Who says Ron Roberts is a Democrat?

I’m looking at three different slate mailers that arrived in a Democratic household’s mailbox today. Each one purports to be a guide “for Democrats” and implies that it includes the entire Democratic ticket.

Here’s one (click images to enlarge):

Almost all the candidates listed are the endorsed Democrats…almost. For the keen political observer, one name is missing: Stephen Whitburn, the Democrat running for County Supervisor. In his place, Ron Roberts, the incumbent Republican.

You’ll notice there is not a star next Roberts’ name. That means he didn’t pay to be on this mailer. So, who did pay for it?  And who paid for the two other mailers that included Roberts among Democrats?

Well, California Secretary of State records show that a group called New Majority California paid $4,190 to the folks who made the above mailer to support Ron Roberts on Oct. 20. New Majority also paid $3,995 to the group that made the other two mailers on Oct 21.

According to its  website,  New Majority is a political organization supporting Republican candidates with branches in Orange County, Los Angeles, Inland Empire and San Diego. Right before New Majority spent money to include Roberts’ name on these slate mailers, the group received received big donations from the following local organizations:

On Oct. 16, the group received $2,000 from the San Diego Association of Realtors and $11,000 from the Building Industry Association of San Diego County.  On Oct. 12., it received $10,000 from Accretive Investments, which is pushing for a controversial 1,700-home development in Valley Center  and $1,250 from contractors J.T. Kruer & Co., which  was most recently in the news because of  potential conflicts of interest regarding a San Diego waterfront project. At the beginning of October, contractor Doug Barnhart also chipped in $10,000.

I’d dig down deeper to find out who’s donating to the BIA and the Realtors Association, but I’m pretty sure I’d find even more builders and developers and you’d be reading names and dollar figures for another 10 scroll-downs.

All you need to know is this: Are these people directly trying to dupe voters? No, they’re just donating money to a group that is paying people to dupe voters.