The Ventura County Board of Education has hired lobbyists to help get funding from the state and federal government. The more I find out the worse it sounds. At the state level wouldn't Assembly Woman Audra Strickland be working for us if we are asking for funding for valid and needed projects? Who exactly are we lobbying? State legislative Democrats? At the federal level the Republican board has been trying to get an earmark. Do Republicans only think earmarks are bad when other people get them?

The earmark has been held up thus far by "partisanship" according to the lobbying firm. What was the Republican dominated board thinking when they hired a lobbying company that had Republican ties to lobby a Democratically controlled congress?

The Ventura County Democratic Party is now helping county board of education candidates coordinate their attacks on the contracts for lobbyists. To read their latest press release click on continue reading. Here are some excerpts:

According to an article in the Jan. 16 edition of Roll Call, Anchor Consulting dreamed up a plan for the VCOE to partner with another one of its clients, Grace College, an evangelical Christian college in Indiana, to obtain No Child Left Behind (NCLB) money to fund a project for at-risk youth in Ventura County.

VCBE member Chris Valenzano, a former legislative aide to Tony Strickland when he served in the Assembly, proposed in September of 2006 that the board consider hiring lobbyists, according to board minutes.

"The unwarranted spending by the current board on dubious lobbyists with little or no accountability must stop. As a trustee, I will be an effective advocate for public education in Sacramento and our nation's capitol," Lisagor said.

The $396,000 contract is one of the largest expenditures for educational lobbyists in the state. Only a handful of other county offices have hired lobbyists.

Do you think it has been a wise use of resources to hire lobbyists to lobby are own elected officials?

( A video from the Barack Obama campaign going after John McCain for not do father in the senate investigation of the Republican Lobbying Scandal.)

Local teachers will be protesting outside of Assembly Member Audra Strickland's office in Westlake Friday afternoon. They are pushing for action on the state budget. Click on continue reading for details.

Is the point of the protest to really push Audra Strickland to work with Democrats and the governor to pass a budget? I don't see that happening. She has signed a pledge with Grover Norquist and Tom McClintock to not raise taxes. Here is a link to see the press release about her pledge.

Talk about bad timing though. Grover Norquist's business partner and long time friend Jack Abramoff was sentenced to federal prison Thursday. Jack Abramoff was convicted of a whole series of crimes. If you haven't read the story about how he worked with Grover Norquist to hide the source of casino money that was transferred to the Christian Coalition to go after another casino you really should look it up.

John McCain was involved in the investigation and deserves credit.

Why California Republicans would be working with someone that has trashed their nominee for years doesn't make sense if they want to be the majority party in this state. Can a Republican proudly support Grover Norquist ( John McCain is delusional and a liar) and proudly support John McCain at the same time? I don't think that makes sense at all.

Democrats point out that John McCain could have gone farther in the investigation and let key figures go.

If the point of the protest is to help drive up Audra Strickland's negatives and put pressure on other legislators that makes political sense. It is part of a statewide action and I know it will be getting press coverage.

But I don't think she is open to negotiating any deal that involves any tax increases. Her Chief of Staff who was suspended by her office for some period of time ( it isn't exactly clear when the suspension is over) is out campaigning for Tony Strickland. I saw him again waving signs by a freeway off ramp this week. I don't think he is up in Sacramento talking to assembly Democrats and the governor to make a deal on the budget.

Do you think she is going to move at all on the budget?

Is there any part of my analysis you disagree with?

Oh, and before you point out that both parties have corrupt members, I agree. I am embarrassed that Democratic Rep. Jefferson is in office even after he was found with money in his fridge and someone has plead guilty to bribing him.

If you are going to the protest take some pictures and send them in.

The title lobbyist is up there with trial lawyer, tobacco company, and oil company CEO in popularity but to be fair as a journalist I am asking for your input.

What exactly defines what is a lobbyist?

This isn't about Jim Dantona but would you define his company as a lobbying firm? Look over their website and let me know.

Please don't try to turn this into a discussion about Jim Dantona. I am just asking for help with basic definitions for an unrelated story. I will delete off topic comments.

Thanks for your help.

The John McCain campaign is on a firing spree as they prepare for the general election. In the last few weeks they have fired or asked to step down 6 people for their current or former lobbying activities including lobbying for foreign governments like Burma*( Can someone please explain the debate over the name of Burma V Myanmar?).

The Hillary Clinton campaign also reassigned one of their top advisers for his lobbying on behalf of a trade deal that she was against. Mark Penn became such a distraction he was included in the youtube The Empire Strikes Barack video.

And of course, Barack Obama, is not free from any association with lobbyists or developers. He had a powerful patron in Tony Rezko when he ran for office in the past.

I want a list of local lobbyists, their area of practice, and a link to their website if they have one. Sometimes they use other titles to describe their line of work like land use consultant. To the average person it sounds the same but when in doubt add their description for what they do. Try not to make it into a personal attacks page so I don't have to edit the comments much. Lobbyists are humans too. But we need to know what influence they have on our governments from the smallest board to the White House.

In the future I plan to do more with this list. It will make it easier to track campaign contributions and to see how people go from one campaign to the next.

A transparent government is a more honest government. That is why the top candidates and their spouses should release their taxes.

And that's why we need to know who is lobbying our local officials.

If you don't know if someone qualifies add them anyways and we can discuss it.

Consider this a wiki.