Here's a great example why people stay out of the take-no-prisoners cynical political process.  They stand an excellent chance of being dragged through the mud at some point, almost always unfairly.

Phil Schmit is the latest victim. The retired public official was the subject of an attack ad--and he's not even running for anything! n the clerk-recorder race, Democrat Jim Dantona's campaign released a mailer with, let's say...a lack of detail and perspective that hopefully I can provide here.

The mailer, which states we need to "take our county back & clean up this mess" has four main themes (see a picture of it here).

1.       -Ventura County voting machines are defective or antiquated
-Schmit is an incompetent who was forced out by a grand jury investigation
-The disgraced Schmit "anointed" Lunn to succeed him, therefore Lunn is tainted
-Lunn, a retired CHP officer, collects too much taxpayer dollars in pensions

I'd like to focus on the criticisms of Phil Schmit, now that his reputation has become a campaign issue.  But first, why involve him at all?

The endorsement of someone who held the office you are seeking to be elected to is a valuable thing. It implies that someone with expertise in the job thinks that you have the ability to do a good job.

Mark Lunn has this advantage; Dantona doesn't. What's the best way to neutralize that? You spin it as a negative--suddenly it's a Faustian deal borne in a smoke-filled room. Then, you break down the reputation of the man who gave the endorsement. If we tend to trust a candidate who is endorsed by a competent public official, shouldn't we distrust a candidate who is endorsed by an incompetent public official?

Of course, the truth is always an obstacle that must be overcome. But cynical political operatives on both sides of the aisle have convinced themselves that they're just doing their jobs when they spin the truth into something it's not. That's how it's rationalized--if we didn't do it, the bad guys would win, etc.

Let's examine each theme in the mailer and see if we can't extract the truth.

Theme #1: Ventura County voting machines are defective or antiquated

The mailer shows five newspaper clippings that attest to this. Problem: three of the newspapers aren't in Ventura County--ABC News, Wired Magazine, and the New York Times--and they don't identify any problems in Ventura County. They are just general problems about voting machines in other parts of the country, meant to elicit general anxiety that something must be done. The public's mood is ripe for electoral shenanigans ever since Bush v. Gore, but this isn't Broward County, and we don't have hanging chads--Phil Schmit saw to that.

The two remaining newspaper clippings, both renderings of the Ventura County Star, are about local elections problems.

The first, Ballot Problem at Hand Again, is an April 17, 2010 article about how the clerk-recorder's office has yet to automate the absentee vote-counting process.

Jim Dantona can bring this up as a legitimate issue all day long. He was a candidate in a 2006 race that took 24 days to call because so many absentee ballots came in at the last minute--ballots that had to be hand counted. He ultimately lost to the boss of his current opponent, Mark Lunn.

However, automating absentee ballot-counting is not something you just snap your fingers and do. In fact, the article Dantona references states that Ventura County is like most counties in that absentees are hand counted, according to the VP of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.

In an era of cash-strapped local governments, is it a bad thing for Schmit not to rush and ask for new equipment, particularly since in the very same mailer he's criticized for spending $5 million on new machines?

In addition to being expensive, the automation equipment is also rather large, taking up an entire room. Santa Barbara election workers nicknamed it "The Beast." A machine to open the ballots would cost $120,000, and a signature verification machine would cost several hundred thousand dollars--and it's only been available since March.

The only other Ventura County article has to do with the grand jury. I'll cover this next.

Theme #2:  Schmit is an incompetent who was forced out by a grand jury investigation

Sounds scary, right? It fits the cliché we always hear--the politician resigns suddenly after a grand jury investigation into his misdealing.

But that's a long ways from the truth, especially considering that Schmit publicly announced his retirement months before the grand jury issued their findings.

First, grand juries are routine in government and every department submits to them as a matter of course. There was no order to investigate Phil Schmit's conduct or anything like that. The grand jury was convened in anticipation of the November 2008 election.

This particular grand jury determined that "November's [2008] election went off mostly without a hitch" with the exception of a razor-thin race for school board in Santa Paula.

