DC's Dark Money Candidate Linked To 'Egregious' Attacks On Jill Tokuda in Acrimonious US House Race

Dark money groups from US mainland spend more than a million in last minute effort to help Patrick Branco in Congressional race against favored frontrunner, Jill Tokuda.

Honolulu Hawaii's Civil Beat reports that "A flood of special interest money has entered the Democratic primary race for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District and it’s all working toward the same purpose — sending state Rep. Patrick Branco to Washington." Civil Beat states that "The freshman legislator is a newcomer to Hawaii politics, but super PACs with special interests in Washington have spent more than $1 million trying to get him elected."

Various news reports have noted that Branco's campaign is using a tactic called "Red-boxing" that allows these dark money donors to exploit a loophole in law to skirt campaign finance limits and give Branco an unfair advantage in the race that he is trailing in. Branco's tactic involves posting detailed guidance on his website written in a way that campaign consultants working for dark money groups can decipher it and integrate it into campaign mailers and television and radio advertisements.

Dark money groups can spend unlimited amounts of money IF they do not directly communicate and coordinate with the candidate they are supporting. Posting campaign strategy or guidance and high quality photos and videos on a website places the information in the "public domain" where anyone can see it and use it. The tactic therefore does not specifically constitute illegal "coordination." This allows these dark money groups from Washington DC to spend unlimited amounts of money in support of Branco without violating the contribution limits in federal campaign finance law.

Civil Beat cites Adav Noti, the vice president and legal director of the Campaign Legal Center in Washington describing the tactic by Branco as "'brazen' and an 'egregious' violation of the rules."

Hawaii State Senator Chris Lee, the author of Hawai'i's original bill to restrict ghost guns, rallied behind Tokuda and defended her record on gun safety in this radio ad that aired after the attacks from Branco's supporters.

In the ad he says, "I've authored some of Hawai'i's toughest gun laws and Jill was right there with me as a leader in the Senate. She's a mom committed to keeping our keiki safe. Outside dark money won't decide this election. We will."

United States Senator Mazie Hirono posted this message on Twitter in defense of Tokuda:

As a legislator, Branco has been a strong advocate for the expansion of the cryptocurrency industry in Hawai'i despite its severe and disturbing impact on the environment and massive two trillion dollar loss to investors. The Sierra Club states that "in 30 years Bitcoin could alone increase global temperatures 2 degrees Celsius." Cryptocurrency industry organizations Web3Forward and DAO for America are among the groups funding the dark money attacks on Tokuda.