Capitol Alert

Barbara Ortega is putting her money where her mouth is in her race for a Sacramento County Assembly seat.

The Sacramento Republican has contributed $95,000 in loans to her own campaign, state records show.

Ortega's infusion of campaign cash, through five separate payments, comprised the bulk of the money she raised from Jan. 1 through May 19 in her bid for an 8th District Assembly seat.

Ortega's opponents include Republicans Peter Tateishi and John Thomas Flynn and Democrat Ken Cooley in the race for a newly drawn district stretching from Citrus Heights to south of Wilton. Democrats hold a razor-thin edge in voter registration in the district, 39.3 percent to 38.4 percent.

A former lobbyist who now owns a consulting firm, Ortega had raised $134,248 this year through May 19.

Major donors to Ortega's campaign include Eli Lilly and Co., $3,900; Linda Halderman for Assembly, $3,900; Perry Communications Group, a $2,500 in-kind contribution; and Abbott Laboratories, Reynolds America, Occidental Oil and Gas, and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, all $1,500.

Tateishi, chief of staff to Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren of Gold River, collected $76,941 this year through May 19, records show. He collected an additional $41,000 in 2012.

Tateishi's major donors this year include Pacific Coast Companies, C.C. Yin, Hagman for Assembly, Sacramento Valley Lincoln Club, Food 4 Less, Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and Linda Halderman for Assembly, all $3,900 donors.

Tateishi also stands to benefit from independent campaigns opposing Ortega by the California Chamber of Commerce's Jobs Political Action Committee, $70,000, and by Defending the Republic, whose donors include Stockton/Lodi Food 4 Less, the California Grocers Association, California Medical Association, Jobs PAC, and the Small Business Action Committee.

Cooley had raised $197,831 this year through May 19, with top donations of $7,800 apiece from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, California Teachers Association, Service Employees International Union Local 1000, California State Council of Service Employees, Northern California Carpenters Regional Council and a committee sponsored by the California Faculty Association.

Flynn, a technology company president, had raised about $6,000 this year through May 19. Much of the money, $3,500, consisted of loans made by Flynn to his Assembly campaign coffers.

* Updated at 12:20 p.m. Thursday to clarify that the Perry Communications Group's $2,500 contribution to Barbara Ortega's campaign was for services rendered, making it an in-kind donation.