The window for last-minute negative attack campaigns has opened wider with mail-in ballots arriving weeks before the Aug. 13 primary and Nov. 8 general elections, an update to the old political tactic of making allegations just before election day.
But the extended opportunity for mudslinging also gives targeted candidates— generally the front-runners — more time to rebut allegations and spin their own counter-messaging.
The new strategy has been on display in two prominent Hawaii races over the last week just as the vote-by-mail election got underway for the Aug. 13 primary.
In the race for the 2nd Congressional district Democratic nomination, state Rep. Patrick Branco is openly soliciting outside interests to target fellow candidate Jill Tokuda with negative talking points, silent b-roll video of himself and even a guide on how to pronounce Hawaiian words, such as “ohana.”
The practice — known as “red boxing” — skirts campaign laws that forbid candidates from directly communicating with so-called Super PACs, said Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii’s Public Policy Center.
Moore said the new tactic could represent a dark trend for island political campaigns if Branco ends up winning the race to represent rural Oahu and the neighbor islands in Congress.
The open-ended online outreach resulted in a commercial last week funded by a group called Vote Vets linking Tokuda to the National Rifle Association along with video of the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre — just as 730,000 mail-in ballots were sent out across Hawaii.
Tokuda told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the commercial was “disgusting.”
In a text to the Star- Advertiser, Branco countered that it “is disheartening that the Tokuda campaign is making false and misleading claims about me.”
“As a former United States diplomat of Native Hawaiian, Filipino and Puerto Rican ancestry, we knew that my candidacy was likely to draw national and international attention. … Accordingly, in our media center we prepared citations to help these individuals … understand the nuances of commonly used words and terminology in Hawai‘i.”
Tokuda said the commercial was particularly surprising because she helped Branco early in his political career.
After he was elected to his first, two-year term in 2020 to represent Kailua and Kaneohe in the state House, Tokuda said, Branco reached out to seek her advice since she had represented Windward Oahu for 16 years in the Senate — and they had a pleasant conversation over coffee.
The “red box” practice, or “red boxing,” is new to Hawaii politics and is named after the tactic of mainland politicians who suggest negative talking points against their opponents in a red box on their web sites.
Tokuda had been the target of previous “nasty” mailers from the Republican Party while running in previous state Senate campaigns after she advocated for same-sex marriage, she said.
But she was “stunned” by last week’s commercial that she said distorts her voting record and alleges NRA support for Tokuda — even though she says she helped impose some of the toughest gun legislation in the country.
Tokuda expects equally misleading mailers worth $175,000 — funded by moderate Democratic PACs — to arrive in voters’ mail boxes any day. Tokuda believes she’s being targeted because of her progressive policies, although her primary campaign message is helping struggling Hawaii families survive economically.
Tokuda’s campaign advertising takes a decidedly different approach and features her shopping at the Kaneohe Foodland, eating a Zippy’s family meal in a home, meeting with kupuna, and posing with her two sons and husband.
“As a mom with two kids in public schools, I am sickened that there is an ad politicizing tragic school shootings,” she said. “It’s a shame my opponent can’t generate enough support here in Hawaii to run an honorable, Hawaii-based campaign and is turning to outside, dark money to compete.”
In the too-close-to-call Democratic race for lieutenant governor, House Rep. Sylvia Luke, chair of the powerful House Finance Committee, said she’s now become the target of “a pretty aggressive smear campaign” by the political arm of the Hawaii Carpenters Union because of her opposition to long-term state funding for the city’s troubled rail project.
“It’s like a three-week-long barrage of negatives,” Luke said. “In the past they would do it in the last three days (of a campaign) and you couldn’t respond. Now they have to do it early on and we can respond.”
The newly renamed carpenters’ political action committee, Be Change Now, is buying ads in support of former Honolulu Council Chair Ikaika Anderson, a candidate in the lieutenant governor’s race.
“You want legislators who are not afraid of special interests,” Luke told the Star-Advertiser. “If Be Change Now is successful, it sends a bad message.”
In a statement, Luke said, “The ad uses a mishmash of disconnected facts to impugn my integrity and confuse voters. I have no quarrel with a union supporting a candidate. But these ugly tactics do our electorate a disservice. … These kinds of ads disgust most voters and damage the entire election process.”
Anderson told the Star-Advertiser: “The ad in question was not paid for by or made in collaboration with my campaign; state law prohibits candidates’ campaigns and independent expenditure groups from collaborating. What is often described as a negative attack is no more than being responsible for our documented political statements, voting records and actions. … As I’ve had to justify my prior votes and actions, so should everyone else.”
Stay updated on Hawaii and national elections coverage