Former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, who raised some eyebrows in the spring when he designated himself on the June primary ballot as "alternative energy executive," has refined the title for the fall 19th Senate District campaign.

In the certified list of candidates for the November election, released today by Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Strickland is listed as "renewable energy businessman."

Both designations spring from Strickland's role as an investor in a fledgling wave energy company that has yet to undertake a project or bring in any revenue. The company, GreenWave Energy Solutions, has filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

With all the negative press about excessive executive pay among Fortune 500 companies, it's not too hard to see why a candidate might switch from "executive" to "businessman." But why might voters reflect more favorably on the adjective "renewable" than on "alternative"?

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen today issued what might be described as a grudging press release, stating that the newest ballot proposition is being prepared for inclusion in a special, supplemental voter information guide. That measure is Proposition 1A, the Legislature's rewrite of the high-speed rail bond that had already been on the ballot as Proposition 1.

Because the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger thumbed their collective notices at the existing ballot deadline, Bowen's office will now spend an additional $5 million to print a second ballot pamphlet and mail it to voters. Voters will receive two pamphlets, one analyzing Proposition 1 and the other analyzing Proposition 1A. The actual ballot, however, will show only Proposition 1A, because ballots are printed later.

On the issue of frustration over missed deadlines, on this day Bowen has an ally in Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr of Georgia.

Barr sent an email to political reporters claiming that he will be "the only presidential candidate on the ballot in Texas." The reason: Republicans and Democrats each missed Texas' Aug. 26 deadline to submit names of candidates for the ballot.

Bowen lamented that she must do all this costly extra work because legislators have the power to make laws that allow them to ignore deadlines. Barr, too, realizes that the political powers in Texas will allow the two major parties to skirt that state's ballot deadline.

But Barr's campaign makes an excellent point: "When we miss deadlines, we get no second chances," said campaign manager Russell Verney. "Republicans and Democrats make certain that third party candidates are held to ballot access laws, no matter how absurd or unreasonable.Therefore, Republicans and Democrats should be held to the same standards."

The same argument applies to ballot measures. If a citizens' group turns in signatures too late, it cannot qualify a measure for the ballot. Perhaps legislators in California should be held to the same standard.

It's not yet Labor Day, but already -- as promised -- the 19th District Senate race is creating more buzz than any political campaign ever seen in Ventura County.

Today, the liberal activist group called the Courage Campaign launched a viral Internet ad challenging Republican Tony Strickland's claims of environmental advocacy. It consists of a YouTube video that is loosely based on Steven Colbert's "The Word" segment -- in which printed messages covey a message that contradicts the visual image being shown. The Courage Campaign sent an email to its members, with a form to spread the link to others. I received about a half-dozen such emails between 1 and 3 this afternoon.

Here's the video.

Democratic 19th Senate District candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson has made a major commitment to cable television advertising for the duration of the fall campaign.

Public documents detailing political advertising purchased from Time-Warner show that Jackson this week placed an order for $525,000 worth of cable advertising through the end of October. The ads will run on cable franchises in Ventura, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Santa Clarita. The total number of 30-second spots: 29,736.

The spots will run on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, USA Network, ESPN and the History, Travel and Food channels.

(UPDATE: The campaign of Republican Tony Strickland, citing documents I have not seen, reports that Jackson's total cable TV ad buy, including Santa Barbara County, is for $805,000. It also says broadcast TV station documents, which I have also not seen, show $562,000 in ad purchases. That would total more than $1.3 million in television advertising.)

The Ventura County cable TV documents also show that the independent group called the California Taxpayer Protection Committee supplemented its broadcast TV attack ad against Jackson with about $15,000 in cable TV ads in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Republican candidate Tony Strickland also supplemented his broadcast Olympics commercials with more than $4,000 in ads on cable channels that carried Olympics programming.

Of note: The firm that executed the advertising purchases for both Strickland and the independent group was Voter Strategies, a company run by Republican state Sen. Jim Battin of Palm Springs. Battin personally signed the contracts. Legislators are permitted to have outside sources of income while in office, and Battin's civilian job is consulting to political campaigns.

