I’m sure we all remember Jason Hodge, the conservadem being supported by big business interests desperate to have a Senator in the 19th State Senate District who will be more pliant than the progressive Hannah-Beth Jackson. Clearly, undermining your own party by campaigning as “the Democrat who doesn’t think you need higher taxes” will convey that impression.

Well, Hodge is still campaigning as a Democrat. And in an effort to bolster in Democratic bona fides, he told Timm Herdt, the political correspondent at the Ventura County Star, that he had been a Democrat all his life. Problem? He was lying:

A couple of weeks ago in an interview, 19th Senate District candidate Jason Hodge told me he’d been a Democrat “all my life,” and I quoted him as saying so. County Democratic Central Committee vice-chairman David Atkins checked out the claim at the county registrar of voters’ office and asserts it’s untrue.

In fact, Hodge was from 2002 until 2008 registered as “decline to state” a party affiliation.

Hodge acknowledged that today — but asserted that doesn’t mean he hasn’t always been a Democrat in his heart. For example, he said that in primary elections he has always requested a Democratic ballot. A person can be a Democrat, he said, but the voter registration cards give a people an option whether to state or decline to publicly state their party orientation. He chose to decline, he said.

Let’s start the simple fact that Hodge’s explanation is a pile of crap. Before Prop 14 took effect, voters had the option to register with a political party, or as a “decline-to-state” voter–in other words, not to register as a member of any party. Decline-to-state doesn’t mean that you’re really registered as a member of a political party, but you just choose not to share that information with the public.

Even worse? Hodge is lying to cover up his lie. He claimed that he has always requested a Democratic ballot. Problem? That’s also not true. Here is Hodge’s voter registration history, straight from the Ventura County Registrar of Voters (edited to remove his address for privacy reasons):

Notice the entry for the June 2006 gubernatorial, where it says quite clearly that Hodge pulled a non-partisan ballot. If you recall, there was a hotly contested Democratic primary for the right to challenge Arnold Schwarzenegger that year. And apparently, despite being a “Democrat in his heart,” Hodge didn’t have enough of a Democratic heart to vote for either one.

Here’s a piece of advice for Hodge. If you’re going to be a business-friendly centrist, then be a business-friendly centrist, be honest about it, and campaign that way. But don’t try to become a Democrat out of convenience when you decide it’s the best way to suit your political aspirations, and then try to lie to us about it, and then lie again to cover up those lies. People like us who actually have been Democrats all our lives might get a little upset.