Andal quickly tosses out civility during debate; Calls McNerney 'immoral' for stance on Iraq War

Dean Andal: Campaign PhotoTRACY -- GOP challenger Dean Andal wasted little time Saturday night before getting to the mud slinging during an at times raucus debate with incumbent Congressman Jerry McNerney.

Held at the gymnasium at Monte Vista Middle School in Tracy, the Stockton Republican repeatedly branded McNerney (D-Pleasanton) as being "immoral" and as having "poor judgement" during the debate which was played out before a crowd of several hundred people. Andal, a former state lawmaker and member of the Board of Equalization, seeks to topple McNerney from his CA-11 seat in Congress.

Saturday's event was thought to be McNerney and Andal's only head-to-head showdown of the campaign.

Responding to questions posed the audience members, McNerney and Andal were quizzed on their views on such such topics as the recent Wall Street bailout, the war in Iraq, Congressional earmarks, oil exploration and nuclear power, taxes, illegal immigration and Props. 1A (high speed rail) and 8 (same-sex marriage), among others.

During much of the debate Andal seemed to just criticize McNerney's voting record over the last two years, but outlined few new positions of his own.

One of the more interesting points of the debate came late into the event when a audience questioner asked about Andal's involvement in the Delta College Mountain House satellite campus development scandal that has resulted in delays which have cost the community college district an estimated $50 million in voter-approved bond money.

During the meeting Andal has denied being the consultant for a local developer, Gerry Kamilos, who received closed session information from the Delta College board of trustees that served to keep him from booted off the multimillion-dollar campus development deal. Kamilos' getting the closed-session information means that at least one member of the college board violated the state's Brown Act, an act which could be prosecuted as a criminal misdemeanor.

One Delta trustee, Ted Simas, has told members of the local media that Andal called him the day after the 2006 meeting and brought up information during that conversation that was discussed during closed session.

Moreover, personal financial disclosure documents filed with the House Legislative Resources Center in Washington show that now only did Andal have a consulting job with the developer but also had a one-half percent bonus coming from land sales at the Mountain House site, just outside of Tracy.

(From a digital recording of the debate):

McNerney:

"So, you deny that you had a conversation with (Delta trustee) Ted Simas the day after the closed session .... Do you deny you had that conversation?"

Andal:

"...No is the answer. It didn't happen. No confidential information was ever leaked to me. And I wouldn't put up with it if it had been ..."

Some other examples of their combative exchanges:

Question: What is your position on Prop. 8, the ballot measure that would eliminate same-sex marriage in California?

McNerney:

"This is a difficult and emotional issue. I first and foremost stand for the civil rights of every person in this country. I stand behind civil unions with all the rights and responsibilities of marriage, including property rights and visitation rights. We cannot afford ... we cannot in good moral conscience discriminate against any Americans in our country. Now the Supreme Court of California has made a decision regarding that and I support the right of the court to make that decision and I'll stand by the decision of the voters." [Applause.]

Andal:

"Uh, I'm in favor of Prop. 8. I believe marriage should be reserved to a man and a woman and I think there is something very unfortunate about the Supreme Court's decision where they took the express will of Californian's after over a hundred years of a position being one way and by a 4-3 vote took it into their hands to redefine marriage for the rest of California. I think that's bad on both fronts. And, I'd be happy to leave my remaining time for Jerry to tell us whether he is for or against Prop. 8 [Loud applause.]

McNerney:

"I'm against Prop. 8 because I'm against discrimination of Americans in this country" [Louder applause.]

Moderator: Mr. Andal, do you want one more minute on this issue?

Andal:

"Oh ... I'm just thrilled to death that he finally took a position.

The two candidates tangled over the Iraq war as well.

Question: Two years ago you talked about a nine to 12 month timetable for a pull-out and that are troops were in a quagmire. How do you feel about the situation today?

McNerney:

"Well, if we're going to talk about history, let's go back to 2003 when we started a war without proper authority (and which) was against the will over the world... [Loud applause.]

"Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and posed no threat to our country. So instead of [unintelligible] the past, let's talk about the present. If we have a situation there where the situation is stabilized. Our troops have done a terrific job and General (David) Petraeus is a wonderful leader for our troops and our country. I think he should be applauded for that success. Right now, because of this success, we have an opportunity to move forward and to put a timetable in place to get our troops out of that country and to stop sending $10 billion a month of American dollars to rebuild a country that has its own oil reserves. [Loud applause.]

"We should allow our troops to focus on the real war on terror which is taking place in the mountains of (Afghanistan)."

Andal:

"It's going to take a while to unravel the congressman's position on this. But I think it's worth doing here tonight. Americans for Democratic Action, which is a very old, very respected liberal political action group in Washington puts out a scorecard on congressmen. They recently ranked Jerry one of the most liberal congressmen in America. So, anyway, what was astonishing about the scorecard was that he only voted wrong for ADA once. He voted for one of the (troop) withdrawal bills [garbled] ... he then opposed the surge. This was the same surge that I take it that you now believe has had some success. And one of great generals in American history, General Petraeus, (the officer who) designed that surge, was vilified by a group called MoveOn.org which has contributed over $40,000 to Jerry's campaign. After all of that ... you voted not to fund the troops. It's inexplicable and it's immoral. [Limited applause.]

McNerney:

"This is the most irresponsible, partisan attack ... to call somebody (immoral) who doesn't agree with you on a subject as not supporting our troops. That's how we got into a war in Iraq in the first place. We were accused of not being patriotic because we didn't agree with the president. I support our troops. I have voted repeatedly to give our troops weapons and armor to protect and defend themselves but I will not vote for an open-ended war policy by this president." [Loud applause.]

Andal:

"Well, the facts don't lie. They can be really stubborn things. We all want the troops to come home. Every single person in this room wants the troops to come home. The question is that when you're in harm's way and while congressmen are wasting money in Washington and (our troops) have bullets whizzing by their foreheads, we need to pay for their armor, pay for their paychecks and pay for their healthcare and you voted twice against that ...that's what I'm talking about (it being) immoral. That's not supporting the troops. That's playing politics with them. [Light applause.]

McNerney:

"Again Dean you're drawing at the most emotional heartstring because I don't happen to agree with you about continuing this war. We need to pull our troops out of Iraq in a responsible way and the only way we have to do that in Congress is to disagree with the president on his (war) appropriations bills. I will never allow our troops into combat without having the equipment they need. I have repeatedly said that and I have repeatedly done that. My own son is in the service.... To accuse me of putting our troops into harm's way, I'm afraid, is what (your party) has done and we're doing everything we can to remedy that situation." [Loud, extended applause.]

Andal:

"You haven't supported our troops. You have not supported our troops. If it was up to you they wouldn't have been paid. That money comes from the Iraq War appropriations bill which you voted against. Let me make this clear: It's OK to argue about the war. This is America. We have the freedom to debate these things. It's OK to be for the war and it's OK to be against the war and to have a free public debate over it .... What is not OK is when young men and women are in harm's way like your son was and the last congressman (Richard Pombo) paid for his (war) appropriation and made sure he had that equipment. It's not OK when they're in harm's way for you not to fund them. That's wrong. Bring them home if you can. But while they're there pay for them so they can  come back to us alive. [Applause.]

McNerney:

I'm exercising my constitutional right to bring troops home. (And voting against a defense appropriations bill) is our only way to do it against a president that will not listen to Congress and who will not listen to the American people.[Loud applause.]