The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pouring $3.3 million into television advertising campaigns in support of Republicans in 9 California House races, the National Journal reports today, including $348,000 in Ventura County's 26th Congressional District and $118,000 in the neighboring 24th District in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties (which also includes a small coastal strip in Ventura County).

The buy quickly triggered a response from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which in a statement today called it a reaction to rising concerns among Republicans that a shift in recent national polls showing growing support for

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Watch videos analyzing the November California ballot propositions featuring Timm Herdt and David Maron of the Ventura County League of Women Voters.
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President Obama over Mitt Romney in the presidential race could dampen the chances of Republican candidates for Congress. It cites the latest Cook Political Report, which stated "If there is one place House Republican strategists are particularly concerned about a downturn in Romney's fortunes nationally, it is California. Pollsters on both sides privately point to a top-of-the-ticket drag that is making life extremely difficult..."

The ad buy comes on top of a $450,000 purchase by the National Republican Congressional Committee, bringing outside spending on behalf of Republican Tony Strickland so far this fall to more than $900,000.

REGISTERING ONLINE: The Secretary of State's Office reports that in the one week since one-click online voter registration became available in California, more than 110,000 took advantage to register to vote. It's likely that not all of these are new voters, because the service can be used to re-register if a voter has moved. It will be most interesting to see what the net increase in new voters will be when the final statewide voter registration figures are released before the Nov. 6 election. The most recent report will provide a solid baseline to use to measure the effect, because it reflects registration as of Sept. 7, only about a week before online registration became available.

LET BYGONES BE BYGONES, OR NOT: Sometimes losers in political primary campaigns get over it, move on and stay loyal to their party. And sometimes not.
There are examples of each in Central Coast politics today.
-- Oxnard Harbor District Commissioner Jess Herrera has endorsed fellow Democrat Julia Brownley, who beat him in the June 5 primary. In a statement released by the Brownley campaign, Herrera says he "is proud to endorse Julia" because she "has a proved record of improving education and working to create the jobs we need right here in Oxnard and all of Ventura County."
-- Former Santa Barbara Assemblyman Pedro Nava, who backed fellow Democrat Jason Hodge in the 19th Senate District primary, has come just short of endorsing Republican Mike Stoker in the general election.

Nava has engaged in a long-running, bitter feud with former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara (he told me during the primary that voters in Oxnard "couldn't pick her out of lineup"), a feud that intensified two years ago when Jackson protege Das Williams ran against, and defeated Nava's wife, Susan Jordan, in the 35th Assembly District primary.

Today the Stoker campaign issued a press release heralding the kind words Nava had to say about the Republican running against Jackson in an interview with the United Agribusiness League.

"I had the privilege of working with Mike Stoker while in the Assembly and what I especially appreciate about Mike is his openness and willingness to work in a bi-partisan way to get the job done. If we had more people like Mike involved in Sacramento a whole lot more would get done on behalf of the people of the state of California," Nava says in the interview.

In a television ad now airing, paid for by an independent expenditure group called the California Senior Advocates League PAC and attacking Sen. Fran Pavley, an announcer asserts, "While Pavley voted to raise our taxes, she pays none on her six-figure salary."

While that bald-faced assertion is being made, a screen shot shows a photo of Pavley alongside a headline that reads "$261,000 tax free salary."

The assertion is preposterous. Legislators are paid an annual salary of $90,526, and they pay taxes just like everyone else -- federal income taxes, Social Security taxes, state income taxes and the rest. In fact, the Pavley family's tax attorney attests in an email shared with me today that Pavley and her husband, Andy, paid $16,797 in federal income taxes in 2011, for an effective tax rate of 16.6 percent. In addition, they paid state income taxes of $5,925.

So where does this "tax free salary" assertion come from?

It's very hard to get an answer. The PAC lists no address on its forms filed with the secretary of state. The phone number listed is that of a Sacramento CPA. When I called that number today, I was told by the receptionist that the CPA "doesn't talk to the media at all" in regards to questions about the PAC.

Yesterday, I was able to track down a Sacramento political consultant who does some work for the PAC, and was referred to the PAC's legal counsel. I left a message at that law office this afternoon.

For now, we're left to try to decipher on our own what the ad from this shadowy group means to say. There is a small citation that appears at the bottom of the screen for less than two seconds that references Assembly and Senate records dating back more than a decade. Presumably, then, the reference is to the per diem payments out-of-town legislators receive while they are in Sacramento on legislative business. Again, presumably, the $261,000 figure refers to the cumulative total of per diem payments made to Pavley during the six years she was in the Assembly and four years in the Senate. That would work out to a little more than $2,000 a month, which is about what the average monthly per diem payments would be.

