Greetings, Fans of one of the most beautiful Congressional Districts in the country, still accursed by one of the most scandal- encrusted Congressman, who is trying to retire out before he gets indicted. Local  Democratic candidate Charlie Brown is running for this seat against imported Southern Californian carpetbagger and Republican “I Con”   (icon™, yes, that is what the Republicans call him)  Tom McClintock.

This is just a quick reminder that we here in CA- 04 are having a debate tomorrow night Thursday, Oct 2 between Charlie Brown and Tom McClintock in Oroville.   It’s a candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Butte County.  It is at the Southside Community Center at 2959 Lower Wyandotte Rd, Oroville, 95966, at 8 pm. IMPORTANT TIME EDIT UPDATE: This forum begins at 7pm. Come early. Local candidates speak first, then Brown and McClintock start at 8 pm.  Questions are submitted beforehand, seating may be first come/first serve, REPEAT, FORUM BEGINS AT 7 PM

If you’re local, you can alway Tivo the other event and come see real live democracy in action.  

Democrat: Charlie Brown of Roseville is running for Congress to represent the district.  I do not know if everyone in the district has met Charlie Brown yet, but it won’t be for lack of trying on his part.

3 years ago Charlie Brown decided to run against John Doolittle, (R, “Chevron” not quite indicted) and nearly beat him in a shockingly close race in a district with a Republican registration advantage.  Charlie Brown took this on because he didn’t like seeing what was happening to the government as it treated the people of the district.

Ladies and gentlemen, children and pets, I am here tonight to tell you that PLACER COUNTY, THE MOST POPULOUS COUNTY IN DISTRICT, NO LONGER HAS REPUBLICAN MAJORITY REGISTRATION.  

They’re down to 49 percent and change.  Did you feel the earth move when I said that ? Probably not, but the Republicans sure did !  The reaction was hilarious.  It was “this doesn’t signify a trend.”   Yeah, sure.  And snow doesn’t fall on Mars !

From the Sunday Sacramento Bee, on 9/28/08

New Voter Registrations in Sacramento Region Tilt Towards Democrats, by Phillip Reese

http://www.sacbee.com/capoliti…

And no longer are most Placer County voters registered Republicans.

The party’s share dropped from 52.2 percent before the 2004 election to 49.7 percent today.

During the past four years, the Placer County Democratic Party has grown by roughly three registered voters for every two who have joined county Republicans, state figures show.

The SacBee has pie chart graphics under the story. Since they are a registration site, I’ll give you the percentages here.  Placer, 49.7% Republican.  El Dorado, 45.6% Republican,  Sacramento (a small part of CA- 04 includes Sacramento County ) only 32.7 %.    While Democrats are still smaller in number than Republicans, the INDEPENDENT, or decline to states, are growing.   A lot of those Independents used to be Republicans but don’t feel comfortable enough to go all the way and switch parties, but are very open to voting for Democrats if they like what the candidate offers.  Some of the Indies are more Libertarian trending, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing because the Libertarians don’t care for George Bush’s pro war foreign policy.  But this is a huge sea change for the area. For years the Placer County Republicans have insisted the county is overwhelmingly Republican. No more.

Republican: Tom McClintock of (mailing address is Thousand Oaks, actual domicile is in yet another district), a lifelong career politician in the CA state legislature,   is running to keep fattening his wallet.  Oh, and those SoCal lobbyists for the Casino industry and the Real Estate speculators who buy “distressed” and foreclosed properties, and the various Big Oil and Big Pharmaceutical/Health Insurance donors,  have been giving him money via his state accounts all these years.  Tom McClintock can’t get out of the district fast enough, because he’s left the state budget in such a mess.  Tom McClintock is slightly more idealogically to the right of Attila the Hun.  As in invade, attack, destroy, savor the spoils, return the victor and leave the peasants in ruins.  We don’t need more of this in Congress.

Please, keep us in mind tomorrow night, and if you can’t come, wish us luck and watch for updates. Thanks!

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crossposted at dailykos and progressive blue

edited with time start 7pm update, see above

(You guys are awesome.  Thanks so much for getting us to our goal.  But there’s still more work to be done before midnight; we need to get $500 raised for each candidate.  Right now 4 of our 5 candidates need a little more.  Visit our ActBlue page and donate!)

Calitics Match candidate Charlie Brown is facing California’s Alan Keyes, perennial candidate Tom McClintock, in the most hotly contested Congressional race in the state.  And I think the pressure is getting to McClintock.

