Former Sacramento-area Rep. Doug Ose has launched new television ads to lambaste state Sen. Tom McClintock, his Republican primary opponent for the 4th Congressional District seat, as a career politician helping himself to government perks he doesn't deserve.

The advertisement begins with a photo of McClintock's mother's house in Thousand Oaks, then shows McClintock's Elk Grove residence before Ose appears on screen at the end.

The following is a text of the ad and an analysis by Peter Hecht of The Bee's Capitol Bureau.

•NARRATOR: It turns out that Tom McClintock doesn't live in this L.A. house where he is registered to vote. His mother does. His real house is here, 14 miles from the Capitol and yet he has taken out over $300,000 in tax-free living expenses meant for legislators who live far away.

[Quoting San Dieto Union Tribune]: "McClintock has been supping at the public trough."

[Quoting Los Angeles Times]: "Taking advantage of a loophole that gives him … tax-free payments."

He says he is entitled to the money. Twenty-two years in office will do that.

•OSE: That is just wrong. I'm Doug Ose, and I approved this ad.

•ANALYSIS: The ad is part of an aggressive media campaign by Ose portraying McClintock as a legislator abusing the state's per diem system set up to offset lawmakers' costs for maintaining residences in Sacramento and their home districts.

Besides their $116,208 salaries, lawmakers are entitled to collect payments of $170 a day for living expenses while on legislative business in Sacramento. The overwhelming majority of state lawmakers claim the tax-free money. According to Ose's own opposition research, McClintock – who collected $45,000 – was one of 39 state senators who took more than $42,000 in per diem between January 2007 and March 2008.

McClintock said in a recent debate that he sold a home in his Senate district three years ago and began using his parents' home, owned by a family trust, as a residence for his voter registration and district visits after his father fell ill. Ose's argument appears to key on the fact that McClintock now has no apparent expenses for maintaining a second home while he lives virtually full time in Elk Grove.

While the ad is a poke in the eye for McClintock, a staunch fiscal conservative who assails wasteful government spending, his acceptance of the per diem payment is perfectly legal.