Per diem payments are in fact tax-free, but they are not "salary." They are, in essence, travel expense payments. Like most out-of-town legislators, Pavley lives in her district -- at the family's longtime home in Agoura Hills. She keeps an apartment in Sacramento in which she stays while working at the Capitol. The purpose of per diem pay is to cover expenses such as out-of-town lodging.

No one listening to that commercial would be able to jump through all these hoops to dissect what is being asserted in the ad. All they take away from it is a lie -- that Pavley makes a $261,000 "salary" and that it is "tax free."

If no one from the California Senior Advocates League PAC can be tracked down to account for the ad, what about Pavley's opponent, L.A. prosecutor Todd Zink?

Rachel Culbert, spokeswoman for the Zink campaign, told me today, "We really don't have any information about the ads. We have no control over them."

Under the law, that's true. Independent expenditure committees cannot coordinate with candidates.

But if there is no one to publicly speak for the independent expenditure committee, and the candidate on whose behalf the ad is being run won't comment, the question in the headline above remains unanswered.

Who's accountable for this lie?

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Watch videos analyzing the November California ballot propositions featuring Timm Herdt and David Maron of the Ventura County League of Women Voters.
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If you think American electorial politics has gotten uglier in recent years, there are a lot of political scholars who agree with you -- and many will be at the CSU Channel Islands campus on Oct. 15 and 16 to present evidence to support that view.

The two-day conference, called "Politics to the Extreme: American political institutions in the 21st century," will be highlighted by a keynote speech on the evening of Monday, Oct. 15, by noted political scientists Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute and Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution, authors of the new book, "It's Even Worse Than it Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism."

Admission is free, but registration is recommended. Those wishing to attend can register here Sessions will be held all day Monday and from 9 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.. on Tuesday. All sessions will take place in the campus' Grand Salon, Here's the full schedule.

In addition to Ornstein and Mann, other notable presenters include former GOP Congressman Mickey Edwards, now vice president of the Aspen Institute; and scholars from Texas, Florida, Montana, Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania who will be presenting papers. In addition, California Lutheran University political science professor Jose Marichal, author of the new book "Facebook Democracy," will conduct a panel on "Examining Polarization through Congressional Member Facebook Pages."

The conference was organized by CSUCI political science professors Scott Frisch and Sean Kelly.

HMMMM, WHAT'S MISSING? -- One of the biggest fears that voters in Simi Valley have about the new 25th Congressional District is that they won't get the same kind of attention from their member of Congress to which they've grown accustomed. After all, for the last 26 years they've been represented by a fellow who lives in their city and used to be its mayor, Rep. Elton Gallegly.

The heart of the new district is in the Santa Clarita Valley, which is on the other side of the mountains from Simi in Los Angeles County. Still, Simi Valley is home to about a fifth of the district's voters -- a big enough fraction not to be ignored.

An announcement of an an upcoming candidates' forum being distributed by the Valley Industry Association (no, not Simi Valley), however, may reinforce some of those fears. Here's how the announcement describes the geography of the district: "includes the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, portions of the San Fernando Valley and territory in San Bernardino, Tuolumne, Mono and Inyo counties."

Actually, that's probably less of an insult to Ventura County voters than it seems. That description details the geography of the current 25th District, not the new one. Someone at the (Santa Clarita) Valley Industry Association needs to get a 2012 map.

There is a certain numbing quality in the parade of endorsement announcements that come from candidates this time of year. To use a journalism cliche, nearly all of them fall into the "dog bites man" category -- meaning that they don't qualify as news because, well, they are predictable and not at all unusual. The local Planned Parenthood affiliate endorses a Democrat; the local Chamber of Commerce endorses a Republican; elected officials endorse a candidate from their own party, etc.

But, however rarely they occur, there are times when endorsement announcements fall into the "man bites dog" category -- making them unusual and noteworthy.

Such was the case last week when the Ventura-based Local 952 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers endorsed Republican Mike Stoker in the 19th Senate District contest. It was quite a departure from the position of everyone else in the labor community; Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson has the backing of virtually every other labor group, including the California Labor Federation, the Tri-Counties Central Labor Council, the Tri-Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, the plumbers, the laborers, the carpenters, the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs Association, the California Teachers Association, the California Association of Highway Patrolmen and on and on.

