The Sierra Club Independent Action political action committee is spending $30,000 on direct mailers criticizing the environmental record of 2nd Congressional District candidate Mufi Hannemann.
Three different mailers — each reaching 48,000 homes — are being sent to homes in the district, which covers rural Oahu and the neighbor islands, the group said Wednesday in a news release.
The environmental group already has backed Hannemann’s main rival in the Democratic primary, Honolulu City Councilwoman Tulsi Gabbard, and has launched a website critical of the former Honolulu mayor’s positions and actions on various environmental issues. The mail ads highlight Gabbard’s business background, military experience and environmental record, the group said.
"In sharp contrast, Mufi Hannemann has an abysmal environmental record, a paper trail of bullying personal attacks and a record of siding with wealthy campaign contributors," said Anthony Aalto, chairman of theSierra Club, Oahu Group.
Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, Hannemann’s deputy campaign manager, characterized the effort as "desperate tactics."
"Mufi Hannemann’s record of accomplishment speaks for itself," Dos Santos-Tam said in an email. "At the beginning of his term as mayor, there was no curbside recycling, lands like Waimea Valley were under private control, HPOWER did not have a third boiler and our sewer infrastructure was in disrepair.
"By the end of his term, curbside recycling had been expanded islandwide, Waimea Valley and other exceptional lands were under public stewardship, the third boiler at HPOWER was under construction and $1.5 billion had been budgeted to improve our sewer infrastructure."
The mailers are classified as an independent expenditure, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission.
