November arrives in the morning, and the end of campaign season is in sight...

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS: As a young reporter 30-some years ago recently assigned to cover the city of Oxnard, one of the first things I did to get a feel for the heartbeat of the community was to visit the youth boxing club in La Colonia. I met some remarkable adults who were making a positive difference in the lives of young people. Give credit to Republican congressional candidate Tony Strickland for doing the same thing.

His outreach resulted in an endorsement from Oxnard professional boxer David Rodela, which Strickland is now touting in a Spanish-language campaign mailer.

It's difficult to say what, if any, effect Strickland's efforts will have in influencing the Latino vote in Oxnard, given the heavily Democratic preference of Latino voters in California in recent years. but his outreach efforts do seem considerably more authentic than what we've seen from other Republican candidates in the recent past.

CHEVRON DIGS DEEP TO GO AFTER LOIS CAPPS: Andrew Ross, the San Francisco Chronicle's muckraking business columnist, reports that Bay Area-based Chevron Corp. has made the biggest contribution to a super PAC of any American corporation -- to a group that has been aggressively attacking Democratic congressional candidates, including Lois Capps of Santa Barbara.

His column reports that Chevron has contributed $2.3 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC that has spent $425,000 attacking Capps in the Santa Barbara-based 24th Congressional District.

It's a significant story because, as Ross notes, big companies have not typically contributed to super PACs, which have heretofore been mostly the domain of wealthy individuals and ideologically based interest groups.

TODD ZINK 'THROWING IN THE TOWEL?' HARDLY: Perhaps out of a sense of wishful thinking, backers of Sen. Fran Pavley are pointing to the fact that Republican 27th Senate District candidate Todd Zink has returned $140,000 in campaign funds as evidence that his campaign may be conceding defeat.

I think that's bunk. It is true that Zink this week returned $100,000 to the San Luis Obispo County Republican Party and another $40,000 to the Sacramento County GOP -- but he has also this week received big new contributions from the state Republican Party and has been the beneficiary of large new independent expenditures.

The move has the look of some internal, Republican Party accounting maneuvers and nothing else.

A LITTLE HELP FROM HER FRIENDS: Pavley's campaign is promoting a couple online video testimonials, including one from actor Ed Begley Jr. of Ojai and another from comic actor Dick Van Dyke..

Begley's testimonial focuses on clean cars and Pavley's accomplishments as a legisator in promoting energy-efficient vehicles. In his testimonial, Van Dyke salutes Pavley for her work in helping to keep film production in the Los Angeles area.

One week and counting...

In today's analysis of the not-quite-complete California voter registration figures, Political Data Inc.'s Paul Mitchell notes what he refered to, in an email to me this morning, as "the UC effect." It shows a remarkable surge in registration in the two counties in which UC campuses are major components of the population.

While voter registration increased by about 6 percent statewide over the last two months, two counties reported double-digit increases -- Yolo County, home of the UC Davis campus, with a 13.1 percent increase, and Santa Barbara County, home of UC Santa Barbara, by 11.9 percent.

Reflecting the trend among young voters, the new registrations were heavily Democratic. In Santa Barbara County, 45 percent of the 21,651 new voters were Democrats, while just 16 percent were Republicans. This is of political significance in Ventura County because three districts that include at least some of the west county overlap with the portion of Santa Barbara County that includes the UC campus. Those new voters at UC Santa Barbara -- if they vote -- could make a significant difference in the tightly contested 24th Congressional District and also make Republican 19th Senate District candidate Mike Stoker's longshot campaign against Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson even tougher.

What accounts for the surge in registrations at college campuses? Clearly, it's the fact that a new online registration system that enables Californians to submit completed registration forms with one click went live in mid-September.

FIRST DOG TO BE IN CAMARILLO: Sutter Brown, the Pembroke Welsh corgi owned by Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife Anne Gust Brown, will make an appearance from 5 to 6 Thursday evening at the Ventura County Democratic Party headquarters in Camarillo.

The event is part of a 30-city tour of the state by the canine that has become a media favorite around the state. County Democratic Party Chairman David Atkins promises that anyone who spends at least an hour making telephone calls supporting Proposition 30 will get to have his or her photograph taken with the corgi.

PROUD TO STAND WITH SPEAKER BOEHNER: As I reported in The Star over the weekend, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia came to Ventura County last week to attend a private fundraiser with 26th Congressional District Republican candidate Tony Strickland, but there was no public notice of the event or opportunity for press coverage.

That was not the case with a fundraiser last night in Santa Barbara attended by House Speaker John Boehner in support of 24th District Republican Abel Maldonado. The Maldonado campaign emailed a press release last night that included a photo of the two together and this quote from Boehner:

"It's time for the Central Coast to have a representative in Washington that's looking out for your interests, and in Abel Maldonado, you will have a Congressman who will vote his district first,"

TWITTER TOWN HALL: 26th District Democratic candidate Julia Brownley will participate in a "Twitter Town Hall" at 7 this evening to discuss women's issues. Organizers are asking participants to use the hashtag #AskJulia or email questions to AskJulia@juliabrownley.com.

Eight days until the fat lady sings...

The firm Political Data Inc., which has been keeping tabs of both new voter registrations and the breakdown of mail-in ballots returned so far, provides information today that confirms what political observers have been expecting from the outset: the results in Ventura County's two big battleground districts, Congressional District 26 and Senate District 27, will be very close.

First, the good news for Republicans: In both districts, although Democrats hold slight registration advantages, ballots returned so far give a slight edge to Republicans. In the 26th Congressional District, 39 percent of returned ballots have come from Democrats while 42 percent have come from Republicans. In the 27th Senate District, the breakdown of returns is a little closer: 40 percent from Democrats, 42 percent from Republicans.

Now, the good news for Democrats: Among new registrations reported so far (not quite final), Democrats have a big edge in both districts. Of the 12,422 new registrations in CD 26, 41 percent have declared a preference for the Democratic Party while just 24 percent have expressed a Republican Party preference. In SD 27, where new registration has been more prolific, 49 percent of the 31,441 new registrants are Democrats while just 20 percent are Republicans.

