For voters in Ventura County who are curious about some of these groups with the pleasant-sounding names -- the "California Alliance" or the "California Alliance for Progress and Education," for instance -- that are suddenly sending a lot of campaign mail, here's a good place to go for answers: the state Fair Political Practices Commission independent expenditure database.

If you click on the "Senate races", the site details all the special-interest spending in the 19th state Senate District. Then, if you want to know who these groups are, click on "IE Committees & Donors" to discover who's financing these campaigns.

You might be surprised to learn how much an interest that trial lawyers and the pharmaceutical industry are taking in you these days.