The only serious problem was at a polling place in Santa Paula, where grand jury members saw poll workers give some voters the wrong ballots

Remember, the mailer is trying to find fault with Schmit. But it turns out some volunteers gave out the wrong ballots in an area where there were two possible ballots they could be given.

The border of the Santa Paula Elementary School District ran through the precinct in question, so the polling place had two separate ballots. As many as 14 voters who should have voted in the school board election got a ballot that didn't have that race

It was probably the first time that's happened in 30 years, but that day Schmit resolved to end the multi-ballot practice. In a county where hundreds of thousands of people vote, in an election year with the highest turnout in 28 years, 14 people were handed the wrong ballot by poll workers and the election was decided by one vote. Because votes are secret, there was no way for Schmit to determine which 14 people had the wrong ballot, so he certified the election. I think it was a flawed election, but Schmit's decision to certify it was not flawed--he had no other choice.

The grand jury commended the elections division for its handling of the election and its cooperation. Yet their report appears on an attack ad criticizing Schmit.

And how about Schmit resigning in disgrace as a result of the grand jury's findings?

The grand jury's report about the November 2008 election came out in April 2009.

Phil Schmit publicly announced his intent to retire in October 2008, a week before the election that supposedly disgraced him.

Schmit officially left office in January, at the age of 64, three months before the grand jury's report came out.

What more needs to be said?

Theme #3: The disgraced Schmit "anointed" Lunn to succeed him, therefore Lunn is tainted

Here's the main point of the attack ad--Schmit is incompetent and shady, therefore Lunn must be so, too, because Schmit asked Lunn to run for his seat.

We've already cut through the fog and determined that the main problems under Schmit were the length of time it took to hand count absentee ballots in a 2006 Supervisor race, and the freak occurrence of a one-vote loss in a unusual district where a poll worker made an error. In either case, it's hard to lay so much blame at Schmit's feet that he deserves an attack ad in a race he isn't running in.

I'll leave the fourth theme about the pension for some other time. My main point here is that a man was unfairly associated with things that don't involve him in a race he's not in, and he doesn't have a forum to defend himself.

I think it's wrong, and while I can't cancel out the tens of thousands of dollars worth of mailers with the misrepresentations on it, I can provide a permanent record of the details surrounding the issues the mailer brings up.

If you're one of the people that Jim Dantona's stiffed, don't take it personally. You're in good company. Whether you're a friend of his, a car dealership, the county of Ventura, or the state of California, you can take comfort in the fact that Dantona's failed to meet financial obligations to all sorts of groups--even charities.

That's no consolation to Simi Valley City Councilwoman Barbra Williamson--a longtime Dantona ally--who said that late last year Dantona pledged $2,500 to a local charitable fundraiser but failed to pay.

"He made a commitment to me and a non-profit foundation that I work for and he has not fulfilled that financial obligation," said Williamson. "That doesn't sit well with me."

Williamson wouldn't discuss anything else about the charity, except that it services terminally ill patients. I called around and found that a charity that Williamson is associated with had a fundraiser last fall in Simi Valley. I poked around for the fundraiser's invitation, and found that Jim Dantona is listed on it as a $2,500 "reception sponsor."

While Williamson is endorsing Dantona's opponent in the Ventura County Clerk/Recorder race, she did so before Dantona entered the race.

"Had I endorsed him I probably would have pulled my endorsement," she said, noting that she's been friends with Dantona for about 35 years. "If he would do that to a personal friend, I'm wondering what he would do if he wasn't a personal friend."

We already know the answer to that.

Interestingly, Dantona touts his own charitable organization, Baseballers Against Drugs, as one of the main reasons voters should entrust him with a public office that oversees a $9 million budget.

So why didn't he keep his word to donate $2,500 to a charity that helps terminally ill patients? Surely he would have realized that fact would undercut one of his biggest selling points, alienate a longtime ally, and lend further credence to the idea that he's not a man of his word.

