For Immediate Release: August 15, 2012
Contact: Kinsey Kiriakos, 808-321-9489


HONOLULU, HI – Yesterday, Linda Lingle, Hawaii’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, released a political advertisement that violates Federal Election laws.  Federal Election laws require candidates for federal office to “Stand By Your Ad” – i.e. the candidate must state that they “approved this message” and have that statement accompanied by a clearly identifiable picture or image of him- or herself.  Lingle’s advertisement does not meet this federal requirement.

“By now, it is clear that Linda Lingle’s campaign is trying to remake Lingle’s image and do so quickly as they have only 84 days to try to convince voters that Lingle isn’t closely aligned with the national Republican party and what they stand for,” said Betsy Lin, Campaign Manager for U.S. Senate Democratic nominee, Mazie Hirono. “In doing so, however, we would expect Linda Lingle to follow the letter of the law, which is absolutely clear on these issues, to a tee.  We are currently preparing a formal complaint to the Federal Elections Commission and call on Linda Lingle to pull the ad down from TV and her website immediately.”

Lingle concludes the advertisement with the necessary verbal disclaimer, but the accompanying image of Lingle completely disregards Federal Election laws, which states that the candidate’s picture must take up “at least 80 percent of the vertical screen height.”