If you missed the cigar guy meme click here to get caught up.

You know the rules. Send in a picture of a campaign sign for my readers to guess where it was taken.

Because of legal threats any discussion of allegations made against Steven Hintz by his opponent Don Facciano can be discussed on the news story link.

I will post my thoughts on the allegations later but for now this entry is restricted to discussions about this sign.

Retried Judge Steven Hintz is running for Treasurer / Tax Collector against former President of the Ventura County Taxpayers' Association Don Facciano. I'm not sure which of the two has a stronger ballot designation. Steven Hintz has run a much more effective campaign collecting an impressive list of endorsements.

His latest entry was sent in by a supporter of his. The goal of the Where In Ventura County contest is to send in pictures that are hard, but not impossible, to guess where the picture was taken. I will name winners before the election with categories like most on message photograph and best landscape photograph. Keep submitting your entries by email or by uploading them to facebook.com/briandennerthere

For the June Primary I asked campaigns to send in pictures of their candidate with a dog. Steven Hintz and Heather Lacayo won the contest and went on to win their elections. Is there a strong connection? Probably not.

For this election I am asking candidates to take pictures of their signs as they campaign across Ventura County. I will post every entry with the winners being announced the night before the election. The goal is to make it difficult, but not impossible, for readers to determine where the picture was taken. I want readers to look at the picture for clues and then post a comment with their guesses. The more specific the guess the better.

Like all of my blog entries you don't need to register to post a comment. But please keep it classy. The reader that accurately answers the most challenges will also be recognized.

There will be several awards campaigns can win. So, campaigns can send in multiple entries. I am thinking about categories like most memorable location, most obscure, funniest, best representation of a city, and a few others. Feel free to post suggestions with new categories. I will be asking The Star to cover this contest in the print edition and with online ads. They did support the cutest dog contest with a link on the front page and I expect they will do the same this time. So start taking pictures. To submit a picture send it to me at my email address posted on the right side of this page or upload it to my Facebook page for my blog.

For this first entry let's see who can most accurately determine where Treasurer / Tax Collector candidate Steven Hintz was when it was taken. Thanks to Steven Hintz for getting this contest started.

This contest was inspired by blogger Andrew Sullivan's View from your window blog posts that have now been made into a book.

Steven Hintz sent me this picture from the Santa Paula Independence Day Parade. He has been bringing that dog with him all over the campaign trail. I'd like to see a picture of his dog with other politicians. Steven, I will post every picture that you send me with your dog and other candidates. Maybe when someone endorses you they take a picture with your official campaign critter?

His campaign has continued to gather support with his latest endorsement being the union that represents Ventura County Sheriffs. Besides being able to claim support from law enforcement support from the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs' Association often comes with a large campaign contribution, sometimes as a donation and sometimes as an Independent Expenditure (IE).

Getting the support of a large labor union does carry risks. With concerns by many that pension costs are unsustainable and that public employee unions are too influential in public debates this gives his opponent a line of attack. But for that to work his opponent would need to be running an aggressive campaign and could antagonize law enforcement supports. I am not sure what is happening with the other campaign but Steven Hintz has been dominant publically since the primary.

Since the primary has ended one of the most energetic campaigners has continued to be Steven Hintz. He sent in some pictures from a recent parade over the 4th of July weekend and today he officially announced he has earned the endorsements of two of the candidates he defeated in the June primary. Because no candidate earned more than 50% there will be a run-off in November between Steven Hintz, and his closest opponent Don Facciano.

I haven't seen many updates to Don Facciano's campaign website or recent news from his team but being that the election is in November it would appear he has time to start campaigning more. I am not sure how much attention voters are paying to an election like this but Facciano is taking a chance that Ventura County political powerbrokers will assume that Hintz is the frontrunner if he waits much longer. I am not sure who is the frontrunner because the power of ballot designations in a low information race can be immense. Retired Judge sounds good but what about something like Taxpayer Advocate?

Steven Hintz's press release came to me from a new public relations firm. He might have been using them before but I didn't notice. Click on continue reading to see the press release and the bio of his consultant.

Steven Hintz was campaigning for Treasurer / Tax Collector on Saturday in Ojai and sent in a few pictures. If you see any candidates out campaigning this weekend send me the pictures and I will post them.

Here is Steven Hintz with the return of his campaign dog plus a new friend:

Click on continue reading for his other photos from the Ojai parade.

I haven't claimed that my online poll of readers is a scientific measure of voter preferences but they do reveal some information including which elections have energetic candidates and/or supporters. My readers correctly picked Steven Hintz to be the top vote getter in the June Primary, although they were off by a large margin. After that the results were wildly off with the exception of Ed Summers, who did almost exactly as well at the polls as he did in my reader survey.