He put together a website called “Vets for Tom” which has a page with a list of resources for veterans.  There is substantial evidence that McClintock’s team plagiarized the resource list from Charlie Brown’s website.

Campaign manager Todd Stenhouse said that not only did a list of resources on the site exactly match what was on Brown’s site, but one link that was broken on Brown’s site had the same problem on McClintock’s site.

When visitors clicked on the “AmVets” link on McClintock’s site, Stenhouse said, the broken address took visitor to a site with an address from Charlie Brown’s site, in what Stenhouse called “a smoking gun.”

“Everything he’s learned about veterans and the military, he’s apparently learned from Charlie Brown,” Stenhouse said, referring to Brown’s criticism of McClintock, a state senator, for voting against legislation related to veterans. McClintock established the veterans’ site late last week.

There’s really not much more to say on that.  Some people lead and others follow.

Meanwhile, Brown and McClintock are strating to meet in forums and debates.  Last week Brown called into a Sacramento radio show where McClintock was appearing, and last night they discussed the financial industry bailout.  As expected, McClintock favors the exact same failed solutions which brought us to this crisis in the first place, like suspending the capital gains tax.  Brown’s position is more nuanced, supporting enforceable standards on executive compensation and returning proceeds from selling assets to taxpayers, while concerned about the consequences of doing nothing (which is McClintock’s specialty).

The larger point is that McClintock is an enthusiastic supporter of the failed policies of the past, while Brown would reliably represent the future and lead on key issues.

 Greetings from Oroville !

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680_2  Charlie Brown , Mayor Jernigan, Mrs Jernigan

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Saturday, September 20, 2008, at the Veterans Hall in Oroville, CA.  Left to right, Mrs. Jernigan, Mayor Steve Jernigan of Oroville, Charlie Brown, candidate for Congress in CA’s 4th district, and a volunteer for the Town Hall and BBQ  event.  

There’s lots more pictures and news of upcoming Charlie Brown events, if you’ll continue with me over the fold:

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650  Serving BBQ Lunch,



Volunteers from Oroville and Charlie Brown serve Lunch at the Town Hall on Sept 20, 2008

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658_2   Mayor Jernigan of Oroville



Mayor Steve Jernigan of Oroville Speaks to the Town Hall, and Introduces Charlie Brown  

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669_2  Charlie Brown talks to Oroville



Charlie Brown talks to citizens at the Oroville Town Hall on Sept 20  

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668  Crowd listens and asks



Some of the attendees listening to questions being asked

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667  Man asking Q



Asking about Presidential signing statements  

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0684  Friends & Vets



Friends and Vets, Oroville, Sept 20  

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686_2  The Volunteer Cooks, @ Oroville, & Charlie Brown



The Volunteer Cooks & Charlie Brown  

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This was a fun event, and I am looking forward to more of them and hoping to see more CA- 04 people at them!   There was a BBQ lunch, grilled  tri – tip,  potato salad, beans,  made and served by the great people in the last photo, and then Mayor Jernigan, “the most popular person in Oroville,” as one person called him, spoke for a bit and introduced congressional candidate Charlie Brown.   Charlie spoke and then took questions from the crowd.

 Oroville is a lakeside community about an hour and a half north of Sacramento, in Butte County, with a city population of about 14,000, and a combined city/suburban/summer area population of about 55,000.  There are a lot of retirees because it’s an easier pace than The Big City.  The most distinguishing feature of Oroville, besides the big Dam & Reservoir,  is the big Table Mountain Ridge which flanks the northern part of town and lets you know that you’re in foothills Gold Country, for Oroville was founded during the Gold Rush.  Oroville also does what has to be the the most spectacular Northern CA 4 of July fireworks show over the Lake every year that draws such a huge crowd, that they run shuttle buses from town to the lake, and it’s a big lake .  So Oroville, which also has Feather Falls Casino, depends on tourism for a lot of its revenues, and when the economy has a downturn, and people don’t travel as much, they are sensitive to that aspect of it.   The people attending the Town Hall  were also talking and asking a wide range of questions about the future course of our country and how do we encourage local jobs growth for the younger generation.  They can tell, that the things that happened in Washington DC over the course of the last 7+ years, and that the course the current administration had set the country on,  had not taken into account the long term effects upon their neighbors and friends’ everyday lives.

