Capitol Alert: A bumpy day in the Brown, Whitman campaigns

Just another day in the governor's race, and both Democratic candidate Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman are on the defensive.

Let's start with Brown, who was reported to be visiting George Landers, executive director of the UFCW Western States Council. The source was Robin Swanson, a Democratic public relations consultant, who wrote about the encounter on her Facebook page.

Landers' group is a coalition member of California Working Families, an independent expenditure committee that's run TV and radio ads attacking Whitman. According to state law, Brown is prohibited from coordinating with such committees.

Swanson wrote on her Facebook page yesterday: "Random visitor of the day - Jerry Brown strolling into the office to meet with my office-mate, George Landers. With no entourage. And since he asked me to "like" him on Facebook, I figured I'd pass it on: http://www.facebook.com/jerrybrown"

Conservative blogger Jon Fleischman broke the news today.

Swanson told The Bee today, "I would ask Jon Sherlock Holmes Fleischman whether as a communications professional would I really post about a clandestine meeting? You all really need to brush up on your Nancy Drew skills. (Jerry) just popped in to say hello."

Ditto for Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford, who said, "He was in the same building for another event. He stuck his head in and said hello."

Whitman spokesman Andrea Jones Rivera, however, viewed the event with darker lenses in an e-mail to The Bee: "When the Attorney General is having secret meetings with the same unions that are funding a campaign that is legally required to be independent from him, it raises serious questions about what was said and whether any illegal coordination exists."

On the Whitman front, her new TV ad, titled 130 Miles, features a company called EasySale while extolling the candidate's time leading online auction firm eBay. Whitman, the ad says, "made small business dreams come true."

The problem is EasySale, which helps people sell their stuff on eBay, is based in Dallas, Texas. On the campaign trail, Whitman has lamented California businesses moving to states such as Texas. The Brown campaign immediately slammed the ad for extolling job creating in Texas, not California.

About the ad, Clifford said, "Meg Whtiman's from New York, so I don't expect her to know a company isn't based in California."

Jones Rivera from Whitman's campaign responded: "The person in the ad represents just one of the hundreds of thousands of people who benefited from the trading platform that Meg helped build and grow at eBay. She's helped hundreds of thousands of small companies grow their businesses to a point where they make all or most of their living on eBay."