Based on data that show significant Democratic voter registration gains statewide, Sacramento analyst Scott Lay today changed his assessment of three state congressional districts from "leans Republican" to "tossup." Incumbent Republicans are running for re-election in all three of those districts -- Dan Lungren and Jeff Denham in the Central Valley and Mary Bono Mack in the Palm Springs area.

Not that the 26th District has been lacking in the amount of outside money pouring into the campaign, but developments in those three districts with GOP incumbents might be diverting money from the National Republican Congressional Committee that otherwise could have been spent to bolster Tony Strickland. The committee over the weekend reported spending more than $400,000 to attack the Democratic opponents of Lungren and Mack.

PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENT FOR BROWNLEY: Not that it comes as a great surprise that a Democratic president seeking re-election would endorse a Democrat for Congress, but the Julia Brownley campaign today announced an endorsement from President Barack Obama.

Not every candidate receives such an expressed endorsement. Obama released a statement supporting Brownley -- one that some voters will likely see in their mailboxes soon -- that says:

"America's middle class needs Julia Brownley in Congress to stand up and fight for them. Julia will create jobs here at home by building from the middle out, not the top down. She will protect Medicare for seniors and education for our next generation. Middle class families can count on Julia and she needs your support on Election Day."

MORE SUPER PAC SPENDING: The Republican super PAC called the Congressional Leadership Fund has released new TV commercials, in both English and Spanish, attacking Democratic incumbent Lois Capps in the 24th Congressional District. The Spanish-language advertising is significant, because Republican candidate Abel Maldonado is Latino, and Republicans nationwide believe his election could help them begin to make up the significant defict the party has among Latino voters.

A right-wing super-PAC whose founder was an adviser to Rick Santorum's GOP presidential campaign has purchased $500,000 worth of television time to attack Democrat Julia Brownley in Ventura County's 26th Congressional District. Here is its first ad.

The American Future Fund is an Iowa-based 501(c)4 organization, which means it does not need to reveal its donors. Reports have indicated that it has ties to the billionaire Koch brothers, who have spent tens of millions of dollars on campaigns around the country, opposing Democrats and supporting Republicans.

In addition to the $500,000 TV ad campaign by the American Future Fund, Federal Election Commission reports this week also show $127,000 in radio advertising and mail attacking Brownley paid for by a separate super PAC, the American Action Network.

Those expenses bring the total amount of super PAC spending against Brownley to $1.6 million.-- more than twice as much as outside groups have spent attacking Republican Tony Strickland.

Today's political potpurri...

WHO'S FOR 'EM, WHO'S AGAINST 'EM: Remember back when you were in junior high and your mother was trying to give you advice on choosing which kids to hang out with? Mine, at least, always advised, "You can tell a person by who their friends are."

In the spirit of such maternal wisdom, let me recommend the nonpartisan website of the group Next 10. Its California Choices.org site includes a page on the ballot propositions with perhaps the most useful information of all for a voter to assess -- who's for them and who's against them. The endorsements page lists dozens of business and labor groups, newspapers, political parties and nonprofts in an easy-to-read chart that reveals who is supporting and opposing what this fall.

If you can tell a person by who their friends are, the same must be true of ballot propositions.

IS BENNETT GETTING WORRIED?: Supervisor Steve Bennett, facing a spirited challenge from former county fire chief Bob Roper, this week sent out a last-minute appeal to supporters that suggests he may be experiencing some unease about the campaign.

Here's the opening:

"I have not sent out an email blast to my full email database this fall. This will be my only request.

"As most of you in my district are seeing in your mailbox, a new special interest PAC, primarily funded by those who profit from urban sprawl, has started the usual barrage of attack mail against me."

Bennett has always been extraordinarily cautious politically, and has never been one to allow an attack to go unanswered. So in that regard, it's in character for him to respond with a sense of urgency to a coordinated campaign against him. At the same time, it does seem awfully late in the game for a candidate, even one who's been able to raise all the money the county ordinance allows, to be sending out a first email blast to all his supporters.

SPEAKING OF LATE IN THE GAME: Early this year a new political group in California, modeled after House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy's national "Young Gun" program for GOP congressional candidates, announced it would establish a "Trailblazers" program to identify and support promising GOP legislative candidates.

Just 10 days before the election, it announced yesterday that one Assembly candidate had finally enrolled to become a "Pathfinder." The newcomer is Scott Wilk, in Simi Valley's 38th Assembly District.

In its press release, the group said Wilk "has met specific fundraising and organizational goals designed for individual campaigns." Better now than on Nov. 7.

IN A MOMENT OF WEAKNESS: I swear, I've never once watched a YouTube video involving kittens, and I tend to hit the delete button whenever someone emails me one of those Internet memes that waste so many hours of American productivity. But, in a moment of weakness, and out of a sense of professional responsibility, I did watch this. And now I suppose I'm compounding that transgression by sharing it.

Here's my excuse for sharing it: I was a moderator at the debate from which the footage of Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon was shot, and I am a big fan of the 2002 movie "Catch Me If You Can" with Christopher Walken, Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio.

As a first-time candidate whose very first foray into politics at any level was to run in one of the most critical, most competitive state Senate districts in California, it's safe to say that L.A. County prosecutor Todd Zink had no idea what he was getting himself in for. It's an experience almost like putting on football pads for the very first time and then stepping onto the field for a National Football League game. Those guys are bigger, faster and hit a whole lot harder than you ever could have imagined.

Now Zink, the Republican candidate in eastern Ventura County's 27th Senate District, finds himself hurt and perplexed -- and not unjustifiably so -- over a series of negative mailers, including this one paid for by the California Democratic Party, that attack him over the issue of abortion. The mailers contrast his position on abortion with that of incumbent Democrat Fran Pavley.

