Combatants in hot Ventura County House race start positive in TV ads

Assemblyman Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo), challenging first-term Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village), struck a positive note in his first cable TV ad, scheduled to begin running Tuesday night.

The 30-second spot, dubbed “He Knows Us,” features his support from a number of Ventura County community leaders and focuses on the goal of “restoring bipartisan, common sense leadership to Congress.”

“The people of Ventura County deserve a positive campaign and I intend to give them one,” Gorell said in a statement announcing the ad.

Brownley also took the high road in her first TV ad, which began running Aug. 22.

In it, Brownley emphasized issues concerning women, which Democrats believe will resonate with voters.

“I believe we are strongest when women are in charge of their own decisions,” Brownley says in the ad. “That’s why I will always fight for equal pay for equal work and defend your right to choose.”

But a few days later, the Brownley campaign launched a TV ad that knocked Gorell for his record on women’s issues. So much for staying positive.

Both ads are still airing, according to Brownley campaign spokeswoman Rachel Estrada, who said the second ad was to show Gorell’s history of “not standing up for women, especially when it comes to healthcare.”

The Gorell campaign said Gorell supports “access and freedom of choice in women’s healthcare.”

Sources said Gorell so far has booked about a week’s worth of TV ad time; Brownley has reserved time through election day, Nov. 4.

At least one national political handicapper has labeled this race a tossup.

That may be why Brownley went negative in her subsequent ad and why the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently began running a cable TV ad that slammed Gorell as a former “lobbyist who sides with corporate special interests over California women and middle-class families.”

Gorell has said he was never a registered lobbyist.

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