Tony Skinner, president of the union local, has shown a willingness to buck the traditional Democratic leanings of organized labor. He was, for instance, instrumental in helping to secure the California Labor Federation endorsement for Camarillo Assemblyman Jeff Gorell in both this year's campaign and in 2010. In each case, Gorell was the only GOP Assembly candidate to win group's backing.

In a press release announcing the endorsement, Stoker quotes Skinner saying that working families can "count on Mike Stoker to help create jobs in California." Stoker also provides a clue as to a personal circumstance that may have helped give him a foot in the IBEW's door: he notes than his father was an electrician.

Jackson, it should be noted, has secured a couple "man bites dog" endorsements of her own. She has the backing of two Republican local elected officials from Ventura County, for instance -- Ventura Mayor Mike Tracy, the former city police chief, and Ventura Unified School District board member Velma Lomax.

Tracy told me today that,while "it's a little unusual for a police chief to endorse a liberal politician," he has known Jackson since his days as chief of the Ventura PD and has always found her to be responsive and likeable.

On the other end of the county, Democratic Assembly candidate Edward Headington has also announced an endorsement worth noting -- that of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the organization representing LAPD officers. That, it would seem, will be a potentially valuable endorsement in the Simi Valley portion of the 38th Assembly District, which is home to scores of active and retired LAPD officers. In fact, Headington says the 38th District is home to more law enforcement families (city police officers, sheriff's deputies and highway patrol officers) than any Assembly district in the state.

There is a back story to this endorsement. Before deciding to run for office last year, Headington attended the LAPD Community Police Academy and was on track to become a member of the LA Police Reserves -- a goal, he says, he has put on hold but still hopes to pursue.

Headington also has other bipartisan assets on his candidate resume. He has been endorsed former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican, and boasts that he has for years been a member of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

BIG BUSINESS FRONT GROUP STEPS UP AGAIN -- The deceptively named "California Senior Advocates League" has stepped up in a big way to take on Democratic incumbent Fran Pavley in the east county's 27th Senate District. It reported a $561,585 television advertising buy last week.

I've written critically about this group before, because I am not a fan of its cynical lack of transparency and its choice of an intentionally misleading name for its donors to hide behind.

Chances are, however, that its role will grow ever larger during the course of this campaign -- in part because donors are largely forsaking the state Republican Party in this election cycle. The state party's financial problems are such that the group's top officials voted at the party's most recent convention to adopt spending rules that circumvent Chairman Tom Del Beccaro. Even that change, however, will likely not change the dynamic of traditional GOP donors this fall routing their contributions through county central committees in which they have more trust and through indepedent expenditure groups such as the "Senior Advocates League."

The 27th District, because of the relatively tight partisan registration breakdown of its voters and its importance in the Democrats' strategy of taking a two-thirds majority in the Senate, was always going to generate a big-money campaign between Pavley and Republican challenger Todd Zink. What's not clear yet is whether this outsized involvement of an independent expenditure group is an add-on, or whether it's a substitute for what in past campaigns would have been money that came from the state Republican Party.

TRAVEL FOR OBAMA, DON'T WORRY ABOUT YOUR BACK -- Ojai chiropractor Kristofer Young if offering free professional treatment next year to the first four folks from Ventura County who join President Obama's Vote Corps and go to another state this fall to help campaign for his re-election.

In a message posted yesterday on the Democratic Campaign Council of Ventura County's message board, Young wrote: "If you live in Ventura County, join Vote Corps, and go to another state to work to make sure that Obama is re-elected, I will provide you with monthly chiropractic treatment through all of 2013! (offer good for first 4 individuals who contact me and meet requirements)."

As of this morning, Young told me in a Facebook message, he had not received any takers. He promises to let me know of any updates.

The Secretary of State on Friday issued the first pre-election voter registration report for the November general election, and it shows the status quo held steady over the summer in Ventura County and in the highly contested 26th Congressional District.

Both countywide and in the congressional district, the partisan breakdown remained virtually unchanged between the close of registration for the primary (May 21) and 60 days prior to the Nov. 6 general election (Sept. 7). In both cases, the advantage for Democrats slipped ever so slightly -- from a 1.63 percent advantage to a 1.59 percent edge countywide and from 4.47 percent to 4.45 percent in CD 26. Notably, in both instances Democrats and Republicans lost voters while there was about a 1,300-voter increase in the number of no party preference voters.

There was, however, a noteworthy development in the county's other closely divided district, the 27th Senate District. In that district, which includes eastern Ventura County and much of the western San Fernando Valley, a surge in registration in Los Angeles County resulted in nearly a full percentage-point increase in the Democratic edge. Democrats now make up 40.59 percent of registered voters, with Republicans at 34.28 percent. That reflects an increase in almost one point (from 5.33 percent to 6.31 percent) in the Democrats' advantage.

