Give this to 26th Congressional District Democratic candidate David Cruz Thayne: He sure knows how to recruit talented help.

Thayne announced this morning that noted Democratic strategist Joe Trippi has joined his campaign team. Trippi is widely credited with developing the Internet-based grassroots support that briefly propelled former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to the top of the heap in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary. But Californians might remember him best for his most recent work as the lead media strategist for Gov. Jerry Brown's 2010 gubernatorial campaign -- a campaign that won national recognition for the devastating television commercial featuring clips of Republican candidate Meg Whitman and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger saying the exact same things.

Trippi has also worked for such big-name national Democrats as the late Sen. Ted Kennedy,

A press release issued this morning quotes Trippi as saying this about his role with the Thayne campaign: "I will be working with David to utilize the unharnessed grassroots power of this diverse and proud district."

Thayne, a former tennis pro and a Westlake Village businessman whose endeavors have included producing tennis-based film documentaries, already has an all-star lineup on his campaign team that includes former Gov. Gray Davis' top strategist Garry South, pollster John Fairbanks and fundraiser Tricia Riffenburgh.

The one big question at this point is how Thayne intends to pay for all this high-powered help. His 2011 fundraising was relatively meager, although South told me recently he still expects that the campaign will raise in the neighborhood of $300,000 for the primary.

If that happens -- and it's a very big if -- it will be fascinating to see what kind of campaign Trippi and South come up with in their attempt to put an unknown candidate over the top in a field that also includes a well known state senator (Republican Tony Strickland), a member of the Assembly with proven fundraising ability (Democrat Julia Brownley), a county supervisor with high name recognition in the district (potential independent Linda Parks) and two longtime local government officials (Moorpark Councilman David Pollock and Oxnard Harbor District Commissioner Jess Herrera, both Democrats).