One of the questions I didn’t expect but was really glad to hear was “How do we stop the other guy (McClintock)  from Swiftboating you?”

You see how that works?  Open Democracy is Empowering.  It was “how do we” do something,  not  “which consultant do we send a check to  ?”

There was such a contrast to the other candidate running for congress in the same district it was mind boggling.

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NEXT UP:  41 DAYS TO CHANGE

•Charlie Brown will be holding another Family BBQ and Town Hall Meeting in South Lake Tahoe next Saturday, September 27 th.

WHO: Congressional candidate Charlie Brown

WHAT: BBQ and Town Hall meeting

WHERE: Bijou Park, 1099 Al Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

WHEN: Saturday, September 27, 2008, time:   12pm-3pm  

http://www.charliebrownforcong…

•PLUS, NEXT SATURDAY IS ANOTHER DISTRICT WIDE, CA- 04   DAY OF ACTION !  

DISTRICT WIDE DAY OF ACTION SATURDAY 9/27 08

Time:    10 am to 2 pm    Place: Roseville , Grass Valley, Quincy, Placerville,  Truckee,  Auburn,   South Lake Tahoe,  all have district offices and will be doing canvassing and phone banking

•EARLY OCTOBER,  MARK YOUR CALENDERS AND GET READY TO RUMBLE !  DEBATE !

  THE FIRST CA- 04 DEBATE:    CHARLIE BROWN DEBATES TOM MCCLINTOCK IN OROVILLE  THURSDAY OCT  2 , 2008 , 8:00pm   to 9:00pm  

Charlie Brown Debates Tom McClintock in Oroville

Thursday October 2, 2008 | 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM

The League of Women Voters of Butte County, along with the Chico Enterprise-Record and the Oroville Mercury-Register, are co-sponsoring a televised voters forum at the Southside Community Center in Oroville. For more details, please visit ChicoER.com or OrovilleMR.com.

I was hoping the League of Women Voters of Butte County would have this event listed on their calender page, but I would keep checking back until they update it:  

 http://www.lwvbuttecounty.org/      League of Women Voters of Butte County     1 530  895  VOTE

NOTE TO PEOPLE USING MAPQUEST and GOOGLE TO FIND THINGS:  THERE ARE 2 COMMUNITY CENTERS LISTED FOR OROVILLE, and they’re NOT the same thing. One’s in the north part of town and the other is in the south part of town.   Please confirm location before attempting navigation.  (Don’t ask me how I know this, but the people at the south one are super about giving directions …..)    The Chico Enterprise Record does not have this listed on their events calender yet.

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and on a final note:

It’s SEPTEMBER 24 !  Less than  one week to the Sept 30  FEC  3rd Quarter donation deadline ,    41 DAYS TO CHANGE , where we can  SEND  MC DOLITTLE DUCK – the real  – issues back to Ventura County !    

Ya wanna see what he did recently?  click on my name and read those previous 2  diaries, he doesn’t rate any exposure here.  No Show Tom, Fake Schedule, Swiftboating, & Keystone Kops

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

McClintock, Ron Rogers, Kevin Ring, and THAT swiftboat ad     http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Ya wanna see what it looked like the last time I saw a Republican congressional candidate in Oroville, during the pre- Primary?  Click here, scroll down to the middle, and enjoy the “bonus humor photos” of Doug Ose’s crew riding around on oil barrels in front of a moving van (Ose’s family is in the mini storage busines, so home foreclosures and people moving works out very well for them )

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

By the way, Republican Doug Ose formally endorsed Tom McClintock.  thank you.  Doug Ose, on the night he lost the Republican Primary,  on teevee “well, I guess I’ll just go back to earning more money.”  You said it, Mr. Multimillionaire Self Funding Carpetbagger Candidate Developer who took Abramoff Money.

Why does the 3rd Quarter FEC deadline matter? Because the candidates then have to file the reports online, and it’s possible to see the true financial support levels of each candidate.  And that influences financial supporters in the last quarter. They want to see the candidate can win.  Charlie Brown has thousands of supporters, and is getting individual donations from inside the district.    McClintock on the last filing had just around 800 individual donations.  Yes. ONLY 819 people, and many of these were duplicates from the same business entity using multiple names of family members, or from other Republican candidates that had already dropped out.   And the majority of them were from out of district. A great deal of them were from Southern CA.   I went thru the entire list  and I counted it.  McClintock has no money, going down the home stretch (shockingly little, around a hundred thousand)  unless he sells his soul at this point to some nefarious Bush administration supporter trying to curry future favors.  

