Schatz’s Hawaii PAC Has Brought In $220K In Two Years
While funding his second campaign in two years to keepÌýhis own seat, the Hawaii senator is contributing to other Democratic candidates.
Brian Schatz entered the U.S. Senate just days before Mazie Hirono, but his political action committee has raised and spent less than half the money of Hirono’s PAC.
But then, Schatz was appointed to his seat in late 2012 rather than elected like Hirono. HeÌýalso had a close race in 2014 to keep the job for the final two years of the late Dan Inouye’s six-year term, and is running this year for a full term of his own.
In other words, he’s been busy raising a lot of money for his own political survival. Hirono’s term is not up until 2018.
Still, Schatz’s Hawaii PAC, which was formed in 2014 — two years after Hirono’s Pineapple PAC was launched — did manage to pull in a total of $220,350 in contributions as of March 2016. That’s according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ and records.
As with Pineapple PAC, Hawaii PAC gave tens of thousands of dollars to U.S. Senate incumbents and candidates over the past several years, all of them Democrats. They include many of the same recipients as Hirono’s PAC, including incumbents like Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who lost in 2014.
Schatz’s PAC has also contributed to Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Charles Schumer of New York; to Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who is running for the Senate this year; and to Rep. Mark Takai of Hawaii.
Other recipients include Kamala Harris, the California attorney general running forÌýthe Senate; Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold, who is seeking to return to the Senate; and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
Open Secrets says the top industries contributing to Hawaii PAC include telecom services, insurance interests, railroads, transportation unions and accountants.
Nationally, top donors to the PAC include the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the Air Line Pilots Association, PricewaterhouseCoopers and NorthStar Realty Finance.
FEC records show that other national donors were General Dynamics, Comcast and NBC Universal, the Seafarers International Union Political Action Committee and NextEra Energy.
Top local donors include Victoria Lani Dawson-Arena of Dawson Companies and Christopher M. Dawson of Dawson Technical; Jay Shidler, founder and managing partner of The Shidler Group; and Martin Y. Kao, executiveÌýof Navatek.
Just like Hirono’s Pineapple PAC, Schatz’s Hawaii PAC paid the same Washington, D.C., companies for software (NGP VAN) and fundraising compliance services (Capitol Compliance Associates).
Hawaii PAC also paid Joshua L. HandelmanÌýof D.C. and Lori B. LaFave of Virginia for fundraising help.
A spokesperson for Schatz declined to comment for this report.
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