Cal-Tax asks Brown campaign to stop using group's name in mailer

The California Taxpayers' Association called on congressional candidate Charlie Brown to stop using the group's name in a campaign mailer, saying the campaign was inaccurately using Cal-Tax's assessment of opponent Tom McClintock.

"Your campaign mailer implies that Cal-Tax has criticized Senator Tom McClintock as a reckless tax-and-spender - a claim that could not be further from the truth," association president Teresa Casazza wrote in a letter to Brown's campaign that was also provided to McClintock's (R-Thousand Oaks) campaign.

Casazza pointed out that McClintock has consistently received perfect scores from Cal-Tax for opposing new taxes as a state legislator.

The criticism was over a Brown campaign mailer sent to 4th Congressional District voters that said McClintock had voted to make it easier to pass taxes in late 1990s.

Todd Stenhouse, Brown's campaign manager, said the mailer is accurate in its depiction of Cal-Tax's criticism of McClintock.

"They made the statement," Stenhouse said. "Tom McClintock has been a pretty consistent hypocrite in terms of taking $306,000 he's not entitled to and not even paying taxes on it."

The $306,000 amount refers to per diem payments McClintock has collected as a legislator. Stenhouse pointed out that former U.S. Rep. Doug Ose (R-Sacramento) made the same criticism of McClintock during the primary campaign.

"If Tom McClintock is troubled by his own hypocritical record, then he should do something to make it not as hypocritical," he said.