Some Candidates Like to Put Their Campaign Statement Right on the Ballot

That’s no misprint on the L.A. County sample ballot. Assessor candidate John Loew’s middle names really are a campaign statement (see accompanying).

I checked with the registrar’s office and was told that since Loew had had his name legally changed to include “Lower Taxes,” he could put that mouthful on the ballot.

I wanted to ask him if he had considered “John Loew Taxes” but was unable to contact him.

Loew’s tactic reminded me of a San Francisco singer who ran for president as Nobody a couple of decades ago. When he would appear in public, he would shout things like, “Who understands economic policy?” and his followers would yell back, “Nobody!”

He never did get his name on any ballots, though, and hardly anybody voted for Nobody.

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The customer’s always wrong? Lee Scott of Ontario saw a flier for a restaurant where diners evidently can expect to be insulted. George Barnes, a Van Nuys sales manager, meanwhile, received a “to-whom-it-may-concern” note from a company that sounded as though it weren’t on the up and up (see accompanying).

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Poodles need not attend: The animal rescue group New Leash on Life will hold what it calls the first-ever Mutt Dog Show and Fair at Calabasas High on March 10 (information: 818-710-9898), and I say it’s about time.

At last an event for mutts--real dogs, not pampered robots. I trust there will be best-in-show awards for Oddest Markings, Most Peculiar Shape, Floppiest Ears, Crookedest Tail, Best Car Chaser and the category for which my late pooch, Hank, would have won paws down: Ripper-Upper of Bedroom Slippers.

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Trojangate: I was seized by feelings of nostalgia when I read in The Times about the theft of more than 2,000 copies of USC’s Daily Trojan, a crime that was linked to the newspaper’s coverage of student elections.

I felt that way because thousands of Daily Trojans containing election endorsements were stolen when I attended USC, almost four decades ago.

In fact, my DT colleague, Greg McAndrews, recalls three mass thefts of Daily Trojans.

USC’s student government, of course, later became known as a sort of training ground for Watergate figures, including H.R. Haldeman, Ronald Ziegler, Dwight Chapin, Donald Segretti and Gordon Strachan.

Some of the dirty tricks during USC elections over the last 60 years have included spreading manure around polling places to discourage women from voting, Chicago-style ballot box stuffing that caused a 1989 election to be invalidated, and the alleged wiretapping of a Senate candidate’s rival.

As my late journalism prof, Fred Coonradt, used to say: “Every year at USC is a Watergate.”

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miscelLAny: The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post recently ran a good-natured correction in which it admitted that, “because of knucklehead errors,” it had mixed up Curly Howard and Curly Joe DeRita of the Three Stooges in one photo caption, and mixed up Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in another caption.

The correction concluded: “We’re pleased to note that we correctly identified Laurel and Hardy.”

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St. 90012 and at steve.harvey@latimes.com.