By objective political standards, the election in the new 25th Congressional District should not be much of a contest. It is solidly Republican by voter registration (40.3 percent GOP, 35.1 percent Democratic), and the incumbent is a 10-term Republican, Rep. Buck McKeon, who hails from Santa Clarita, which is in the heart of the district.

But, there are some factors that could actually make things interesting in what on paper is a safe Republican district.

First is the fact that the longshot Democrat, Simi Valley podiatrist Lee Rogers, is much better funded than the typical challenger in a race such as this. Through the end of June, he had raised $236,543.

Second is the fact that there is at least a hint of scandal involving McKeon -- the fact that he received a favorable mortgage loan from Countrywide Financial at a time when the financial crisis was about to blow up. Regardless of whether McKeon sought favorable treatment, or whether it did or did not influence any of his votes, or even whether he was aware that he was receiving special treatment such as the waiver of fees, it is exactly the kind of situation that feeds into public anger about elected officials, whom they believe conduct their affairs under special sets of rules.

The issue is so potentially volatile that fellow California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, rushed to defend his colleague in the wake of a mailer and TV ad from the Rogers campaign that attack McKeon on the issue.

In a statement released to the press yesterday, and distributed by the McKeon campaign, Issa wrote: "I'm disappointed that Democrat Congressional Candidate Lee Rogers is using my image and embellishing the findings of a serious investigation of a mortgage company to attack my friend and colleague Buck McKeon. Buck is a man of great integrity, and Rogers' allegation that Buck's vote was somehow bought by Countrywide is at odds with the facts and certainly not something I found in my investigation of failed mortgage lender Countrywide."

The photo and comment used in the campaign material is taken from a 2009 Fox News interview with Issa on this issue in which he described the Countrywide VIP loans by saying, "I call them bribes." In the same interview, Issa noted that Countrywide had specifically sought out "people who could help them."

In response to Issa's statement, Rogers released one of his own:

"Our mailers and other ads are 100 percent accurate and quote Rep. Issa's report directly," Rogers said. "It's what Issa's press release didn't say that's most telling. He didn't deny that Buck McKeon received a favorable rate on his loan. He didn't deny that Buck McKeon knew he received special treatment. He didn't deny that Buck McKeon received a gift worth thousands of dollars which is not only banned under House rules, but also by law...

"It's really sad that Darrell Issa has spent all this time and taxpayer money uncovering the corruption that led to the mortgage meltdown, but he hasn't acted to bring anyone to justice or even to enact the recommendations in his own report."

It's a good bet Rogers will hammer on the Countrywide issue through Election Day. The fact that the district is newly drawn will make that effort potentially more potent because much of the district -- including the Simi Valley -- is territory in which McKeon is a relative stranger, meaning voters there have little or no historical context on which to judge the incumbent's character or ethics.

It remains to be seen how voters will react -- especially whether, even if they are concerned about the loans, the concern rises to the level that it would trump partisan considerations.

Over the last 24 hours, much has been written about Mitt Romney's surreptiously recorded comments about the 47 percent of Americans who pay no taxes, and what he believes that says about both their proclivity to vote for President Obama and their sense of personal responsibility.

But here's something I haven't seen, perhaps because relatively few Americans -- the pundit class included -- have a full understanding of the concept of marginal income tax rates. The fact is that under IRS regulations, 100 percent of American families of four -- not 47 percent, but 100 percent -- pay no taxes on their first $26,000 of income. To put that number in perspective, it is just slightly above the income level established as the federal poverty guideline for a family of four, which is $23,050.

Here's why no family of four pays taxes on that first $26,000. Each such family gets a $3,650 personal or dependent deduction for each family member. When you multiply that by four, you get $14,600. In addition, each such family gets at least the standard deduction, now set at $11,400 for those married and filing jointly. Families with higher incomes that have mortgage payments and property taxes to deduct, of course, can itemize deductions and are thus able to deduct a higher amount. But all families can claim at least the standard deduction.

Add those two deductions together -- $14,600 in personal and dependent deductions, plus the $11,400 standard deduction -- and you get $26,000. Thus, whether their income is $26,000, or $260,000, or $2.6 million, no family of four pays any taxes on their first $26,000.

If they make $26,000 or less they pay no taxes. If they make more than that, they pay taxes only on the amount above that. Those deductions are not a handout, and they are not special treatment for anyone. They are standard tax policies that apply even-handedly to all taxpayers.