Charlie Brown lives, raised a family, and worked in the district, and wants to represent the people living here now in 4.   To McClintock, who resides in Lungren’s district 3 but represented yet another in the state senate legislature so as to collect the tax free per diem,  it’s just another mailing address.

Charlie Brown’s contributions page link:       https://www.charliebrownforcon…

Actblue link:    http://www.actblue.com/entity/…

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photos by diary author.  grateful for assistance provided by diary spouse that day

cross post at dailykos and progressive blue  

( – promoted by David Dayen)

With a little less than 50 days until the November 4th Election, the stakes couldn’t be higher in the race for California’s 4th House of Representatives seat. We have an awesome opportunity to put a different kind of leader in Congress, one who is results-driven and ready to put patriotism before partisanship.  

Charlie Brown has been known to be the local favorite in this campaign. He is the only candidate in this race who has lived, worked, and raised his family in this district, now going on 17 years. And as such, Charlie Brown is hitting the road every day of this campaign to make his case to the voters. In the first of a series of BBQ Town hall meetings, Charlie visited El Dorado Hills’ Bertelsen Park to meet with voters and take their questions.

As the burgers were being flipped, Charlie chatted it up with people one-on-one, Diet Coke in hand, discussing the important issues of the economy, the foreclosure crisis, infrastructure, rising gas prices and the war in Iraq.

Introducing Charlie was an El Dorado County giant– former United States Congressman Jerry Waldie. Waldie, a World War II veteran, served in the House for 8 years before running for California’s governor in 1974 against Jerry Brown.

Charlie then took to the “stage,” a grassy area by the picnic tables, to address the crowd and get their input on a host of issues.

One question that was asked from a local voter revolved around the issue of privacy and spying on American citizens. Charlie, a former intelligence officer in the Air Force, explained his role working on surveillance programs for the National Security Agency (NSA). He explained his view and drew thunderous applause from the group.

Charlie was also asked questions regarding a host of local issues, most notably water. Like everyone who lives in the 4th District, Charlie understands the importance water flowing through the 4th district has on California agriculture, and why adequate supply and proper stewardship (including keeping all of it from being shipped to Southern California) is so critical to the future of our region and our state. You may have also heard that it’s been especially dry out here in Northern California this summer.  

Overall, a healthy-sized group with a healthy-sized appetite for burgers and answers got their fill in El Dorado Hills this weekend. Next week, Charlie is heading up to Oroville to continue the conversation. Please check out our website for dates and times of when Charlie comes to your neighborhood.

On Tues, Sept 16, the Tom McClintock (R) carpetbagging campaign for CA- 04 up here in Northern California, running against Democrat Charlie Brown, sank to a new depth akin to the stock market crash of 2008.

Sacramento News Channel 10, ( ABC ) ran a story about a swiftboat ad release by the McClintock campaign, and did not tell who the people were in the video nor who was involved in the making of it. (edit: added link  http://www.news10.net/news/sto…        )        They did not note that the “uniform” was just a jacket over a tee shirt and jeans.  They edited video in such a way as to disguise an incident of potential assault by a McClintock campaign advisor.  They did not say that the event was written up as a press conference by other sources, to imply open access, when the McClintock campaign decided to call security to prevent access by observers, and was not letting them see the event.  I witnessed the event (or rather, the closed doors, mostly except when they opened ) from the hallway but was prevented from recording it and was threatened with removal from the building by someone who would not identify themselves or their job title.

Regarding the video on the News 10 site, now that I have seen it:

The dark haired man in the suit facing the camera is John Ruiz, a “campaign consultant” or “advisor” for the McClintock campaign, previously associated with John Doolittle and Richard Pombo,  who also is financially involved with Southern California Casinos being financed by the Malik family of Detroit.  http://www.theverifiabletruth….        This Malik family has given thousands of dollars to campaigns of Tom McClintock.  He (Ruiz) had just previously committed what is known legally as “assault” upon another person in the photo, which has been edited out of the News 10 video, by grabbing the person’s arm and threatening them under his breath. He then made another comment out loud trying to provoke a fight.  Only the person’s reaction, saying “do not touch me again,”  is shown in the video.

The person in the print shirt with his back to the camera is a real veteran and did not assault anybody. The person standing behind Ruiz is a real veteran and did not assault anybody.  

