Super PAC Be Change Now this week sent a scathing mailer attacking incumbent Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, who is seeking re-election in District 6.
The political action committee has supported Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, one of Fukunaga’s challengers.
The Be Change Now mailer points out that Fukunaga was among a handful of state senators who, in 2004, signed letters in support of Leon Rouse, a onetime legislative aide who spent eight years in prison in the Philippines after being convicted of child abuse.
Rouse, a legislative aide to several state lawmakers, repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, and in 2005 a committee of the United Nations’ High Commission for Human Rights found the Philippines had arbitrarily arrested him and failed to provide him a fair trial.
The letters of support from Fukunaga and the other senators dealt with a separate matter involving Rouse’s firing from his job as a Norwegian Cruise Line cabin attendant for sexual harassment. The letters asked that Rouse be rehired or paid restitution and travel expenses.
Fukunaga, in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Wednesday, condemned the Be Change Now mailer and said it was being financed by the same labor union that provides funds for another organization, the Hawaii Construction Alliance, which employs Dos Santos-Tam as its executive director.
Be Change Now is financed by the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters, one of five building and trades unions that make up the Hawaii Construction Alliance.
“I am dismayed that an employer of one of my Council District 6 opponents, Hawaii Construction Alliance-Carpenters Union, has once again gotten involved in Honolulu Hale politics,” Fukunaga said. “I will let my experience and legislative record speak for itself and not let any special interest group ‘buy’ its way into city hall.”
The Pacific Resources Partnership, comprising the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters and more than 240 contractors, was behind the Pacific Resources Partnership Political Action Committee, which spent $3.6 million in a media blitz to defeat the 2012 mayoral bid of former Gov. Ben Cayetano, who opposed the city’s $8.2 billion-plus rail project.
Cayetano filed a defamation lawsuit against PRP that was settled when group published an apology and agreed to donate to two charities.
Dos Santos-Tam, who has been with the construction alliance for 5-1/2 years, said in an email the organization is governed by a board of directors in which the carpenters hold two of 10 seats.
“I’m running for City Council to bring energy, vision and aloha to Honolulu Hale,” he said. “There’s no place for mudslinging in Hawaii and that’s not something my campaign will ever condone.”
PRP supported Fukunaga in her 2012 campaign for the council seat and the carpenters union PAC donated to her 2014 re-election bid, according to Fukunaga’s campaign.
Asked why PRP is opposing her now, Fukunaga said in a text, “Maybe because we called for more accountability for transit expenditures,” referring to the rail project.
Be Change Now spokesman Eric Koch, in a statement, said Fukunaga and her campaign did not dispute the facts contained in the mailer. “Carol Fukunaga advocated for a convicted child molester with political connections and voters deserve to know why,” Koch said.
Be Change Now has spent several hundred thousands of dollars so far in support of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Colleen Hanabusa and lieutenant governor hopeful Josh Green. It also recently began running ads criticizing incumbent Gov. David Ige.
Ikaika Hussey, who is also running against Fukunaga, said he condemns the negative campaigning.
“It is a drag on the democratic process and distracts from the important policy discussions which our island deserves,” Hussey said. While he will question Fukunaga on the issues, “a lurid character attack such as this is wrong. I won’t stand by while the moral character of a good person is being attacked.”
Super PACs are political action committees that are allowed to spend an unlimited amount of money to support or oppose candidates so long as there is no coordination with the candidate and the contributions do not go directly into the candidate’s campaign fund.