Wherever folks choose to take the discussion about tax fairness beyond that, it should start with the understanding that no family of four pays any taxes on that first 26 grand.

Here's a discussion of the 11 statewide ballot propositions with David Maron of the Ventura County League of Women Voters. It is in two segments, with the first focusing on those measures dealing with state government and finance issues (Props. 30, 31, 32, 38, 39 and 40), and the second focusing on those that deal with other public policy issues (Props. 33, 34, 35, 36 and 37).

If you recall last spring's primary campaign in the 26th Congressional District, one of the unfortunate hallmarks was the cartoon-like mailers sent by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee attacking independent Linda Parks.

Now that the general election campaign has begun, it appears that the Republican National Congressional Committee is determined not to be out-cartooned.Welcome, Ventura County, to the simple-mindedness of Washington, D.C.-based partisan politics.

But there is nothing cartoonish about the amount of money the RNCC has already spent on the race. In reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission last week, the political arm of the GOP congressional caucus reported $430,000 in unspecified "media" buys and another $17,000 in polling, all categorized as in opposition to 26th District Democratic candidate Julia Brownley. That puts Brownley at No. 10 on the RNCC's list of Democratic House candidates nationwide it has gone after so far.

In a web ad released today, the RNCC treats us to cutout images of Brownley darting into train stations, footage of choo-choo trains rolling down the tracks and an announcer doing an amateurish impression of a train conductor. High-brow stuff, in the same league as mailers with cutout photos of Parks sitting in a convertible alongside cutout photos of Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin (which is the stuff we saw in the spring from the Democrats).

The ad criticizes Brownley for her vote this summer to authorize the issuance of the first round of $10 billion in voter-approved bonds to finance a high-speed rail project in California that is ultimately designed to connect the Los Angeles Basin with the San Francisco Bay Area. It calls high-speed rail "the $68 billion dollar train California can't afford," and concludes: "Julia Brownley, running us off the tracks."

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The AARP, which will be doing about five dozen similar events around the country this fall, has selected Ventura County's 26th District as one of two California districts in which it will sponsor a candidates' forum focusing on issues of concern to seniors.

The 26th District event will be a tele-town hall on the evening of Oct. 9, beginning at 7. Both candidates, Democrat Julia Brownley and Republican Tony Strickland have confirmed their participation. I will be the moderator.

The AARP will autodial all its members within the district -- an estimated 16,500 households -- and invite them to listen in. In addition, there will likely be a system established that will allow others to register so that they can also be on the call. Christina Clem with the California AARP tells me that past experience has shown a substantial majority of people who answer the phone stay on the line for at least 20 minutes. The entire discussion will last an hour.

Callers will be given an opportunity to ask live questions.

Clem said it has long been the goal of the AARP to put the issues of Medicare, Social Security and financial security for retirement high on the agenda in campaigns for federal offices. That mission has already been accomplished.

TIDBITS ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON: Although it's not generally advisable to mix alcohol with firearms, it's OK if the firearms are metaphorical. So, the Central Coast's two "Young Guns" will be holding a joint fund-raiser tomorrow that will feature phone banking and a wine-tasting lunch with Abel Maldonado in Santa Barbara from 9:30 to noon, followed by phone banking and precinct walking for Strickland in Ventura from 2 to 5, followed by cocktails on the beach. Both Republican candidates have received the "Young Gun" designation bestowed by the National Republican Congressional Committee on what it considers to be promising new candidates....

Meanwhile, on Sunday morning, Assistant House Democratic Leader Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina will be in Oxnard from 9 to 10:30 for a reception for Democratic congressional candidate Brownley. The event is hosted by Hank and Leah Lacayo and Armando and Luly Lopez...

Outgoing Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, who many in Ventura County know as the wife of Oxnard Harbor District Commissioner Jason Hodge, sent an email to supporters today kicking off her 2014 campaign for the Board of Equalization. She's having quite an event in San Francisco on Oct. 11 to celebrate 10 years in public service. Among the guests: former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, current Assembly Speaker John Perez and state Democratic Party Chairman John Burton....

Ventura County Democrats can't get the word out fast enough on social media today to tout a complimentary write-up about them on the state Democratic Party blog.

As the guest speaker at a luncheon today in Sacramento, part of series of talks featuring women in high-level positions, Nancy McFadden, a top adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown, was asked some questions about Proposition 30, which is a very high-stakes measure for her boss. Its outcome could make or break his hoped-for legacy of becoming the governor who came in and got California's finances squared away.