The assault is mostly based on one line in a story I wrote about Zink in advance of the June primary. In our interview, I asked him where he stood on the question of abortion. He said he did not oppose legal abortions for women who had become pregnant as a result of incest or rape. I did not ask him further about other potential exceptions, such as cases in which carrying the pregnancy to term would endanger the life or health of the mother. This was the resulting sentence from that exchange that appeared in the May 19 article: "Zink has an anti- abortion position and believes it ought to be an option for women only in cases of rape or incest."

In my view, the sentence is accurate and was appropriate for inclusion in the story. The essential dividing line between "anti-abortion" and "pro-choice" in American political discourse is whether someone believes any woman ought to have the legal option to terminate a pregnancy in the first trimester based entirely on her own judgment. By saying he believes that right should be extended only to those who became pregnant through acts of rape or incest, Zink established which side of that dividing line he is on.
The issue has taken on renewed significance in 2012 campaigns because of increasing efforts in Congress and in statehouses around the country to restrict access to abortion. In addition, it is an issue that gives voters an indication as to where along the left-to-right political spectrum any given candidate stands.

It is my belief, based upon that and subsequent conversations, that Zink has never given the issue extensive thought. He is certainly no zealot. "It's not a driving issue for me," he told me yesterday. "I am not invested in that whole movement, It's not something my family is passionate about. I have no intention to try to overturn the law of the land."

He said essentially the same thing when asked about it at a candidates' forum on Oct. 4. " I do believe in the sanctity of life, however I do understand with abortion it's a very personal and ethical decision for each and every woman that is faced with that situation," he said. He then went on to reiterate what he told me last spring: "I am OK with abortion for rape and incest. I do not necessarily embrace it for regular contraceptive or means of birth control."

That last part may indicate a certain underappreciation of the frightfully anguishing and potentially life-changing situation a woman finds herself in after she learns she has unintentionally become pregnant. But taken as a whole, the response does not strike me as particularly radical or extreme, nor is it the rhetoric of someone on a mission to undo Roe v. Wade.

Yet the mailers hone in expressly on this issue and declare, "Todd Zink takes a radical anti-choice position." Then, inaccurately citing the May 19 Ventura County Star article, it alleges that Zink is "strongly against a woman's right to choose -- even if a pregnancy places a woman's life or health at risk."

The story didn't say that. It was silent on that point, just as Zink had been silent about that point in his response to my question. (Following up with him yesterday, Zink told me that he does in fact believe exceptions should be granted in those instances.)

Is Zink's position anti-choice? Yes. Is it "radical"? Only if one considers the position of anyone who believes that abortion should not be legal in most circumstances to be radical.

The mailer is misleading because it portrays Zink to be a zealot on the abortion issue, which he is not.

Zink seems genuinely hurt by the attack, in part because of his experience as a Marine officer in Afghanistan, where he was involved in establishing health clinics that dealt with life-or-death issues for women. "Over in Afghanistan," he told me, "we saved countless women's lives. These women had ungodly health issues."

Zink has never held public office at any level, never had to cast a public vote on any issue. And during the campaign, likely following the advice of oh-so-clever political consultants, he has not taken a position on any specific issue of consequence. That may have left his opponents with only policy position of note they can attempt to use against him, but even so they are overplaying it.

Campaign updates with 12 days left to E-Day...

BILL CLINTON'S WARMUP ACT: 26th Congressional District Democratic candidate Julia Brownley was given the honor and challenge at a huge political rally at UC Irvine yesterday to introduce the main attraction -- former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton was in Southern California to endorse five Democrats running in key races for the House of Representatives. Brownley said the former president was gracious with his time, spending about a half an hour meeting privately with the candidates and their supporters, including several from Ventura County who had traveled with her to attend the rally.

"If you intend to support the president for re-election and you want to go in this direction, you need to send Julia Brownley to Congress because she will protect the future of American education," Clinton said in his statement endorsing Brownley.

The former president also offered a critique of Brownley's Republican opponent,

"Tony Strickland signed Grover Norquist's No New Taxes Pledge, just like Governor Romney in his severe conservative stage," Clinton said. "So if he goes to Congress, he either will have to disavow his pledge or be irresponsible with America's future.

"No serious person believes across the entire political spectrum that we can possibly get hold of the debt without three things: without adequate spending controls, adequate revenue, and adequate economic growth. Strickland wants to take one of the legs out from under the chair before you sit down."

THE ANIMAL PROTECTION LOBBY WEIGHS IN FOR STRICKLAND: The Humane Society of the United States has reported a $96,000 independent expenditure to support Strickland in the congressional campaign.

Strickland has been a member of the Animal Protection Caucus in the California Legislature and this year cast one of a handful of Republican votes in support of a bill that bans the use of trained dogs to track down bears and chase them into a tree so that they can be shot by hunters.

In another big 26th Congressional District independent expenditure reported this week, the Cooperative of American Physicians reported a $98,000 expenditure supporting Strickland. Those two expenditures bring the total amount of outside interest group spending in the race to just under $3 million.

HERE COME THE SENATE DEMOCRATS: State Senate leaders and many of their staff members on leave from their legislative jobs will be in Thousand Oaks on Saturday to walk door-to-door to support Sen. Fran Pavley's re-election campaign.

Among those who will be walking with Pavley is Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento.

Keeping up with the fast-paced 26th Congressional District campaign....

REVIEWING THE MAILBAG -- Republican Tony Strickland's camp, clearly fighting back against attacks from Democratic interest groups, is out with a new mailer today that begins with a question: "Tired of the cartoonish attack mail from out-of-town special interests falsely attacking Tony Strickland?"

The implied answer, of course, is yes. It then states that the election is about "real people from Ventura County," and includes photos of what are presumably six of such everyday folks -- three women and three men, two of them Latino.

The tone is soft, a decided change from the stacks of political mail that sometimes seem to scream at you from your mailbox.

In a separate mailer that hit Ventura County households yesterday, Julia Brownley's proofreaders missed a mistake.

It shows a photo of Brownley standing in front of a wall poster with the words, "Naval Base Ventura County." But the caption beneath the photo says, "Brownley will work to keep Naval Station (emphasis mine) Ventura County and the thousands of related jobs going and growing."