Presidential politicking will be at center stage as Democrats arrive today for their week-long convention in Denver. But on the side stages, they'll see plenty of potential candidates using the event to promote their 2010 campaigns.

Pretty much the entire field of potential Democratic nominees for California governor in 2010 will be in Denver, in their roles as pledged party officials. That includes Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who has already declared his intent to run, Attorney General Jerry Brown, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.

So far, however, it is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who's pulled off the biggest potential coup. Newsom will host an outdoor concert on Wednesday, underwritten by such corporate deep pockets as AT&T and Pacific Gas & Electric, as well as the Northern California carpenters union and the online activist group MoveOn.com.

The concert, designed to appeal to young people, will honor a handful of organizations of young Democrats, including College Democrats of America.

The entertainment lineup includes Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cold War Kids, Silversun Pickups and Nada Surf.

If you can't name a tune by any of those groups, you are probably not a member of one of the organizations to be recognized at the concert: Generation Obama.

The "Target Book," a respected political publication that analyzes district-level political contests in California, has added Ventura County's 37th Assembly District to its list of possible targets in the fall Assembly campaigns.

The race pits incumbent Republican Audra Strickland of Moorpark against Democratic challenger Ferial Masry of Newbury Park.

Co-publisher Tony Quinn told me today that the district was added based on the fact that there will be "a strong Senate race" in a Senate district that overlaps most of the Assembly District. That race features Audra Strickland's husband, Tony, as the Republican nominee.

Quinn noted that Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein carried the 37th District in 2004 "despite its Republican bent."

Assembly Democrats, who are in the majority, are expected to make an all-out effort in the fall in an improbable attempt to capture six seats now held by Republicans. If they succeed, that would give them the two-thirds majority they would need to pass a budget with GOP support. One contested seat will be that now held by Democrat Nicole Parra, but Quinn noted that Democrats may have "shot themselves in the foot" this week when Speaker Karen Bass exiled Parra to a new office outside the Capitol as punishment for her refusal to vote for the Democratic budget proposal on Sunday. Parra has further angered Democrats by saying kind words about the Republican candidate seeking to replace her.

Democrats now will likely need to target an additional district, and Quinn said the 37th was added this week as "a possible target, but the least likely of the possible targets."

If a seat is selected as a target, that means Democratic leaders in Sacramento would commit money to Masry's campaign.

The tension between Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the conservative wing of the party has flared anew over the governor's embrace of a temporary sales tax increase to help balance the overdue state budget.

In addition to a growing rift between Schwarzenegger and GOP leaders in the Legislature, the governor's old friends at conservative talk radio station KFI in Los Angeles have turned on him.

Afternoon hosts John & Ken, who led the Schwarzenegger bandwagon when he ran in the 2003 recall and received regular chummy calls from the governor in the early days of his administration, took a surprise call from Schwarzenegger on Monday.

The exchange (it's the one labeled "budget" at 3 p.m. on Aug. 18, and begins about 15 minutes into the show) is heated and entertaining. At one point, the radio hosts suggest Schwarzenegger must still be feeling the effects of anesthesia from his knee surgery over the weekend. Toward the end of the conversation, Schwarzenegger asserts: "Don't lie to the people" and dismisses their badgering of him as "nonsense Republican right-wing talk."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today, echoing a component of Sen. Barack Obama's energy-saving policies, recommended that motorists regularly check their tire pressure as an important step in conserving gasoline.

Speaking via satellite to an Alliance of Autobile Manufactures' "Eco-Driving" event in Denver, Schwarzenegger said consumers "don't have to wait for for the politicians or worry about living in a red state or blue state. Instead they can live and drive in their own green state."

He said motorists can get 15 percent better gas mileage by following simple recommendations listed on the Eco-Driving website.

"I am talking simple things like proper tire pressure, avoiding rapid starts and stops and keeping your engine tuned up," he said. "This is no substitute for a consistent, long-term national energy policy but it provides immediate, tangible relief from high gas prices."

