferred candidates, with limited transparency about their funding sources; hence the term “black money”.
The only real limit is that there can be no coordination between these nominally independent committees and candidates.
Branco is skirting that rule with a dodge known as “red-boxing,” in which candidates’ websites use code words to solicit super PAC support and provide a virtual model for the types of TV ads, mailers electronic and social media support they would like.
Branco’s site spells out in bold what he wants voters to “see,” “hear” and “read” about him and Tokuda, along with photos, videos and a glossary of local terms to use.
It has attracted support from PACs representing cryptocurrency interests, veterans and Hispanics. They have filled the local airwaves with a million dollars worth of ads praising Branco and attacking Tokuda.
The VoteVets PAC has slammed Tokuda as soft on guns and linked him to the recent Texas school shooting based on a 10-year B rating he earned from the National Rifle Association.
Neither Branco nor the PAC has provided anything from his 12-year legislative record that shows he promoted guns or did not support tough gun restrictions in Hawaii.
Mainland PACs have spent nearly 10 times what Branco has raised locally, and could end up spending more Hawaii voters than the candidates combined.
On the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” live broadcast last week, Tokuda said Branco’s website is the equivalent of a “for sale” sign. His defense was to claim that he has done an effective job pushing “falsehoods” about his tactics in the media.
In the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, the Hawaii Carpenters Union super PAC is sponsoring similar attacks against front-runner Sylvia Luke to support union-endorsed candidate Ikaika Anderson. Keith Amemiya and Sherry Menor-McNamara are also featured.
The Be Change Now ads use old-fashioned mudslinging to darkly and vaguely tie Luke to accused businessman Martin Kao, who also donated to candidates endorsed by the Carpenters. Unconnected attacks raise words like “scandal” and “money laundering” at Luke.
There is no indication that Anderson solicited the advertising support in the same way as Branco, but that doesn’t disallow it either.
“As I’ve had to justify my past votes and actions, so should everyone else,” said Anderson, who has faced questions about why she left her City Council seat in 2020 by saying that he had to take care of his grandparents and then took a job as a union lobbyist.
Each of the voters must decide what type of campaign we consider acceptable.
The only defense against the tactics we see as dirty is to call out those who practice them and not help them achieve their goals.
Contact David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