Strickland told me this morning that the error illustrates a point he's been making over and over on the campaign trail: that Brownley doesn't really know Ventura County.

Brownley spokesman Lenny Young said the assertion is simply "a distraction from the fact that Julia's represented Naval Base Ventura County for six years," knows it well, and would work on its behalf in Congress "just as she has in the Legislature."

MORE CONGRESSMEN IN TOWN: With the 26th District such an important target for both parties, it's not surprising that Ventura County has seen a parade of members of Congress come to town this fall.

The latest visitors are Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee; Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, deputy chairman; and Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland. All three are scheduled to be on hand today at the Thousand Oaks Republican headquarters for a lunchtime "phone bank and rally" for Strickland.

Leading this morning's roundup is the news that the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC exclusively devoted to electing Republicans to the House of Representatives, has dumped $193,000 in the 24th Congressional District race with broadcast and Internet ads attacking Democratic incumbent Lois Capps.

That infusion brings total independent spending in the district to $2.2 million, almost all of it on behalf of Republican Abel Maldonado. Independent spending benefiting Capps has amounted to just $400,000.

The Congressional Leadership Fund has vowed to spend $13.5 million on House races in the final weeks of the campaign. Its biggest funder is Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who put $5 million into the pot. It also got a big check recently from TV star and one-time wannabe presidential contender Donald Trump.

CLINTON TO RALLY FOR BROWNLEY, BUT IN IRVINE -- Former President Bill Clinton will be making his second visit to California in as many weeks to rally support for Democratic House candidates in competitive races. Two weeks ago he was at the UC Davis campus to try to boost support for four Northern California candidates.

Tomorrow, he is scheduled to be at another UC campus -- UC Irvine -- for a rally on behalf of five Southern California candidates, including Julia Brownley in Ventura County's CD 26.

A LATINO PUSH IN 26th CD -- Rep. Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles, the highest-ranking Latino in the House of Representatives, was in Santa Paula over the weekend to canvass with Brownley and to join in an announcement of a "Latinos for Julia" committee.

The campaign released a list of local, state and federal Latino elected officials who have signed on to the effort, including Supervisor John Zaragoza, Oxnard Harbor District Commissioner Jess Herrera, County School Board President Ramon Flores, Oxnard City Councilwoman Carmen Ramirez, former Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez and former Santa Paula School Union High School District Superintendent David Gomez.

Latino voter turnout could well be the key in determining the outcome in the ultra-competitive 26th District. Brownley will need not only a large Latino turnout, but also for Latino voters in the county to maintain the strong Democratic preference of Latino voters statewide, who four years ago favored President Barack Obama by a 3-1 margin.

THE DEADLINE IS IN 14 HOURS -- If you know of anyone who isn't yet registered to vote in the Nov. 6 election, or if they were registered and have moved since the last election, let them know that they have only until midnight tonight to take care of that.

E-mail them, or post on Facebook, or send them a Twitter message with the link to California's new online voter registration site, RegisterToVote.ca.gov. The sooner in the day they take care of it the better. Although Secretary of State Debra Bowen says she's confident the site won't crash from overuse late tonight, that has happened in other states.

x
John Zaragoza, Ventura County Supervisor
Jess Herrera, Oxnard Harbor Commissioner
Dr. Ramon Flores, President of the Ventura County Board of Education
Carmen Ramirez, Oxnard Councilmember
Veronica Robles-Solis, Oxnard School District Board of Trustees President
Maricela Morales, Former Mayor of Port Hueneme
Dr. Manuel Lopez, Former President of Oxnard Harbor Commission and Former Mayor of Oxnard
Irma Lopez, Oxnard Community Activist*
Marisa Lopez, Oxnard Small Business Owner*
David A. Gomez, former Superintendent of Santa Paula Unified High School District and President of the Association of California School Administrators
Martha Hernandez, Ventura County Office of Education Director of Curriculum and Instruction*
Hank Lacayo, Congress of California Seniors President
Leah Lacayo, CSU-CI Foundation President*
Laura Espinosa, Former Santa Paula Vice-Mayor
Roberto Juarez, CEO Clinicas*
Ana Maria Valle, Ventura County Community College District Coordinator EOPS*

Federal and State elected officials:

Rep. Xavier Becerra
Rep. Linda Sanchez
Rep. Loretta Sanchez
Congressional candidate and LA City Councilman Tony Cardenas
Assemblymember Das Williams
Assembly Latino Legislative Chair Ricardo Lara
Assemblymember Luis Alejo
Assemblymember Nora Campos
Assemblymember Gil Cedillo
Assemblymember Ben Hueso
Assemblymember Henry Perea
Assemblymember V. Manuel Perez

* For identification purposes only

AND THE CAMPAIGNS KEEP ROLLING ALONG....

In an unusually long new television commercial that runs for a full minute, the House Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC, slams Sen. Tony Strickland for his vote as a member of the Assembly in 2002 against a bill establishing rules for the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research in California.

The poignant ad features just three people, a young man, a middle-aged woman and a young girl, each talking to the camera with only a white backdrop behind them. The young man says that in the near future he will be in a car accident and will become

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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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paralyzed; the woman says she will develop Alzheimer's Disease; the little girl says she'll be diagnosed with diabetes. All those afflictions are areas in which medical experts say stem cell therapy holds potential promise.

The bill, later signed into law, established regulations for the use of embryos created in test tubes by couples who sought to use in-vitro fertilzation to have children. That process creates multiple embryos, and many are never implanted into the woman. Under the bill, those couples could decide whether those embryos would be stored indefinitely, destroyed, donated to another couple or donated for research. It was supported by the Biotechnology Industry Association of California, the Alzheimer's Association, and the Parkinson's Action Network, among other groups. It was opposed by the California ProLife Council and the Scholl Institute of Bioethics, among others.

It passed the Assembly on a 46-27, mostly party-line vote, with Strickland joining nearly all other Republicans in opposition.

