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Wondering who is opposing CLCV-endorsed candidates from Santa Barbara to San Diego?

October 20, 2004 - Where do oil companies, big energy, and other polluters send their contributions to defeat pro-environment candidates? JOBSPAC.

A political committee called JOBSPAC has put out a slew of campaign ads from Santa Barbara to San Diego against our endorsed candidates. JOBSPAC is the political arm of the California Chamber of Commerce and, despite its name, focuses not on creating jobs but defeating strong environmental candidates on Election Day. As an independent political action committee, JOBSPAC runs stealth campaigns that often hit at the last minute, and always without identifying the companies that have paid for their massive television buys. True to form, they oppose environmental candidates because a great deal of their money comes from the worst polluting industries and bad corporate actors around.

The numbers are stunning. In this election cycle, contributors to JOBSPAC include:

Energy companies:	$220,000
Developers:	$211,900
Insurance:	$192,800
California Chamber of Commerce:	$125,000
Oil (ChevronTexaco):	$99,800
Car dealers:	$70,000
Tobacco:	$45,000
Moderate Democrats PAC:	$15,000

The spending is equally dramatic. JOBSPAC has made $2,313,700 in direct and indirect expenditures in this campaign cycle. Fully $1,258,646—more than half—was spent opposing CLCV-endorsed candidates and supporting their opponents.

From October 8th through October 18th alone, JOBSPAC spent over $900,000 in independent expenditures (IEs) in just 3 races for open Assembly seats:

Assembly District 35 from 10/15 to 10/17:
IEs against Pedro Nava, CLCV-endorsed candidate:	$102,181.88
IEs for his opponent, Bob Pohl:	$140,277.76
Total AD 35 spending by JOBSPAC:	$242,459.64

Assembly District 53 from 10/15 to 10/17:
IEs against Mike Gordon, CLCV-endorsed candidate:	$308,691.01
IEs for his opponent, Greg Hill:	$50,965.45
Total AD 53 spending by JOBSPAC:	$359,656.46

Assembly District 76, on 10/13 alone:
IEs against Lori Saldana, CLCV-endorsed candidate:	$321,509.37
Total AD 76 spending by JOBSPAC:	$321,509.37

This influx of late money, often funding misleading or even outright false mailers or commercials with no chance of effective rebuttal, is damaging to the electoral process and to candidates who support environmental protection.

(All of the numbers in this article come from Cal-Access, the official state website that tracks political contributions at http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/.)