Politico said it was a press conference.  ABC is claiming it was a private meeting so they had the right to restrict access.

(edit, to add) My previous story on that entire day is here: CA- 04, No Show Tom, Fake Schedule, Swiftboating and the Keystone Kops     http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

So where’s Tom McClintock? He knows and won’t admit it.    

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McClintock at the Auburn Gold Country Fair in flyer form touting his “virtues.”  Nope, not photoshopped.  photos by author.

The McClintock employee lied about McClintock’s whereabouts that day deliberately.  McClintock did not go to Lincoln that morning, where he was expected at the Chamber of Commerce, and where they already had the campaign handouts stapled to the day’s agenda.  The employee who said he didn’t know where McClintock was going to be that day was there at the “press conference” guarding the door to it and refusing entrance.   McClintock posted a phony schedule, claimed a budget victory when there wasn’t one, didn’t show up at places, including this “press conference,”  and ran off to the Elks lodge in Auburn (again, restricted access) to eat lunch with a bunch of mostly older while males while his surrogates were down at the Hyatt doing his dirty work.

The woman speaking in the ad they released was Debra (or Deborah)  Johns.  She is a member of Move America Forward.  http://www.moveamericaforward….                                         She is their “director of military relations” per their website.  She is a paid professional Public Relations person, not just a private citizen. MAF puts solicitations up on the internet made by “military moms” with pleas for money to “support the troops”  by funding an advertisement.   This money is then used to make hit pieces against certain Democratic candidates. Where the money goes is all to the same po box in Sacramento.   They pull the solicitations down after they get the money, but the ads remain online on You Tube.  Think of her as a media hit person, not as a “military mom,” her online persona.  

Move America Forward, aka MAF,  is the alleged non profit wing of “Russo Marsh and Rogers” Public Relations firm, which does media PR and swiftboating for Republican Candidates. Move America Forward a front group which claims non profit status based on issues advocacy.  I don’t see how they can claim to be non partisan, they’ve never, ever supported anything but right wing extremist Republicans and they do sleaze swiftboating.  They ask for money online to pay for campaign ads.  This is not non partisan.   The notorious right wing radio talk show host Melanie Morgan, who is shown wearing a camoflage pattern tee shirt under her suit jacket on her own website, is “chairman” of this MAF group.  Melanie Morgan   http://www.moveamericaforward….    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M…          has an online store  http://www.melaniemorgan.com/               that sells tee shirts and mugs with religious and racially offensive slogans that extremist right wingers might find appealing or might intrepret as being an affirmation that advocating violence against an AA candidate is okay.  

It is not “okay.”  It is provocative and IMO, evil.

The “Rogers” in RMR  is  Ron Rogers, a former staff member of Rep. John Doolittle’s who was subpoenaed last September 2007 in the DOJ/FBI investigation of John Doolittle.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Rogers bio on the RMR webpage is missing that aspect.  He’s a PR guy who has dissapeared the fact that he used to be Doolittle’s Chief of Staff.  

http://www.rmrwest.com/index.p…

As an ex COS of Doolittle, he has certainly been heavily involved in the ongoing coverup of Doolittle’s corruption investigation and alleged crimes,  for Doolittle has been fighting the subpoenas of his staff for a very long time.

Now, what happened recently?   KEVIN RING WAS ARRESTED AND INDICTED in the Abramoff scandal investigation.  Ring is another ex staffer, the former legislative director of John Doolittle,  who went on to become a lobbyist and work with Jack Abramoff and who had many, many interactions with John Doolittle, esp. concerning having Julie Doolittle go to work for an Abramoff sub- company being funded by laundered money from Indian Tribes and foreign governments.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Ring, married with a young family, is being heavily pressured to flip and tell on his ex boss.  Surely he doesn’t want to go to jail.

Now, in ALL THIS FLAPDOODLE about the “effigy”  what else happened this week?  The AP reports that the Federal Prosecutors  are about to turn over “millions of pages” of documents” of evidence for KEVIN RING’s DEFENSE ATTORNEY TO USE.    This includes correspondence with former DOJ officials Clements and Ayres,  who used to work for former US ATTY GENERAL JOHN ASHCROFT.  Hey, guess what?  RING used to work for Ashcroft, too.   So did another convicted DOJ  employee, Robert Coughlin.

http://ap.google.com/article/A…

The charges against Ring include an episode in which he allegedly  

lobbied Justice Department officials for money to build a jail on a  

reservation for a tribal client. One of the officials involved –  

Robert Coughlin, former deputy chief of staff of the Justice  

Department’s criminal division – already has pleaded guilty to  

criminal conflict of interest in the case.  