McFadden used a curious word to describe Proposition 30, calling it a "resilient initiative." What she meant is that despite all the background environmental factors stacked against it -- the high percentage of voters who believe the state is headed in the wrong direction, the high level of what she called "doubts and distrust" about government, and the basic reality that "nobody likes taxes" -- the measure continues to hold a slight but steady lead in the public opinion polling. Month after month, in poll after poll, it shows a support level in the low-to-mid 50 percent range.

The most recent poll was released today by the California Business Roundtable and Pepperdine University, the fourth in an intriguing series of online "tracking" polls it is conducting on the 11 statewide ballot measures. It showed that Proposition 30 continues to be resilient -- checking in this time at 54.4 percent yes, 39.9 percent no. Those results have not varied outside the poll's 3.5 percent margin of error since the middle of summer.

The polls will continue every two weeks, giving the public a glimpse of how campaign advertising and other factors will influence voter opinion as time goes by.

Today's poll shows a dramatic, if not unsurprising, partisan split. Only 19 percent of Republicans support it; only 16 percent of Democrats oppose it. On this measure, clearly, the decisions of independents will be determinative, and at this point 60.6 percent of independents are in favor.

Campaign updates on a busy Wednesday....

THERE THEY GO AGAIN: I wrote here in May about the sleazy tactics of the deceptively named "California Senior Advocates League," which has now sunk below even its own subterranean standards. Now it's sending out material it doesn't even have to report as a campaign expenditure because the mailings are allegedly "issue ads" that don't take positions on candidates.

In the last couple of weeks it has sent out a mailer attacking Sen. Fran Pavley and another attacking Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson. Take one quick look at them and someone -- anyone -- tell me with a straight face that they're anything other than campaign hit pieces.

Now, I don't have anything against campaign hit pieces. They're part of the process. But to use a phony, deceptive name to send them and to make it darn near impossible for most folks to figure out who's paying for them, that's a concern.

Most of the money to the alleged "Senior Advocates League" flows through an outfit called the California Now Independent Expenditure Committee -- perhaps itself deceptively named to invite intentional confusion with California NOW, the state chapter of the National Organization for Women. The biggest donors to that expenditure committee are developers ($500,000), insurance companies ($350,000), Chevron ($250,000) and cigarette-maker Philip Morris ($250,000).

The biggest deceit about these latest mailers is the notion that they are "issue ads." With a huge stretch, that argument might be charitably acknowledged in the case of Pavley, who is a sitting member of the state Senate and is actually able to cast a vote on policy issues. But Jackson hasn't been a member of the Legislature since the end of former President George W. Bush's first term.

What possibly could be accomplished by placing a phone call to "tell Hannah-Beth Jackson to stop the waste"? No more than by calling your Mom, your car mechanic or your gardener and asking them to do the same.

"Issue ad," indeed.

'DISHONORABLE MENTION' FOR McKEON: Rep. Buck McKeon of Santa Clarita, seeking re-election in the new 25th Congressional District that includes most of Simi Valley," today made the "Dishonorable Mention" list when the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington issued its annual "Most Corrupt Members of Congress" list.

Say this for the list: It's bipartisan. Of the 12 who made it, there are four Democrats and eight Republicans.

McKeon qualified for the "dishonorable" list because he was among members of Congress who received favorable mortgage loans from Countrywide Financial.

In its report, the center includes the following paragaph taken from an internal Countrywide document referencing the loan and McKeon's status as an "FOA" (friend of Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo). Here's what it says:

"FOA referral, Please order appraisal ASAP. You may call the borrower at his Washington office (number redacted) and get the son's phone number for the appraiser contact. The borrower would like to hear from the appraiser this week. The borrower is a bit difficult to deal with. He seems on the edgy side."

TEACHERS CAN BRING ELECTION INTO CLASSROOMS: Secetary of State Debra Bowen and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson are reminding high school and middle school teachers that they have until next Friday (Sept. 21) to sign up to have their classrooms participate in the 2012 MyVote California Student Mock Election.

The mock election will be conducted Oct. 30, and students will cast unofficial votes for president, U.S. senator and the 11 statewide ballot propositions.

Registration information and teaching resources are available here.

NEW WEBSITE: Sen. Tony Strickland, Republican candidate in the 26th Congressional District, sent out an email today inviting folks to take a look at his new campaign website.

There is something about the spirit of California exceptionalism that compels politicians, economists and others to speak of the state, economically, as if it were a sovereign nation. Thus, back in 2000, it was not uncommon to hear speeches in which California was described as having the 5th largest economy in the world. Then, not long after the turn of the century, it was passed by France and Italy. Then economic growth in China exploded and, well, by 2004 California had the 8th largest economy in the world. (China, by the way, has since moved all the way up to No. 2.) Last year, the economy in Brazil continued to blossom and now, according to the World Bank, California became No. 9.