House Majority PAC spokesman Andy Stone told me today that the ad will run for one week, at a cost of $100,000. Nearly identical ads have been used in three other congressional districts, including one in the Sacramento area.

HALF-MILLION CLICKS ON REGISTERTOVOTE.CA.GOV-- Secretary of State Debra Bowen reported today that the number of people who have filled out voter registration forms online has topped 544,000 in its first four weeks of operation. Users have just three more days -- until midnight Monday -- to register for the Nov. 6 election.

Not all the online registrants are first-time voters, as a great many but unknown number have used it to update their voter registration to reflect a change of address.

Bowen notes that while paper application forms are accepted if they are postmarked by Monday, online applications must be completed -- not just started -- by midnight Monday.

CRITICAL STORY ABOUT McKEON -- Democratic candidate Lee Rogers in the 25th Congressional District is circulating a story in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill news publication, that says the staff of Rep. Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, threatened not to talk with a group of people pushing for an investigation into sexual abuse allegations at a Texas Air Force base unless they quit talking to the press about the issue.

With less than 20 days remaining before E-Day, the political establishment has hit the frantic button. Lots of news to report today on recent developments...

RETURN OF THE CARTOON KINGS: Those crazy cartoonists in Washington, D.C., -- the ones who apparently believe that voters in Ventura County just can't get enough of insulting, simplistic political messages -- are at it again.

The most recent example comes from the House Majority PAC, the Democratic super PAC that has now dropped just short of $1 million into the 26th Congressional District campaign, both in the spring primary and now in the fall general election. The latest cut-and-paste job features the heads of Tony and Audra Strickland pasted on the bodies of a couple dressed in 1930s-era garb above a line of text that calls them "the most famous political bandits since Bonnie and Clyde."

The flip side of the mailer reviews a lot of accurate, but old, news: The fact that the Stricklands paid each other out of their campaign funds for political consulting and fundraising. The mailer says, "It should be criminal -- Tony Strickland and his wife used campaign finance loopholes to funnel nearly $100,000 into their pockets."

It's true. They did it, and it was ethically questionable, but legal, at the time. Strickland, either because he realized such charges were politically damaging or because he genuinely reassessed the situation and concluded it was wrong, actually authored a bill in the Legislature to make such transactions in fact criminal. The bill is now law in California, and the practice is banned.

It is not illegal at the federal level, however, and it might be interesting to watch to see whether, if Strickland wins in the 26th Congressional District next month, he decides to resume putting his wife on his campaign payroll.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER SUPER PAC: A new group called the "Jobs Opportunity and Freedom PAC" has entered into the 26th District fray. It spent $19,000 on a mailer this week, designed by the Sacramento area political consulting firm Gilliard Blanning, attacking Democrat Julia Brownley for having voted to go forward with the high-speed rail project approved by California voters.

The group obviously just received some late money from somebody to pay for the mailer, as it reported having only $16,000 on hand at the end of September. The consulting firm works with many of the most conservative elected officials in California.

A SENATE 'TRAILBLAZER': The statewide Republican group organized by House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy to mimic his federal "Young Guns" program has announced that 27th Senate District GOP candidate Todd Zink is the first Senate candidate in the state to receive its "Trailblazer" designation.

DON'T INVITE RUSH LIMBAUGH: Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University law student who was thrust into the national headlines last year when she showed up before a congressional committee considering the issue of health insurance coverage mandates for contraceptive coverage, will attend a debate-watching fundraiser Monday evening in Ojai.

The event, which will take place during the third and final presidential debate, will raise money for Brownley's campaign.

Fluke's attempt to testify became big national news after ultra-conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh referred to her as a "slut," suggesting the only reason women want contraceptive care to be covered under their insurance plans is to give them a license to have unlimited sex.

SING ALONG WITH THE PROPS: The nonpartisan California Voter Foundation has released one of the highlights of every campaign season -- its "Proposition Song," designed to provide a handy way to remember what each of the 11 Nov. 6 ballot propositions is all about.

A couple weeks ago, Sen. Fran Pavley complained about a television ad of unknown origin, paid for by a mystery group called the "California Senior Advocates League PAC," that falsely claimed she was paid a "$261,000 tax-free salary." It turned out the reference was to the cumulative total of nine years of per-diem payments that are paid to out-of-the-area legislators when they are in Sacramento.

At the time, Pavley and her supporters called on her Republican opponent, Todd Zink, to publicly respond to that ad. His campaign put out a statement noting, correctly, that it had nothing to do with the independent group and no control over its advertising.

Later, in an interview with Zink, I asked him what he thought of the ad. He said that it should have noted that the amount of money was paid over 9 years, as the word "salary" implies money received in a one-year period. When I asked if he would accept per-diem payments if he is elected, he did not directly answer the question, but eventually allowed that he did not have a problem with "the concept" of per diem.

Now it is Zink who is calling upon his opponent to publicly respond to an independent expenditure group's attack against him. A mailer paid for by the "California Alliance," a group funded by the Consumer Attorneys of California and the California League of Conservation Voters, asserts that Zink "refused to support" access to birth control and is "opposed" by Planned Parenthood.

In response, Zink issued a statement yesterday, which reads in part:

"Independent expenditures being funded by trial attorneys are claiming that I 'can't be trusted to stay out of women's health care decisions.' It also says I am 'opposed' by Planned Parenthood. I have never had a conversation with Planned Parenthood on these issues.

"This is an effort to scare and mislead female voters. It is disingenuous and misleading...

"Pavley and her supporters owe the people of this district an apology."

As you might guess, Pavley and her supporters are not apologizing.

The assertions that Zink "refused to support" access to birth control and access to abortion services are based on the fact that Zink did not respond to a questionaire sent by Planned Parenthood's Los Angeles affiliate. Serena Josel of that office told me today that Planned Parenthood sent the mailer on March 13 and followed up three times with phone calls to the Zink campaign before the April 1 deadline to respond. After getting no response, the group's board made a decision to endorse Pavley.