So it’s time for a big DIVERSION.   No kidding.  People are sitting in jail cells because of this Doolittle coverup, and the roof is about to blow off.  

Channel 10 is an ABC affiliate which is owned by Disney.  Disney owns the radio station in SF where Melanie Morgan of MAF had her right wing talk show.  Disney/ABC ran the horrible “Path to 9/11 ” documentary full of lies, blaming the Clinton administration for the disaster.  

ABC is now allied with Fox News as part of the coverup party of the corruption of the Dept. of Justice under the Bush administration.

One of Doolittle’s and McClintock’s biggest local financial supporters is posting pictures from ABC Channel 10 on the Auburn Journal blog, making bogus claims about what happened Sept 16, 2008 at the Hyatt in Sacramento.  Great diversion.  Not.

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edited 8:20 pm 9/19  to add links, and photos by author  

I’m going to try and do these once a day.  No promises!

• CA-04: In partial response to the kerfuffle from yesterday’s deceitful attack ad, Charlie Brown released two radio spots and a TV ad today.  His wife Jan Brown narrates the TV spot, which foregrounds Charlie and his son’s military service. (Sorry, not embeddable)

The radio spots are both solid attacks on Venturian Candidate Tom McClintock.  Two men, two paths contrasts Brown’s service and leadership with McClintock’s life in politics, and his record on veterans (including donating 5% of his campaign funds) with McClintock’s (voting against veteran’s funding).  Vote is a humorous spot discussing how McClintock can’t vote for himself because he won’t move into the district.  There’s also a lot on McClintock’s per diem expenses from the State Senate.  “L.A. Tom” is the frame they’re going with, and they ask, “if he won’t vote for himself, why should we?”

• CA-11: State Senator Ellen Corbett and Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi sent a letter to women in Jerry McNerney’s district urging them to reject right-wing extremist Dean Andal.  His record on women’s issues is really retrograde.

To the Women of Congressional District 11:

If you are anything like us, you want a representative in Washington that not only reflects your values, but who also respects you.

Dean Andal just doesn’t qualify. In fact, Dean Andal’s record on women’s issues shows just how out of touch and extreme his views are.

In 1994, as a member of the State Assembly, Dean Andal opposed a common sense law that would have allowed women to wear pants in the workplace instead of being forced to wear skirts and dresses.

Andal also voted against requiring health insurance plans to cover cervical cancer screenings. He even voted against making sure that information about sexual harassment be included in mandatory workplace anti-discrimination posters.

Yet the most egregious affront to women he offered in his short term in the Assembly was his vote to restrict the definition of rape to exclude attacks where an incapacitated woman cannot resist.

And what’s worse, Andal’s was the only vote in the Assembly against expanding the definition. The only one.

Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, all women should be proud of the progress we have made. That’s why it’s so important that we don’t send someone like Dean Andal to Congress. Someone with a record like Andal’s can be counted on to turn back the clock on all we have achieved.

• LA Board of Supes: There’s a runoff in this seat between Councilman Bernard Parks and State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas.  While Ridley-Thomas is a solid progressive who understands the fundamental dysfunction of state government and will fight for progressive values on the powerful Board of Supes, Bernard Parks has hired Republican fixer Steve Kinney to help him win the race.  Parks, who has a business-friendly record on the City Council, is receiving help from BizFed, a PAC notorious for pushing the same agenda.  The wingnuts at the Lincoln Club have reportedly offered him support as well.  At least the choice is now clear to voters – one candidate on the side of the corporate vultures, the other on the side of the people.

• Misc.  I should note that Chris Bowers’ House race forecast is up, and among California races, he lists CA-04 as a tossup, CA-11 as Lean D, and CA-26 & CA-50 as Likely R.  I think he’s selling a couple races short, but that’s a pretty good conservative estimate.

Things are happening very quickly in the most hotly contested campaigns in California.  Here’s an update:

• CA-04: Watching himself falling behind in the race to replace John Doolittle, perennial candidate Tom McClintock decided to borrow one of his predeccesor’s smear campaigns and release an ad claiming that Charlie Brown dishonored servicemen by appearing at an anti-war rally.

