Rotting, molding food and photoshopped pull-string “Chatty Cathy” doll depictions were used in campaign mailers this week, lambasting 37th State Assembly candidates Ventura Supervisor Steve Bennett and Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murillo.
The mailers, paid for by the California Real Estate Independent Expenditure Committee — California Association of Realtors, appeared to be the harshest and most negative mailers so far in the seven-candidate race. They depicted molding bread and fruit as Bennett, with messages such as “Not Everything Gets Better with Time” and “Got Ethics? Nope.”
“I’m the only candidate endorsed by the Sierra Club, and I’ve been fighting against oil and realestate development interests for a long time, so I’m used to being smeared,” Bennett said in response. “This time is different, because in just two days, the California real estate independent PAC spent just under $125,000 in attack mailers against me, and they are likely going to continue spending a fortune through election day. They have over $4 million in their war chest.”