David Allgood of the League of Conservation Voters said the mailer's assertion that Planned Parenthood "opposes" Zink is accurate, and says that the content of the mailer was vetted with Planned Parenthood officials before it was sent. He noted that Zink, in a story published in The Star, publicly said his position on abortion is that he opposes it except in cases of rape or incest. He also asserts that at a Sept. 30 candidates' forum Zink said he opposes public funding of abortion and supports a requirement for parental notification before an abortion can be provided to a minor.

So, is the mailer fair? The impression it leaves is that is Zink opposes such things as access to birth control and funding for Planned Parenthood, when there is no record of his having ever said such things. But what the mailer actually says is true -- that when asked in a questionnaire from Planned Parenthood whether he supported those things, Zink "refused" to respond. And in his statement responding to the mailer, Zink still provides no clue as to his position on those issues.

In his statement, Zink does say that if elected he intends to focus on economic and public safety issues. "My service in the state Senate will not center on social issues at all," he says.

One difference between the two independent expenditure attacks is that while the attack on Zink is misleading, the attack on Pavley was flat-out wrong. Just as significantly, the mailer attacking Zink identifies the actual entities that paid for it, and those entities can be called into account and asked to defend their accusations. The attack on Pavley, on the other hand, comes from a group that keeps its identity secret and cannot be held accountable.

Eastern Ventura County's 27th state Senate district is the hotspot in California for the state versions of super PACs -- called independent expenditure committees -- to spend their money.

Through Tuesday, the Fair Political Practices Commission reports, independent expenditure committees had dumped just under $5 million into legislative races

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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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statewide. An analysis by the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert staff (complete with a nifty pie chart) shows that 21 percent of that spending has been to influence the race in the 27th Senate District between incumbent Democrat Fran Pavley and Republican challenger Todd Zink. The about $1 million spent so far has been about evenly divided -- half to oppose Pavley, half to support her.

It's easy enough to determine where the money is coming from to suppoirt Pavley: $494,054 from the California Teachers Association Independent Expenditure Coimmittee and $28,000 from the California League of Conservation Voters PAC.

The source of the nearly half-million dollars spent to oppose Pavley is a little murkier. I've already written about the so-called "California Senior Advocates League PAC" and the hoops it goes through to obscure the source of the $316,980 it has spent against her so far. This week, a new vaguely named group was formed calling itself "Citizens Against Wasteful Spending," and immediately ponied up $103,183 to attack Pavley. What's the source of that money? It's impossible to say. Because of the timing of the group's formation, it has not yet had to report the source of its contributions.

These groups have spent nearly all their money to oppose Pavley, but they have set aside a little to support Zink -- $315, to be exact..

In this era of slick television commercials, glossy four-color mailers and scripted candidates' "forums" that are supposed to pass for debates, it's easy to forget what actual give-and-take between candidates actually sounds like.

It sounds exactly like the hour-plus-long exchange that took place today in Valencia, in a robust debate between Republican Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon and Democrat Lee Rogers in the 25th Congressional District.

First, give McKeon some credit. Many candidates, especially incumbents, in so-called "safe" districts treat debates the same way most folks treat root canals -- as something to be avoided at all cost. But McKeon agreed to stand on stage alongside Rogers at a luncheon sponsored by the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Valley Industry Association. And he did so knowing that Rogers was going to press him hard on issues of personal and professional ethics.

Did he ever.

McKeon, in his opening remarks, noted that Rogers "has sent out some mudslinging things about me. I hope the mudslinging will stop, but that will be up to him."

Rogers shot back, "If you don't like the negative information, you probably shouldn't give me so much material."

During the course of the debate, Rogers raised such issues as McKeon's acceptance of a VIP mortgage from Countrywide as part of the lender's "friends of Angelo" program initiated by disgraced former CEO Angelo Mozilo; McKean's contributions from defense contractors and his advocacy as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee of some weapons projects that Pentagon officials haven't requested; and his decision to pay his wife out of campaign funds to serve as treasurer of his campaign committee.

On the Countrywide loan issue, McKean said he was not aware that he was receiving any sort of special treatment and that the interest rate on the loan was in fact less favorable than rates that were available to everyday customers at other banks. "He can talk about this all he wants," McKeon said, "but it only exists in his mind as a political ploy."

Rogers likened McKeon's discomfort at having those issues raised to the former television program "This is Your Life," in which participants were visited by friends from their past to recount parts of their life history. "What I've tried to do is show him an episode of 'This is Your Record,'" Rogers said.

McKeon landed some shots of his own. He noted that Rogers had hired "a campaign treasurer who stole millions from campaign treasuries" ("I thought you would like that," Rogers retorted), and scored a point about Rogers' zeal to find scandal where none might exist by recounting Rogers' attack on him over his decision to hire a district director who had a long-ago felony conviction on his record. The individual in question, Morris Thomas, is highly regarded in the Santa Clarita community and McKeon skillfully and earnestly deflected Rogers' criticism of that hire by saying he is "a believer in forgiveness."

In addition to the give-and-take on ethics issues, there was also a vigorous debate over policy issues, from Congress' playing politics with the debt ceiling in 2011, ultimately leading to a downgrade of U.S. credit and a stock market plunge, to the fate of the Bush tax cuts, to high-speed rail, to the high-risk bill that created the so-called "sequestration" process now scheduled to kick in next year, forcing steep cuts in military and nonmilitary spending. There was spirited disagreement on all those issues.

For all the attacks and counterattacks, the exchanges had a civil, respectful quality, even as there was an atmosphere of elevated tension.

Only two cheap shots slipped in.

When Rogers criticized McKeon for defending the stalemate over the debt ceiling, he noted that the decision to do that was much like someone charging things on a credit card and then refusing to pay the bill. A family wouldn't do that, Rogers said, adding pointedly that neither would a business. It was clearly a backdoor reference to the fact that McKeon's family business declared bankruptcy.

In his closing remarks, McKeon referenced Rogers' having raised the issue of converting campaign money into personal money by paying his wife from his campaign account. "You brought my wife into this," he said -- an apparent justification for his then asserting that while Rogers "was drawing $300,000 a year, your wife was drawing unemployment."