Economist Steve Levy of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy tracks this stuff annually, and yesterday released his annual update on California's economy relative to the rest of the world. It probably won't be long, he advised, before India passes the Golden State, perhaps followed later by the Russian Federation. On the other hand, he notes that the deteriorating European economy could allow California to leapfrog back over Italy on the list.

Whatever the ranking, California's numbers are big and impressive. The 2011 Gross Domestic Product in the state was $1.959 trillion. The state Department of Finance maintains a chart that shows California's annual ranking since 1994.

Breaking the state down by region, Levy notes, Southern California would rank as the world's 16th largest economy, between South Korea and the Netherlands. The Bay Area would be 20th, between Switzerland and Poland.

Levy notes the reason California's economy is the largest of any state is a function of its size. In per capita GDP it ranks 10th. And -- while this may come as a surprise to the national pundits who can't seem to resist bashing the Left Coast -- its average annual growth since 2000 has slightly outpaced that of the nation as a whole (1.5 percent per year, compared to 1.4 percent per year).

A REPRISE OF PESTICIDE ISSUE: It appears the campaign of Democrat Julia Brownley in the 26th Congressional District is preparing to reprise an attack against Republican Tony Strickland that was used extensively against him in his 2008 campaign for state Senate. In a robocall from the Brownley campaign, the automated caller devotes the entire negative portion of the call to talking about Strickland's 2002 vote against a Ventura County Farm Bureau-sponsored bill to give local agricultural commissioners greater authority to regulate pesticide spraying near schools.

The bill was inspired by a spraying incident adjacent to Ventura's Mound School in 2000 in which pesticide drifted onto the campus, sickening 20 people, including schoolchildren. Local farmers and parent groups came together to develop a plan to prevent such incidents in the future, and fashioned a solution that was authored as legislation by then-Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson. The measure became law, but Strickland voted against it.

The message says that Strickland "took over $31,000 from pesticide companies and then voted against protecting children from potentially cancer-causing pesticides."

Brownley is using the same political consulting firm, SG&A Campaigns, that Jackson employed in 2008, and the Mound School television ad was one of the most effective that Jackson used that year. It now appears that the Brownley camp may be getting ready to recycle it.

PROFILE OF CALIFORNIA VOTERS -- Just in time for another election season, the researchers at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California have produced a straightforward, "Just the Facts" report on the California electorate.

Ever wonder what percentage of independent voters are men? What percentage of the likely California voters live in Los Angeles County? The answers to such questions and many more are provided here. As for those two specific questions, the answers are, respectively, 58 percent and 25 percent.

TARGETING NEW AND INFREQUENT VOTERS -- The Ventura-based community-organizing group CAUSE is about to take on what it calls the largest civic engagement effort in its history, with a goal of of turning out thousands of new and infrequent voters in November to support Proposition 30.

In an email to supporters last week, Maricela Morales of CAUSE writes: "After years of budget cuts, California's schools are at the breaking point...

"On November 6, voters will decide whether we pass Prop 30 to save our schools by raising the tax rate on the richest Californians who have been profiting greatly while low income families continue to suffer. Voters will also have the choice to stop Prop 32, the deceptive initiative that claims to clean up politics, but really opens gaping loopholes for corporations and Super PACs.

"CAUSE is launching a massive effort to talk to voters in low-income communities about how these propositions impact their lives and turn thousands of new and occasional voters out cast their ballot by election day."

Such goals are commonplace before elections, of course, but there is reason this time around to pay some attention. CAUSE is one of several community-based groups around the state that earlier this year played a significant role in qualifying a so-called "millionaire's tax" for the ballot. The petitions were never submitted, but only because their efforts were so successful that they forced Gov. Jerry Brown into a last-minute compromise in which he modified Proposition 30 to satisfy advocates for the millionaire's tax. Grassroots civic organizations, like sports teams, tend to perform a little better once they get some momentum on their side.

COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY POSITIONS: The Ventura County Democratic Central Committee has announced its positions on state and local ballot measures this fall. A position on one measure, Santa Paula's school-unification Measure M, was postponed pending further study.

