Chuck Handwork, the erstwhile Web guru of Brentwood, says he designed the site advertised on signs posted around Pittsburg area that I wrote about in today’s paper.

In bright, red letters, they slap three environmental groups as “radicals” and ask folks to visit www.widenhwy4.com and fill out a survey.

The signs have been installed on land owned by the family of homebuilder Albert Seeno, although no one from the his firm returned my phone calls.

Handwork also declined to name his client, saying his customer requested privacy.

He also couldn’t release the results of the three-question survey, which makes no effort to disguise its sponsor’s point of view, although he said they were “just what we expected.”

Handwork is bemused by efforts to disable and hack into the site. Handwork says the activity logs show folks trying to break in and presumably crash the page or overwhelm it with votes.

“You can only vote once,” Handwork says. “And if someone does manage to get in, I’m backing up the results every 20 minutes.”

Handwork, owner of Virtual Handwork Designs, has developed quite a conservative clientele in recent months, designing Web pages for Assembly candidate and Antioch City Councilman Arne Simonsen, former Congressman Richard Pombo and local GOP leader Tom Del Beccaro.

Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, will introduce his first bill this afternoon, a $125 million pot of cash for water conservation pilot projects.

The Healthy Communities Water Supply Act of 2007 will authorize $125 million for pilot projects that increase usable water supply by encouraging innovation in water reclamation, reuse and conservation.

“With parts of California experiencing one of the driest Januaries ever and the impact on California’s water supply caused by rising global temperatures, this bill authorizes critical funds to develop alternative sources of clean drinking water,” reads McNerney’s press release.

After introduction, the bill has been scheduled for consideration by the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment on Jan. 31.

The RootsCamp folks in Second Life, the on-line world, are holding a virtual march on Capitol Hill today.

It’s intended to mirror Sunday’s march on the real Capitol.

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, and Berkeley-based Clear Ink created Capitol Hill island earlier this year to bring the swearing-in of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi into Second Life.

So, if you want to march for peace without leaving your house, risking arrest or dressing in enough layers to withstand a Washington winter, fire up your avatar.

For more details, click here and click here.

An Antioch resident sent this very sharply worded letter today to Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal Glover, who will almost certainly see the contentious issue of Section 8 housing surface in his upcoming re-election campaign.

Dear Supervisor Glover,

Anna Morris

Assemblyman Guy Houston, R-Livermore, is headed for the nation’s capital next month where he will talk with national party leaders about a possible run for congressional District 11.

Republicans hope to reclaim the Republican-leaning district after seven-term incumbent Richard Pombo lost in a major upset to Democrat Jerry McNerney in 2006.

Houston will meet in mid-February with National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma and other leaders in meetings arranged by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.

He terms out of the Assembly in 2008. Many termed-out members of the Assembly turn to the Senate, but Houston lives in an overwhelmingly Democratic senate district.

“I’m definitely interested although I haven’t committed to running yet,” Houston says.

Houston publicly professed his interest in a congressional bid last week although his name has been on everyone’s lips for months along with GOP Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton.

Houston says he held off making a move until Pombo decided whether or not to seek re-election.

But Roll Call, a Washington, D.C. paper, reported earlier this week that Pombo was in job talks with Oregon-based PAC/West Communications, a public relations firm whose client list ranges from labor unions to Safari Club International to health care, timber and oil interests.

Pombo couldn’t be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, his former chief of staff, Steve Ding has been hired to open a Sacramento office for PAC/West.

Was it a slip of the today when an audience member at a luncheon speech today featuring newly elected Lt. Governor John Garamendi began his question of the official with, “Governor …”

It may have had something to do with the fact that earlier that morning, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown regaled the Contra Costa Council with a list of Democrats eying the governorship in four years.

And yes, Garamendi’s name came up.

“Garamendi’s looking at it,” Brown said, during a lively, hour-long panel discussion about the state of California and national politics.

Garamendi and Brown were guests at the council’s annual Contra Costa USA, a daylong conference that will culminate tonight with dinner keynote speaker Dan Rather.

For his part, Garamendi took the question about his status as 2010 gubernatorial candidate in good humor.

“How long do I have left in my term?” he joked to the packed room at the Concord Hilton. “Three years and 10 months?”

Like any good politician, he never said never. But he says he’s focused on the job he just won.

“I always think the future will take care of itself,” he said. “It’s not impossible. It may happen. It may not happen. But if I waste a day thinking about (running for governor), then that’s a day I waste when I could be working on the issues I have just outlined.”

Garamendi laid out an agenda he called essential for the economic and physical security of California and the nation: the promotion of energy policies that help reduce the country’s dependence on oil and address global warming, new water storage and flood protection facilities, smarter investment in the state’s education system and universal health care.

He was particularly direct to representatives of Contra Costa County’s major oil refineries, who sat prominently in the room as event sponsors.

“Chevron, I’m sorry, but you have to change,” Garamendi said, pointing the table where he had sat for lunch. “And as policy leaders, we must push you. California must take the lead in developing alternative fuels.”

