The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week spent another $154,000 on ads endorsing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda Lingle, according to the most recent look into the public files.

The national organization bought 343 spots on KHON, KFVE, KGMB and KHNL that are set to air through the first week in August. The ad, which started airing this week, speaks of the former Hawaii governor’s bipartisanship.

The group has already spent $500,000 on behalf of Lingle.

Civil Beat each week has been stopping by the three local broadcast stations to get copies of contracts from in their political files. Stations are required to make these files available to the public. The contracts show which political candidates and independent expenditure committees have made ad buys and for how much.

For now, those contracts are only available in paper form at the stations. Only ad buys on Time Warner Cable are accessible online.

This week also saw some fresh faces on the tube.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ed Case has made a comeback in the ad-buying game. His newest commercial is titled “Getting the Job Done.” He bought 86 spots on KHON, KGMB and KHNL for $38,000.

Those ads have been airing this week. The last time Case aired a commercial was in February.

The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly for its part spent nearly $50,000 on ads advocating Case. That money bought 185 spots on KHON, KITV and KGMB that are scheduled to air through the Aug. 11 primary elections.

The union has already spent $50,000 on spots that have been airing on Time Warner cable networks.

Esther Kiaaina, running for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District seat, made her first ad buys this week. She bought 39 spots on KGMB and KHNL, 12 of which are set to air during the Late Show with David Letterman. Those spots cost her about $8,500.

Tulsi Gabbard, also running in the CD2 race, this week spent close to $92,000 on 283 spots on KHON, KITV, KFVE and KGMB. Those spots will air until early August.

This week’s look at the public file also reveals that a handful of candidates retracted contracts from KITV, presumably because of the station’s “blackout” on Oceanic Time Warner, which provides cable to the majority of Hawaii’s residents.

Gabbard, Mufi Hannemann, Lei Ahu Isa and Linda Lingle all canceled spots that had been scheduled to air this and last week.

But, as of Thursday afternoon, KITV is back up and running.

Candidates and Super PACs Continue Buying Ad-Time

Here’s an overview of other candidates’ and super PACs’ purchases:

Honolulu Mayor

• Kirk Caldwell spent $24,500 on 70 spots that have been airing on KHON, KFVE, KGMB and KHNL this week.

• Peter Carlisle spent $27,000 on 100 spots that are set to air on KHON and KITV through the primary.

• Ben Cayetano spent $62,000 on 249 spots that have been airing on Time Warner cable networks and all the local broadcast stations this week.

2nd Congressional District

• Hannemann spent $32,000 on 87 spots that have been airing on all the local broadcast stations this week.

U.S. Senate

• Mazie Hirono spent $80,000 on 269 spots that have been airing on Time Warner cable networks and all the local broadcast stations this week. (Before last week, when she spent $69,000 on ad-time, the Democrat hadn’t aired a commercial since February.)

• Lingle herself spent $30,500 on 113 spots that have been airing on KHON, KITV, MeTV, KGMB, KHNL and various Time Warner cable networks this week.

Super PACs

• The Pacific Resource Partnership spent $48,000 on 139 spots that have been airing on all the local broadcast stations this week.

• Another contract for VoteVets.org that includes buys from earlier this month appeared in the public files. The mainland tax-exempt super PAC spent another $16,000 on ads endorsing Gabbard.

Grand Totals

Candidates and independent expenditure committees spent approximately $660,000 on ad-time this week — about $400,000 more than last week. Total spending this election season is at least $3,257,000. Slightly less than half of that money, or $1,530,200, was spent by independent expenditure committees.