Here are the positions adopted:
LOCAL
Measure L (NO)--Term limits for City of Thousand Oaks City Council members
Measure N (YES)--City of Simi Valley renewal of managed growth plan
Measure O (YES)--Affordable housing in the City of Moorpark
Measures P through T (YES)--School bond issues for Ocean View, Oxnard, Somis Union and Hueneme Elementary School district (and Measure Q, a parcel tax for the Ventura Unified School District).
STATEWIDE
Proposition 30 (YES)--protects funding for schools and public safety.
Proposition 31 (NO)--locks California into permanent underfunding of education, health and other vital services
Proposition 32 (NO)--creates exemptions for the very rich and SuperPACs in funding elections
Proposition 33 (NO)--auto insurance rate hike
Proposition 34 (YES)--replaces death penalty with life without parole
Proposition 35 (YES)--increases human trafficking penalties
Proposition 36 (YES)--reforms the "three strikes" law
Proposition 37 (YES)--requires labeling of genetically engineered foods
Proposition 38 (NO)--would provide revenues for schools but conflicts with Proposition 30.
Proposition 39 (YES)--dedicates tax revenue from multistate corporations to fund energy efficiency and clean energy jobs in California. The California Democratic Party is neutral on this measure.
Proposition 40 (YES)--referendum on State Senate district boundaries.

No fewer than 7 Californians will speak from the Democratic National Convention stage in Charlotte today,including from Assembly Speaker John Perez, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Controller Steve Westly. One who is not among them -- indeed, is not even in Charlotte -- is Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

The reason he decided to stay home, Steinberg said today, is that he's hunkering down in Sacramento to focus on this fall's state Senate campaigns. The top race he mentioned during a briefing with reporters today was eastern Ventura County's 27th District. "It's District 27, and it's our 27th seat," he said.

27 is a magic number in the Senate -- the number of votes needed to meet a two-thirds majority threshold that is needed to pass urgency bills, place constitutional amendments on the ballot and approve tax increases, (In fact, it is 67.5 percent, but 26 votes is only 65 percent of the 40-member body.) The calculus for this fall is this: There are 25 safe Democratic seats. An additional seat will become a safe Republican seat in 2014, but for the remaining two years of the four-year term it will be represented by Democrat Leland Yee, the incumbent who now represents the district that had the same number (8) under the old set of Senate maps. That means to get to 27, Democrats must win one of three competitive races around the state.

In the 27th, incumbent Democrat Fran Pavley is running in a largely new district against Republican Todd Zink, an L.A. County prosecutor. Steinberg made clear that the Senate Democratic Caucus will be all-in for Pavley.

"She's an incredible candidate, with the work that she's doing and the money she's raised," he said. "We're committed to fully funding her."

Steinberg also said that in districts such as the 27th, in which there is overlap with a competitive congressional district, there are ancilliary benefits, primarily in voter registration efforts. Federal and state parties and candidates can't coordinate on messaging or campaign tactics, but Steinberg said he has met with Rep. Karen Bass, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's California coordinator and spoken about voter registration. He said he believes that voter registration efforts undertaken by Senate Democrats in key districts two years ago were a significant factor in helping Reps. Jim Costa in the Central Valley and Loretta Sanchez in Orange County win re-election. Their districts overlapped two targeted Senate districts, those of Michael Rubio and Lou Correa.

The first hint of what those voter registration efforts have produced will be told tomorrow. That is the 60th day before the election, and county registrars will have to submit updated voter registration totals to the secretary of state for the required 60-day report.

NO VIEW, BUT THAT'S OK: Reports from Charlotte indicate that California Democrats are pleased that their hotel, the Blake Hotel, has a prime location within walking distance of the convention. They are not quite so pleased, however, with accommodations.

The Sacramento Bee reported today that Rick Gunther, president of the Demcoratic Club of the Conejo Valley, had to ask twice to be moved to a different room, as the first was flooded and the second was missing a shower head. "I lost my view, but I'm still happy," Gunther told the Bee. "I took pictures before I left the other one."

Republican Mike Stoker, the former Santa Barbara County supervisor, has begun airing television ads in his campaign against Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson in the 19th Senate district.

The two ads are part of a relatively modest, $24,000 ad buy with western Ventura County's Time-Warner cable franchises, documents show. They are slated to run through Sept. 9. The spots aren't slick: each features just one person -- in one case, Stoker himself, in the other, former Ventura County District Attorney Mike Bradbury -- talking to the camera.

Starting early is a smart move for Stoker, because his best chance to be competitive in the Democratic-tilted district is to get some traction in early polls that might persuade otherwise reticent Republican donors and interest groups to spend money in the race.

As he states in a Labor Day weekend email to supporters, "Poling (CQ) shows we win if we have the resources." It is the "if" upon which Stoker's chances depend.