The tempest over Assemblyman Guy Houston’s use of taxpayer dollars to send mailers into his legislative district at the same time he’s running for a Contra Costa County supervisor race generated a couple of interesting questions. (Houston is running on the June 3 primary ballot against incumbent Supervisor Mary Nejedly Piepho.)

Did Houston depart from his past mailing practices in his state-funded office? And did he send the mailers to all of his constituents or just those that live in both his Assembly district and county supervisoral District 3?

On the first question, the answer is no. People insisting they have suddenly started seeing flyers from Houston in their mailboxes probably weren’t paying close attention.

I asked the Assembly Rules Committee how much many pieces Houston sent out in each of his six years in the Legislature and the results show a decline in the use of mailings since he took office.

In 2002-2003, his first year in office, Houston sent an average of 96,121 pieces a month. That number dropped to averages in the 70,000-range in the next several years. In the nine months of this fiscal year, Houston averaged half that rate at 40,572 pieces a month.

But as to the second query, Houston sent two different mailers mostly to constituents in cities also in District 3 including Discovery Bay, Byron, Danville, Alamo, Brentwood, Diablo and San Ramon. (I say “mostly” because he sent the pieces to several zip codes in Walnut Creek. The city is split into three supervisoral districts so it’s possible that some people received this mailer who do not live in District 3.).

On one of the mailers, the target audience makes sense. It specifically mentions Contra Costa County and how his bill, AB 2872, would increase the local share of property taxes coming back to the county budget for services.

But the second mailer focuses on the state water crisis, a subject that’s undeniably of interest to his constituents in Sacramento, San Joaquin and Alameda counties.

Read more for an annual breakdown of Houston’s mail pieces, postage and average pieces mailed per month:

2007-2008 (through April 4): 365,149 pieces, $68,322 postage; 40,572 average pieces per month
2006-2007: 615,499 pieces, $115,485 postage, 51,292 average pieces per month

2005-2006: 940,066 pieces, $190,793 postage, 78,339 average pieces per month

2004-2005: 897,953 pieces, $153,446 postage, 74,788 average pieces per month

2003-2004: 850,340 pieces, $149,984 postage, 70,862 average pieces per month

2002-2003: 1,153,456 pieces, $194,162 postage, 96,121 average pieces per month

TOTAL: 4,921,963 pieces, $872,192 postage, 69,884 average pieces per month for 69 months