The idea that wearing a camouflage jacket constitutes being “in uniform” is ridiculous, and so is the idea that a retired military officer has no free speech rights.  But the idea is to smear Charlie as some kind of radical leftist and anti-military, despite Brown’s long record of supporting veterans and McClintock’s longer record voting against them.

The ensuing press conference put on by the McClintock campaign was a wild affair.

SACRAMENTO – A press conference on congressional candidate Charlie Brown’s actions in 2005 at the home of an anti-war display nearly descended into conflict itself, with disruptions before, during and after the event and a near-appearance by police officers […]

But before the event even began, a handful of Brown supporters – accompanied by Brown’s campaign manager, Todd Stenhouse – were asked to leave so that they wouldn’t cause a disruption.

One man loudly protested that as a military veteran and the father of an active-duty U.S. soldier, he felt he could stay. “This is not Russia,” he said.

McClintock campaign consultant John Feliz and Stenhouse eventually got the man to agree to leave, but not before security at the Hyatt hotel where the press conference took place made calls to Sacramento police to remove the man […]

But a third man who was with the veterans pointed out that Brown was within his First Amendment right to do so, prompting Feliz to ask him to leave as well, while also saying Brown should re-enlist and face a court martial for his actions.

The man, who gave his name as Bret Sherlock, said afterward that he attended because he was tired of non-veterans like McClintock smearing veterans like Brown.

“Did he do anything illegal?” Sherlock said of Brown, adding that if anyone should be able to protest the war, it should be Brown, as both a veteran and a father of a soldier who has served four tours of duty in Iraq.

McClintock campaign spokesman Bill George said the video came from a “concerned citizen.” Neither McClintock nor Brown appeared at the press conference.

After the press conference concluded, Stenhouse tried to give McClintock’s campaign a pledge to join a Brown program that donates 5 percent of Brown’s campaign contributions to nonprofit community groups that work with charities.

Feliz angrily took it and threw it down without looking at it.

They don’t want to talk about issues.  So McClintock tries to smear a decorated veteran to win an election.  Typical.

More on the flip…

• CA-11: We’ve talked before about Dean Andal’s embarrassing fall from Congressional contender to also-ran, but it’s just getting worse and worse.  The questions over Andal’s role in a botched construction project at a local community college have continued, and he’s also been caught lying about his claim that he’s raised more money than any Congressional challenger in the country.  Now his mailers are hitting mailboxes throughout the district, and they’ve been revealed as lies.

What it says: “Instead of taking action to fix America’s energy crisis, ruling Democrats shut down Congress this month (August) for a five-week vacation – with Democratic Congressman Jerry McNerney casting the deciding vote to adjourn.”

Is it true? No. The vote was 213-212 in favor of adjournment. Under Andal’s argument, all 213 members of Congress who voted in favor of the annual summer break were the “deciding vote.”

Besides, party leaders don’t let freshmen decide anything.

It’s almost sad how bad Andal is doing.  The NRCC isn’t even spending in the district.

• CA-50: The latest registration numbers for the district are in, and while Republicans continue to hold an 11-point lead, the trend is in Democrats’ favor.  Republicans are also perilously close to the 40% registration line, under which it becomes harder for them to win, as more independent voters lean Democratic.  I don’t know if Paris Hilton ads and chicken suits will get it done for Nick Leibham, whose campaign is clearly just trying to get in the headlines.  But there are lines of attack on Bilbray, particularly over his single-minded focus on immigration and not the pocketbook issues that affect people’s lives, though Bilbray is enough of a nut to say that the two are functionally equivalent.

• CA-26: There’s another smear campaign going on in this race, where David Dreier and the NRCC are trying to hold onto this seat by dredging up old news about Russ Warner and old tax liens and business license payments.  These are incidents from as far back as 1992, and Warner’s business license has since been reinstated.  It’s a pretty negative mailer considering that Dreier sounds so confident about victory.  Warner is now out with his own mailer highlighting Dreier’s many ties to special interests (like the $200,000 he’s received from oil and gas companies).  The fact that Dreier and Bush agree 94% of the time makes an appearance as well.  The fact that this race is getting so nasty so early suggests that Dreier has seen some polling that has him worried.  Maybe it’s because the Inland Empire is gradually turning blue and Dreier’s days of easy campaigns are numbered.  Enough of the district is in the IE for that to matter.

• AD-80: Manuel Perez has snagged the endorsement of the Sierra Club.  They also have an ad up on the air, which is notable for an Assembly candidate.