Political observers are scratching their heads over the unfortunate strategic timing of a new mailer being sent out by the campaign of Auday Arabo, the mini-mart advocate running in the 78th Assembly District Democratic primary to succeed termed-out Republican assemblywoman Shirley Horton. The glossy mail piece features a photo of a service station, with gas prices listed as “Arm,” “Leg,” and “First Born Child.” Inside, Arabo identifies himself as an Iraqi American and a Chaldean Christian, and the piece has the requisite partisan attack on the GOP, saying, “The innocent blood of thousands of people is on the hands of George Bush and the Republicans, but there is no stability, no weapons of mass destruction, no connection to Al Qaida, no exit strategy.” Arabo goes on to argue that “war has cost our state $60 billion in federal revenue.” So far so good. But the back of the mailer features a photo of Arabo standing beside a beaming Bonnie Dumanis, the Republican district attorney whose perjury prosecution of Chula Vista city councilman Steve Castaneda — believed by many to have been politically inspired — was blown up last week by a superior court jury that acquitted Castaneda on six of ten counts, deadlocking on the other two. Castaneda’s defense maintained that Dumanis had mounted the case as a favor to Chula Vista mayor Cheryl Cox, whom Castaneda had run against in June 2006. Arabo once worked as a criminal prosecutor in the D.A.’s office.