Those unfortunate cheap shots aside, the debate was engaging, enlightening and had an only-in-America feel about it: A powerful member of Congress, back in his district, defending his record at election time against an aggressive challenger and making the case for his re-election. Both men were well spoken, well versed on the issues and unafraid to speak their minds.

Nobody ever said politics had to be sterile or bland.

After Rep. Elton Gallegly announced in January that he would retire after this term, eliminating the possibility of a Republican incumbent vs. Republican incumbent primary in the 25th Congressional District where they both live, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon could have been forgiven if he thought he was now on Easy Street.

His new district had a Republican voter registration advantage double of that of his old (5 percentage points compared to 2.5 percentage points), and he never really had to break a sweat to win re-election in his old district. In five contests from 2002-2010, he never won by less than 16 points and his average margin of victory was 25 points.

But McKeon likely didn't anticipate a pesky Democratic opponent like Lee Rogers, the Simi Valley podiatrist. Rogers has raised enough money to send out four early mailers, all pounding away at McKeon on ethics issues, and he tells me his Oct. 15 finance report will show that he has enough in the bank to keep on pounding.

In a recent interview, McKeon referred to Rogers as "that doctor, or whatever he is," and described the Rogers campaign as "down-in-the-gutter politics." He said that Rogers is following a playbook written in 2006 by former White House chief of staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel -- "find a guy who's been in office for a long time and beat the crap out of him."

All that being the case, this won't be welcome news to McKeon: the liberal online fundraising group MoveOn.org announced this week it has added Rogers to the list of 30 candidates it is endorsing in House races across the country. That decision means that Rogers is likely to be the beneficiary of some online contributions from MoveOn members across the country, which would help sustain Rogers' surprisingly aggressive campaign.

The candidates, who are vying in the district that includes most of Simi Valley, will meet face-to-face for the first time (literally, as Rogers tells me he's never met the congressman) in a campaign forum Wednesday in Santa Clarita. It's possible that some sparks will fly.

A new TV ad in the 26th Congressional District race is being released today by the House Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC, and the SEIU. It opens with a tiger sauntering toward the camera as the narrator says, "They say a tiger can't change his stripes, but Tony Strickland's trying to change his."

It then features newspaper excerpts that, among things, refer to Strickland as "a Tea Party favorite," and attacks Strickland for having voted against stem cell research and for having received a "zero" score from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. "He says one thing when he wants your vote," the narrator says, "but his record is extremely different."

The choice of words is plainly intentional, and ties into a campaign theme that each candidate has been using against the other in political mail: that their opponent is "too extreme."

The ad is the first TV buy of the fall campaign attacking Strickland, and follows a buy last week from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce attacking Brownley. Time Warner Cable records indicate the House Majority PAC has scheduled more than $900,000 in local cable advertising through Election Day. The super PAC spent $700,000 during the primary campaign on positive ads promoting Brownley.

26th Congressional District candidates Julia Brownley and Tony Strickland will each be answering questions about issues of concern to seniors during an AARP-sponsored tele-town hall on Tuesday evening from 7 to 8.

The sponsor will be telephoning about 20,000 AARP members who live in the district and asking if they wish to stay on the line to listen to the discussion between the candidates for Congress. For those who may not be AARP members, or who wish to make certain they're included, there is also a way to self-register to get on the call. To do so, go to the this link and enter your name and telephone number.

A GREAT RESOURCE FOR VOTERS: With mail-in ballots going out on Tuesday to those who are registered as permanent mail-in voters, it's time to start educating yourself about all the candidates for local offices. VCStar.com has a terrific resource to help in that regard. It's called Election Central, and it's a searchable treasure trove of information about all the local races and candidates. All candidates were given the opportunity to submit information about themselves, along with resources that readers can use to learn more about them.

Don't fill out your mail-in ballot without it. And if you intend to vote at the polls, get out your sample ballot and do some homework at Election Central before Election Day.

LATINO VOTERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Since many Latino voters, who are expected to make up about 16 percent of the California electorate on Nov. 6, are blue-collar workers very concerned about jobs, conventional wisdom holds that they are naturally skeptical of environmental regulations that could potentially chill job-creation.

But a survey released last week by Tulchin Research, conducted for the California League of Conservation Education Fund, turned up some surprising results. Among them were:

-- Latino voters overwhelmingly agree (90 percent) that we can "protect the environment and create jobs at the same time," with 69 percent in strong agreement with that statement while only eight percent disagree.
-- Two-thirds of Latino voters (66 percent) consider themselves "conservationists", with nearly three out of 10 (28 percent) strongly self-identifying as conservationists;

TAXPAYER GROUP, SENIOR ADVOCATES GRADE DIFFERENTLY; Two statewide organizations last week released legislative scorecards ranking California legislators based on their voting records. Naturally, that includes the two candidates in the 26th Congressional District.

The scorecard produced by the California Congress of Seniors gave Assemblywoman Brownley a 100 percent score, and Senator Strickland a grade of 42 percent.

The scorecard produced by California Taxpayers Association gave Strickland a 100 percent score and a score of 31 percent to Brownley.

Before all the attention shifts to tonight's first of three presidential debates, let's review last night's first, and likely only, 26th Congressional District debate between Democrat Julia Brownley and Republican Tony Strickland.

If you tuned in for even a few minutes, you couldn't have missed Strickland hammering away at what he clearly considers to be a decisive advantage -- the fact that he grew up in Ventura County, went to high school in Ventura County, and has lived in Ventura County for nearly all his adult life. He used the word "neighbors" three times to describe district voters, he talked of meeting people he grew up as he walks precincts, and if he described Brownley once as "Nancy Pelosi's" handpicked choice to run in Ventura County, he did it at least a half dozen times. His best line in hitting upon that theme: "I didn't need Mapquest to understand how to get here tonight."