But if you're Dantona, you can brush it aside with a mailer that leads with, "Like many Americans today, Jim Dantona has suffered personal and professional hardship, but has fought his way back with grit and determination."

If anyone points out that he also declared bankruptcy in 1992 and 2000, that he failed to make tax payments on time in 2006 and 2008, and has multiple tax liens and court judgments filed against him for refusing to pay his creditors, during times of broad economic prosperity, you can say they are merely digging up "old news because some of the fines dated back years."

If the man suddenly fell on hard times, I think we can give him a pass. But he's demonstrated a life-long pattern of irresponsibility that continues to this present day--voters should think very long before sending him to be the caretaker of our public records and elections.

Thanks for the calls & emails concerning the theft and destruction of my campaign signs. Please know that these unlawful acts were widespread throughout the County-so other than supporting me-you were not individually targeted. For your safety, do not confront anyone who is in the process of destroying/stealing our signs-call your local police agency and be a good witness. I appreciate your continued support!

I decided to check it out for myself, by driving down Los Angeles Ave. in Simi Valley. It took me five minutes to find not just a vandalized Lunn sign, but also a vandalized Peter Foy sign.

The post for Foy's sign is in the foreground. His sign lies nearby, and Lunn's sign is in the upper left corner, and looks like it was squished with a shoe. Someone must really have it in for both men to risk the consequences of getting caught.

The variety of experience that veteran government and political insider Jim Dantona has accrued over his 30-year career is remarkable. The presidential advisor, State Senate chief of staff, founder of a youth anti-drug organization, campaign consultant, special assistant to a state controller, perennial Democratic candidate and lobbyist is running for Ventura County Clerk/Recorder. Throw in that he played in spring training for the Chicago Cubs in 1969, and we have the makings of one of the more interesting people to run for such a mundane job ever in the county.

Depending on the point of view, one can say Dantona's spent a life in public service--or one can say he spent his life running hundreds of campaigns as a political operative, lobbying and perma-candidate. Experience is usually--but not always--a good thing.

In the 1980s, Dantona worked as chief of staff for State Senate Pro Tem David Roberti, whom he had met at a community event (and admired his "progressive" politics), for 10 years. The relationship was sometimes rocky, but undoubtedly Dantona learned a great deal about the inner workings of government.

In the mid-80's, he worked as a political consultant and by the end of the decade entertained thoughts of running himself. He was rumored to be candidate for County Supervisor in 1989, and in 1990 and 1992 he sought to become a Simi Valley city councilman after a stint as a neighborhood councilmember.  However, when Bill Clinton won the 1992 presidential election, Dantona aborted his campaign to work for the president-elect's national fundraising committee.

In 1995, he ran unsuccessfully for State Assembly. Along the way, he founded his philanthropic organizations BAD (Ballplayers Against Drugs) and worked hard as a "legislative consultant" (lobbyist). In 2006, he was narrowly defeated in a race for Ventura County Supervisor. In that race, Tony Strickland briefly endorsed him before withdrawing his support and throwing it behind Peter Foy, who won the bitter contest. It featured Dantona's questionable financial practices as central campaign issues. The slight must have stuck with Dantona, who took on Strickland for State Senate in 2008 before bowing out, saying that as a "good Democrat" he didn't want to force Hannah Beth Jackson to spend money on a primary when it could be used to defeat Strickland.

Now that Foy's chief of staff, Mark Lunn, is running for Ventura County Clerk/Recorder, Dantona decided to throw his hat in the ring one more time. Whereas he saved Jackson money by dropping out in 2008, is Dantona running simply to cost Lunn money, sticking it to Foy and Strickland at the same time? I'm sure he'd like to win, too, and the political payback may just be icing.

During a lifetime spent on working on political deals, running campaigns, making allies and enemies alike, Dantona's become a polarizing figure in local politics who at best is a well-connected crusader in Democratic politics, and at worst is a jaded and calloused insider.

The office of Clerk/Recorder manages important county records and elections. The question facing voters vis-à-vis Dantona is this: does his type of experience fit the mission of the office?