Without naming names, Schwarzenegger said that any politician who suggests that bio-fuels, offshore oil drilling or nuclear power "will bring down gas prices anytime soon is blowing smoke."

As I reported in a story in today's Star, an independent group called the California Taxpayer Protection Committee has launched a television ad assailing Democratic 19th Senate District candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson as "a politician willing to tax just about anything."

Before writing the story, I attempted over two days to contact the group's treasurer, Tom Hudson, but he was unable to return my call before deadline. Hudson called me back today. I asked him why the decision was made to go on the air so early -- more than two months before the election.

His answer: The state budget stalemate has focused public attention on Democratic proposals to raise taxes as part of a budget-balancing solution. "There has been a heightened level of scrutiny about the tax-increase issue," he said.

The ad underscores the political difficulty the state budget issue presents to Democratic candidates around the state. Although polls consistently show that most California voters tend to side with Democratic positions on school spending, environmental protection, healthcare and other state spending issues, those same polls show that voters want all those things but don't believe taxes should be raised to pay for them. That creates a political opportunity for Republicans, who are able to stand fast against tax increases without laying out the spending cuts for education, healthcare and other state programs that would be needed to balance the budget without additional revenue.

Hudson is chairman of the Placer County Republican Central Committee, a group that generated some controversy this spring when it issued a pre-primary endorsement of Ventura County state Sen. Tom McClintock in his campaign for Congress in Northern California. Hudson and the Taxpayer Protection Committee chairman Mike Spence have been friends with Jackson's opponent, Republican Tony Strickland since their years as members of the California College Republicans.

The campaign of Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson has purchased nearly $57,000 in television commercials to air during Olympics programming on the NBC affliate station that airs in Santa Barbara County.

Jackson's ads follow on the heels of Republican Tony Strickland's decision to begin campaign advertising extraordinarily early by purchasing $112,000 in ads that have been airing during Olympics programming on the same station. The two are competing for the ultra-competitive 19th Senate District seat in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

I have not yet seen or been informed of the content of Jackson's ads, but they will air during "Today Show" broadcasts from Beijing, day- and night-time Olympics programming and during the Aug. 24 Closing Ceremony.

Folks in Santa Barbara County watching the Olympics this week on NBC affiliate KSBY might believe that Barrack Obama, John McCain and a fellow named Tony Strickland are all running on the same political ticket.

With the exception of McCain, who couldn't resist throwing a negative zinger in his ad, the message of the ads is the same: energy independence, job-creating alternative energy, clean energy.

While the other two are running for higher office, Strickland is running for state Senate -- and his TV ad comes unusually early in the campaign. It opens with images of Olympic athletes, followed by the Statue of Liberty. Strickland tells viewers that the Olympics "remind us that America is at its greatest when we face our challenges together." It closes with him saying: "Energy independence. We can do it, and we can do it together."

The message is in keeping with Strickland's attempt to reinvent himself from the tax-cutting conservative that has always before been his political calling card to an alternative energy visionary. Because he joined with a handful of other investors last year to create a company that is seeking federal permits for a wave energy project, Strickland lists his ballot designation as "alternative energy executive."

Judging from the content of both his ad and those of the two presidential candidates, it's clear that polls and focus groups are telling campaigns this year that energy -- and its impact on the economy -- is the issue foremost on their minds.

A Superior Court judge in Sacramento County today rejected an effort by proponents of Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage initiative on November's ballot, to force Attorney General Jerry Brown to rewrite his ballot title and summary of the measure.

Brown had originally titled the measure "Limits on Marriage," but after the state Supreme Court's ruling in May that the state's restriction on marriages to opposite-sex couples was discriminatory, he rewrote the title. It now says: "Eliminates right of same-sex couples to marry."

