Campaign Spending Commission investigates ‘ghost PAC’ supporting Cayetano
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The state Campaign Spending Commission on Wednesday voted to conduct further investigation into a so-called “ghost PAC” helping Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vicky Cayetano.
The political action committee ― Victory Calls 2022 ― ran television ads in May featuring the comedy duo Da Braddahs, saying Cayetano’s opponent Lt. Gov. Josh Green was not a board-certified physician.
“The complaints allege that there was coordination in expenditures between Vicky Cayetano’s committee and a Super PAC called Victory Calls 2022,” said Gary Kam, the commission’s general counsel.
According to Campaign Spending Commission records, Victory Calls’ eight donors gave the PAC at total of $232,000 with each person giving between $12,500 and $50,000.
Those same eight people, which include some of Cayetano’s closest friends, each personally gave the $6,000 maximum to her campaign.
“I think it might be going a step too far to say this is evidence of coordination. But this is an attempt to get around the contribution limits that we have,” said Colin Moore, a University of Hawaii political science professor.
The Cayetano campaign had no immediate comment.
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