But in the specifics of their answers, it was Brownley who provided the hometown touch, In response to a question about the importance of preserving Naval Base Ventura County, it was Brownley -- who has represented Port Hueneme for the last six years -- who was able to cite the base's unique strategic and geographic qualities that make it stand out as a vital cog in the national defense. And it was Brownley who was able to work in a story about an actual, named neighbor. In response to a question about helping small businesses, she cited the case of Oxnard entrepreneur Marissa Lopez, who recently opened a shop in Oxnard by taking advantage of federal programs to assist small businesses.

On Medicare, each scored points. Strickland distanced himself even further than before from the Paul Ryan budget's Medicare provisions. Previously, he had publicly stated only that he disagreed with the fact that Ryan's budget would begin changing the program for those under 55 and that he believed no changes should affect anyone 50 or older. But last night he said he also opposed Ryan's idea to provide voluntary, private-insurance vouchers instead of direct federally insured care to beneficiaries. And he added a personal touch to assert his support for protecting the program: "My mom would kill me if I touched Medicare."

Brownley ably defended the charge from Republicans everywhere -- and Strickland in spades, in his campaign mailings -- that Democrats in Congress cut $716 billion from Medicare as part of of the Affordable Care Act. She noted that both Democrats and Republicans (as in Ryan's budget) both scored the same savings from Medicare, but that the Democratic plan used the money to close the doughnut hole in the Medicare prescription drug program to better help seniors afford prescription drugs, to provide preventive and wellness care for seniors and to extend the life of the Medicare trust fund. Republicans, she said, used the money "to give tax breaks to the wealthy."

And her zinger on that issue was this: Strickland, during the four years he was out of the Legislature from 2004-08, formed a California chapter of the group the Club for Growth. Strickland, she noted, once described its former national president, Steve Moore, as his "hero." And it was Moore who once famously called senior citizens "the most selfish group in America today."

Private polling results in the district have been tightly held, but there were clues from the candidates that likely indicate how the presidential preference polling in the district is trending. Both borrowed themes from President Obama, with Brownley repeatedly talking of how she, like Obama, wants to move "Ventura County and the country forward." For his part, Strickland borrowed Obama's line about energy policy, saying he supports the "all of the above" option for energy development, including both green energy and developing petroleum resources. It was noteworthy, too, that Strickland never criticized Obama or sought to link his Democratic opponent with the Democratic president. He tried only to associate her with Pelosi.

Neither candidate stumbled much, although Strickland might have wanted to take back his original answer after California Lutheran University political science professor Herb Gooch asked the candidates the same question that Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown had tripped up on the night before.

Strickland said that Chief Justice John Roberts had been his favorite before Roberts sided with the majority in upholding most of the Affordable Care Act this summer. But then he defaulted to Clarence Thomas. Then Brownley, personalizing the question by relating how both shared ties to Cornell University and how she has met the justice a few times, named Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Finally, Strickland said that, upon "further reflection," his favorite was Samuel Alito.

Brownley declined to be specific when asked what income tax rate would constitute the "fair share" she said several times that the wealthy should pay. But Strickland made it official that he supports tax cuts for the wealthy; he said without hesitation that the current top rate of 35 percent is "too high."

Unlike the presidential debate, it is unlikely that Tuesday's congressional debate will have any real influence on the election. It's doubtful whether a significant number of voters either watched the live stream at VCStar.com, listened to the radio broadcast on KCLU or will watch the tape when its shown later this week or next on C-SPAN. And since both candidates avoided any mistakes that could be amplified in campaign advertising against them, the debate probably didn't win or lose them any votes.

Still, there was something uplifting about seeing the two candidates standing face to face, answering questions for 90 minutes and engaging in a dialogue about issues of importance. It would have been a shame, and a disservice to Ventura County voters, to have this entire multimillion-dollar campaign come and go without even one opportunity for discourse.

Democratic congressional candidate Lee Rogers, tracking down an unusual expenditure reported as the last item on a 48-page campaign finance report submitted by his opponent in the 25th Congressional District, has discovered that Republican Howard "Buck" McKeon in April paid a $4,600 fine to the Federal Elections Commission from his campaign account.

The fine was imposed after the McKeon campaign -- whose treasurer is his wife, Patricia -- filed its 2011 year-end report 13 days late.

Payment of the fine was obtusely reported, noting a disbursement to the Federal Elections Commission and stating under "purpose of disbursement" only "Federal Elections Commission."

The notice of the penalty , dated March 15, was sent to Mrs. McKeon, who for 2011 and the first half of 2012, was paid more than $95,000 from campaign funds for her services as campaign treasurer.

In a press release issued today, Rogers criticized the payment, saying it was part of a pattern of questionable uses of campaign funds by McKeon.

"Donors give money to candidates expecting that they'll use it for campaigning. They don't expect it to be used on fines for violating the law," Rogers says in the press release. "McKeon has a pattern of using donor money for expenses not related to campaigning. He's given away thousands to support Proposition 8 and for the legal defense fund of former Representative Tom Delay, who was found guilty of money laundering."

REPUBLICAN MONEY EDGE: The Sunlight Foundation reports today that more than $216 million has been raised in the 90 most competitive U.S. House, with Republicans holding a significant edge over Democrats, $118.6 million to $97.5 million.

The foundation reports: "Money-wise, the GOP is in solid shape. Republicans have a fundraising lead in 57 of 90 races that the Cook Political Report has deemed 'Toss-up,' 'Lean' or 'Likely.' Of these races, Republicans are the incumbent party in 54, and Democrats in 30. There are also six new districts in which it does not make sense to speak of an incumbent."

Here is the full analysis.

BOXER LUNCH FOR BROWNLEY: Perhaps seeking to make up some of the Democrats' financial deficit, at least in the 26th Congressional District, Sen. Barbara Boxer will be attending a lunch for candidate Julia Brownley next Monday in Westlake Village.

VOTERS, DO YOUR HOMEWORK: The nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, a terrific resource for voters seeking information on the choices they must make on this fall's ballot, has unveiled the fall 2012 edition of its online voter guide.