Debate Turns Toxic Between Brown and Poochigian

The race between Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Chuck Poochigian for attorney general is becoming nastier and nastier.

Yippee! It brings me back to the good ol' days when Steve Westly tried to whack Fredo at the Tahoe compound. Or maybe it was Phil Angelides. Either way, it was bloody.

Today, Poochigian unearthed an old skeleton in Brown's closet — Jacques Barzaghi, the former governor's friend and factotum. (See photo.) Actually, Poochigian appears to have used his Nexis account to uncover every available article written about Barzaghi and allegations that he sexually harassed women. From a Poochigian press release today:

"The City of Oakland paid out $50,000 in taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim filed against Barzaghi, Brown's confidant and senior aide of more than 30 years, by Nereyda Lopez-Bowden, a married 32-year-old mother of three school-age children. The City Manager suspended Barzaghi for three weeks without pay, but Brown refused to fire his 'closest adviser' from his six-figure salary. It wasn't until almost three and a half years later when the attorney general candidate was forced to fire the 66-year-old Barzaghi."

Brown campaign consultant Ace Smith said bringing up Barzaghi, the tattooed former French commando who was fired by Brown in 2004 and now lives overseas, is a "hail Mary pass." Polls show Poochigian 15 to 17 percentage points behind Brown. "This is totally unrelated to anything and they are trying to smear Jerry with something that he handled very professionally.... This is a sign of a campaign sinking rapidly."

Meanwhile, Brown's campaign is promoting a YouTube "documentary" by environmentalists called "Poochigian's Toxic Legacy." Bill Magavern of the Sierra Club says in the video that Poochigian has gone against even his own party by opposing "many of very same environmental protection bills that Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has signed or otherwise supported."

View the video here. Be warned, it's basically a long line of talking heads.