Democratic group launches TV ads in 2 hot California U.S. House races

With the fall election season shifting into high gear, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Thursday launched cable-TV ads in two of California’s contested House races.

One of the ads is running in a Democratic-leaning Inland Empire district, where Rep. Gary Miller (R-Rancho Cucamonga) is retiring. Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, a Democrat, is running against Republican Paul Chabot, a military officer and businessman.

The Democratic organization’s ad skewers Chabot as someone who advocated cuts in education spending and cultivated a “TV career.” It includes a link to a video from Chabot’s 1998 appearance on “The Dating Game.”

The ad comes as the Aguilar campaign launches its own cable promotion, which focuses on Aguilar’s emphasis on education and features his eighth-grade history teacher, Susana Rodriguez.

“He was always eager to learn,” Rodriguez says, appearing on camera with a beaming Aguilar.

“So I’m not surprised that Pete’s running for Congress to improve education, expand job training and make college more affordable,” she continues in the ad.

Another ad sponsored by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running in a Ventura County-centered district, where first-term Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village) is facing a strong challenge from Assemblyman Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo).

The ad slams Gorell as a former “lobbyist who sides with corporate special interests over California women and middle-class families.”

The Brownley-Gorell contest has been labeled a “tossup” by the Cook Report, a nonpartisan handicapper of congressional and other political races.

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