Here are the results of my poll:

Here are the official results from the June Primary:

Because no candidate won more than 50% of the votes the top two candidates will face each other in the November general election. I will be posting almost every press release and photo the two campaigns send in over this long summer. Here is a new poll that only includes those two candidates:

You can hit the share button to post this poll to Facebook and other social networks.

I am running a contest to get a blog entry on the top of my page on the day of the primary election. Send in a photo of a pet with a campaign sign and I will post them all. I will choose the top entry. This entry is from a candidate I expect to finish in the top three of a crowded field. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote there will be a runoff in November.

Funny enough Don Facciano's campaign signs have a dog on them.

Hi Brian,

This morning I went with Don Facciano, his wife, Hazel, and their dog, "Marco" to the grand opening of the new dog park and splash pad in Oak Park. It was a great event and a beautiful new park. The Taxpayer's Watchdog and his dog really enjoyed the festivities as did my dog "Vito" (short for Don Vito) who was photographed there by Star and Acorn reporters. I'm sending you three of my own photos for entries in your contest. The golden is Marco and the Great Dane is Vito. Thanks for doing this; I think it's a cute idea to supplement the rest of the more serious coverage you provide on the candidates.

Sincerely,
Kristen Williams

Click on continue reading for the other pets before you vote.

I am running a contest for candidates in the June primary. Send me in a picture of your pet with a campaign sign for me to post. The candidate with the best picture will have an entry on the top of my page on the day of the election. The headlines for blog entries show up all around VCstar.com and my Twitter posts are on the front page. So send in your photographs to earn some publicity.

Candidate for Treasurer / Tax Collector Keith McLaughlin sent in his entry for my contest. He is running in a crowded field of candidates. If any candidates gets over 50% of the vote the contest will end in June. Otherwise it will be better for blogging because it will be a two candidate campaign until November.

In a low profile campaign I don't know how to predict who will win. Ballot titles and ballot statements might be very influential. Keith mentions that he used to work for Countrywide in his campaign materials a few times. While that might not attract some voters because of the mortgage crisis it could earn him votes here in Simi Valley where Countrywide ( now part of Bank of America) is among the largest private employers.

Keith, thanks for sending in your entry.

Click on continue reading before you vote in the poll for the rest of the dogs.

I thought Jim Dantona was winning because he had two dogs in his picture but my wife thinks Steven Hintz's dog picture is cuter.

You can vote for as many dogs as you want.

Check out some recent comments in response to my contest where candidates send in pictures with their pets:

C'mon, Dennert, who cares about his friggin' dog? Have you abandoned talking about the issues completely here? -Dog Days of Dennert

and

Again with the dogs, Brian? Really? -Ruff Stuff

I don't care. I am going to keep posting pictures of candidates with their pets as long as they keep sending them in. The winner gets a post at the top of my page on the day of the primary election. If Ronald Reagan said he could tell something about a person according to how they selected jellybeans then animals should tell us much more.

I haven't abandoned the issues at all. I have interviewed most of these candidates before.

Here is a message from Jeff Walker:

Brian,

I have attached a photo of me and my rat terrier Dexter for your blog contest.

There's a historical connection between dogs and Tax Collectors. Did you know the Doberman Pinscher was bred by a Tax Collector in the 1860's? Louis Dobermann had to travel frequently through bandit-infested areas and decided to develop a watchdog and bodyguard capable of handling any situation that might arise.

Click here for my past interview with Jeff Walker.

Click on continue reading to see the other animals. You can vote for multiple mutts.

Candidate for Treasurer / Tax Collector Steven Hintz sent me in a picture as a part of my pets campaigning contest.

I am posting pictures of pets with a campaign sign over the next couple of weeks. The candidate with the best picture will get a blog entry at the top of this page on the day of the primary election.

Every candidate that sends in a picture will have it posted. Think of it as free publicity. In addition I will link to their campaign website.

Click on continue reading for the other dogs. Click here for my past interview with Steven Hintz.

I don't have any predictions to make so far in the Treasurer / Tax Collector's race. Without an incumbent or a well known candidate I am not sure who has the advantage. Money and name ID will be important and Hintz has both. In addition he has a great ballot designation. I expect he will be at or near the top of the candidates in a few weeks.

I am interviewing Steven Hintz tonight using the comments section of my blog. I asked him for a one on one interview but when we are done please leave me feedback or comments for my next interview.

Click on continue reading to see the interview.

I will be asking a variety of questions, some of which will likely be surprising. Because we can count on traditional media to ask the typical questions I am going to use this opportunity to explore the ideology and background more.

If you know a candidate that would like to be interviewed on Thursday Night Live have them contact me.

Most of the candidates I interview will have more traditional questions as they campaign. I like to take this opportunity to explore their ideology and background. When I ask candidates to be interviewed I tell them it is just the two of us. I will delete other comments. After the interview ends feel free to give me feedback.

Click on continue reading to see the interview.