Garamendi also espoused the new post-partisan attitude touted in Sacramento these days.

He spoke highly of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying that he had eschewed partisan colleague who urged him to take shots at the Republican leader.

“I like the way Schwarzenegger is headed,” he said.

Postscript:

Garamendi ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1982. But at least one local official says she still has her “Garamendi for Governor” sign, former state Business, Transportation and Housing Secretary Sunne Wright McPeak. Heck, recycling is good for the planet, isn’t it?

And then there were seven.

Granada High School Principal Chris Van Schaack of Livermore has filed to run as a Democrat in Assembly District 15 as the open seat in this politically competitive district continues to attract a plethora of candidates.

Incumbent Guy Houston, R-Livermore, will term out in 2008.

Van Schaack, 44, has been an educator for nearly 20 years but now says he’s ready to tackle education issues in Sacramento.

“I’ve had good success here at Granada and truly believe that I can be of great assistance to the legislative body in Sacramento,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Over the last month I’ve been meeting with teachers, nurses, police, fire, and real estate folks in order to better understand their perspective and gather their support.

“And fundraising, of course. Lots of fundraising.”

Van Schaack will join fellow Democrat Terry Coleman of Danville, who ran unsuccessfully in for the seat in 2006. Stevan Thomas, a former primary candidate in the congressional District 11 race, has also said he will run.

Republicans who have either filed or said they will run include San Ramon Mayor Abram Wilson, GOP activist Judy Biviano Lloyd of Dublin, eye doctor Scott Kamena of Livermore and retired CEO Robert Rao, also of Livermore.

Democrats are loving every minute of their new-found power as the majority party in Congress.

But here’s the real difference between Democrats moving from being in the minority to the majority: Their safety is now a matter of national security.

During each State of the Union address, one lawmaker from each party in both the House and Senate are asked to stay away from the event just in case something cataclysmic should happen to the Capitol and its occupants.

Miller, a Democratic congressman from Martinez, has been chosen on occasion to sit out the State of the Union for his party. He could watch the speech from wherever he wanted and even invite friends, according to his staff.

Not this year.

Miller was again chosen to represent House Democrats but this time, Capitol Hill police stood guard outside Miller’s office in the Rayburn building while police cars waited outside in readiness for a quick getaway.

What? No one cared what happened to him when he was in the minority?

Wow. I’ve made Daily Kos! Check it out here.

But before you read Daily Kos’ rant, here are the facts: Yes, I made a stupid mistake in my Sunday column.

I was not working on Monday but I routinely check my e-mail remotely and as soon as I realized I made the mistake, I sent in a correction to my editors.

Unfortunately, the correction fell through the cracks and didn’t make it into the newspaper today or the online version. As soon as I realized this morning that it had not been resolved, I chased it down and fixed the online version this morning. The printed version, or so they promise me, will appear in tomorrow’s paper.

What was the error? I swapped the outcomes of the House of Representatives’ votes on the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. In the Afghanistan vote, only Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, voted no. In the Iraq War, 126 Democrats voted against it.

Absolutely, I should have caught it. The two or three editors who read the column should have caught it.

But we didn’t. Mistakes happen. It wasn’t intentional nor was it part of some grand scheme to misinform people.

Do I feel stupid? Absolutely. No reporter wants to make mistakes and we are usually a lot harder on ourselves when we make a mistake than you might imagine.

But Daily Kos, no one likes a bully.

UPDATE:

A reader correctly pointed out that we should have shown the correction on-line as a correction rather than just make the change. If you click on the link to column, you will now see the error sentence with a line through it and the corrected sentence following it.

Here’s what our on-line editor Ari Soglin had to say when I asked him about the proper format for making on-line corrections. It did require some extra work on his part.

I agree with this bloggers’ comments about how corrections should be displayed when it’s more than just, say, a typo or grammatical fix, and it’s been online for some time.

We’re examining all sorts of priorities when it comes to devoting more resources to online, and how we handle corrections is on that list.

Liberal blog site Daily Kos reports today that Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, is one of three targets of a new political action committee.

Kos writes, “This is a potent alliance, and one that will have real muscle as we look to target not “conservative” Democrats, but Democrats who are out of step with their districts (a key and important distinction). This is no lame-brained Club for Growth clone — an operation obsessed with ideological purity without regard to electoral realities.”

The Washington Post also wrote a short story today about the PAC, a lobbying wing called They Work For Us and a campaign arm called Working for Us PAC.

The first few paragraphs of the Post story reads:

“WASHINGTON — Looking to instill discipline among Democrats, a coalition of labor, trial lawyers and liberal groups is launching lobbying and campaign organizations this week to keep Democratic lawmakers from straying on populist issues.

“Democrats who don’t hew to this agenda could find themselves facing well-funded primary opponents — an aggressive strategy to counter moderate and conservative blocs within the party.”

Tauscher, leader of the moderate New Democrat Coalition in the House of Representatives, rejects charges that she is out of step with her constituents while progressives contend she no longer reflects the views of her electorate.

Well, well, the 2008 election looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.