In his ruling, Judge Timothy Frawley says the new title is accurate because the facts of the issue changed since Brown wrote his original version:

"The court rejects petitioner's argument that the title is argumentative because it states as fact that same-sex couples have a 'right' to marry. This statement is not argumentative, prejudicial, or controversial, in light of the California Supreme Court's decision in the Marriage Cases, which recognized the right. This court is bound to follow the Supreme Court's decision."

Following the decision, Brown released a two-sentence statement: "This lawsuit was more about politics than the law. The court properly dismissed it."

Proponents said they will appeal the decision and hope to get it reversed by Monday, when the official voter information pamphlets will go to press.

The group's press release quotes its legal counsel, Andrew Pugno: "The language in the ballot ttle & summary for Proposition 8 is argumentative and seeks to negatively affect voters. Since the Superior Court would not exercise its authority to protect voters against misleading language, we will ask the Appellate Court to do so."

Ventura County has already seen one instance of a wife succeeding her husband in the state Assembly -- Audra Strickland, who was elected in 2002 after her husband, Tony, was termed out -- and now there could be a second.

Susan Jordan, executive director of the environmental group California Coastal Protection Network and wife of Assemblyman Pedro Nava, told me today she is "seriously considering" running for the Santa Barbara-Ventura County seat when Nava is termed out in 2010.

Jordan says that one Democrat who had widely been considered a potential candidate, Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams, would support her and delay his own ambitions if she decides to run. She notes that she has known and worked with Williams "longer than I've known Pedro."

Jordan, who lived in Manhattan Beach when she helped found the nonprofit advocacy group Vote the Coast, says she was previously asked to consider running for the Assembly in 1998, when former Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (now secretary of state) moved up to the Senate. She's no newcomer to the political scene, and is an active and energetic advocate for coastal environmental issues before the Legislature and various state agencies.

Spousal succession is an increasingly common phenomenon in the era of term limits. In addition to the Stricklands, Sen. George Runner was succeeded by his wife, Sharon. Mike Eng of Monterey Park succeeded his wife, Judy Chu.

It doesn't always work, however. Just in June, Becky Maze lost a Republican primary in an attempt to keep husband Bill's Assembly job in the family.

A group of moderate Ventura County Republicans, some of whom have feuded for years with the conservative faction headed by Sen. Tom McClintock and former Assemblyman Tom Strickland, have formed a group called Moderate Republicans for Hannah-Beth Jackson.

Jackson, a Democrat, is running against Strickland for the 19th state Senate District seat now held by McClintock.

Among those behind the organization: Bob Larkin of Westlake Village, who ran unsuccessfully against McClintock for Assembly in 1996; former Supervisor Judy Mikels, who was defeated by McClintock in the 2000 primary for state Senate; and former Sen. Cathie Wright, who has openly fueded with McClintock for years; and former executive director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association Jere Robings, who lost to Strickland in a 1998 primary.

Also in the group are Ventura School Board members Velma Lomax and John Walker -- two Republicans who signed up early on as Jackson supporters, saying they were impressed with her service when she represented Ventura in the Assembly. The inclusion of Lomax and Walker will make it more difficult for Strickland to dismiss the group as exclusively made up of past political opponents inspired by sour grapes.

Larkin has been a thorn in Strickland's side for years, perhaps most effectively at the 2006 state Republican convention. At that event, Larkin circulated fliers pointing out that Strickland had endorsed Democrat Jim Dantona over incumbent Republican Mikels for supervisor. Strickland, who was in the midst of a GOP primary campaign for controller at the time, recanted his endorsement shortly thereafter, shifting his support to a new candidate, fellow Republican Peter Foy.

In a press release announcing the group's formation, Larkin labels Strickland "an extremist" and says the group was formed "out of concern that Strickland is a man who is far removed from the beliefs and ethical standards held by the majority of people in our neighborhoods."

It's difficult to judge whether this effort will hurt Strickland, but if the Jackson campaign uses the group effectively it will make Strickland's task of persuading moderate Republicans in Santa Barbara County, where he is unkown, that he is one of them.

The group has created a website that invites other moderate Republicans to join in the effort.