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Ose, McClintock square off in Rocklin
Fourth District candidates debate on questions from media panelists, students
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The two major Republican contenders for the 4th Congressional District, Doug Ose and Tom McClintock, traded verbal jabs at a debate last night hosted by William Jessup University in Rocklin.
The seat, which has been held since 1991 by John Doolittle, R-Roseville, will be vacant after Doolittle retires amid allegations of corruption at the end of his term.
Only briefly cordial, before completing their opening statements, the candidates set the tone with familiar campaign themes of attacking one another.
McClintock illustrated his conservative record by pointing out examples of Ose’s voting record, one he called inconsistent with conservative values.
Returning fire, Ose called McClintock a “career politician,” citing his 22 years in state government.
Ose also drew jeers from the crowd of approximately 300 after repeatedly bringing up McClintock’s use of his per diem allowance, which Ose says totals about $300,000.
Defending his repeated use the tactic, Ose said, “I’m going to come back to it over and over again. The people need to hear it.”
Ose added that McClintock has a double standard, taking a position against pork barrel spending in government while taking advantage of the per diem allowance for his own benefit.
Hitting another of his campaign’s mainstays, Ose took the opportunity during his opening remarks to “welcome Tom to Rocklin,” making a thinly veiled reference to McClintock’s Southern California roots.
While McClintock did not directly address Ose’s accusations, he did have some of his own.
“Who do you trust to uphold the conservative principles and values of the people of this district?” McClintock said. “Doug Ose has been one of the most liberal Republicans during his six years in congress.”
Among the data McClintock used to illustrate his contention, he said Ose voted to give illegal aliens social security benefits and he revealed that Ose was active in a political action committee supporting moderate Republicans.
Moderator Sosamma Samual-Burnett of William Jessup University kept the candidates to their allotted time for each of several questions presented by a panel of media representatives consisting of: Dana Howard from News 10; Peter Hecht with the Sacramento Bee; and Deric Rothe of the Auburn Journal.
After each rotation of questions asked by media representatives, a student from William Jessup University presented the candidates with one.
The last student to present a question, Greer Gamble, a public policy freshman from Southern California, asked the candidates, “If elected, what primary area of concern do you think needs immediate action in the 4th District?”
McClintock identified the price of energy and our dependence on foreign oil while Ose named economic concerns and a need for more jobs.
Although Gamble was satisfied with the answers provided by the candidates, she could not say the debate produced a clear winner.
Regarding the negative overtones of the debate and the campaign in general, she sees some benefit to the contentiousness.
“I was not expecting it to get so deep into controversy, but it gave their true intentions,” Gamble said. “I think it was a sincere debate.”
One senior due to graduate this month, Kyle Navarro, was employed as an Ose staffer, but not before examining the candidate’s platform to be sure it was compatible with his own beliefs.
“He’s a tax fighter, but he has an intelligent way of going about it,” he said. “The negativity (in campaign tactics) is turning a lot of older people off, but for the rest of the people, it’s just information.”.
Lesser-known Republican candidates Suzanne Johnson and Ted Terbolizard as well as Democratic contender John Wolfgram were present to interact individually with attendees, but they did not take part in the debate.
Representatives for Charlie Brown, Doolittle’s Democratic challenger from the 2006 race, were also on hand.
“Career politicians have been fighting each other for too long. Everyone is saying we need change,” said Todd Stenhouse, Brown’s communications director.“We’re looking forward to putting Charlie’s record up against any politician’s, anytime.”
Doug Ose, Tom McClintock, William Jessup University, District 4, Debate
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It's a shameful sign in politics when candidates are excluded from debates. Especially when we have a true local statesmen like Ted Terbolizard running in the race...I encourage everyone to check him out: http://www.terbocongress.org/
"he revealed that Ose was active in a political action committee supporting moderate Republicans."
Something tells me that McClintock did not use the words "moderate Republicans" but rather "liberal Republicans" of which there are quite a few in California.
I guess the Journal could not just report the story.
They also do not provide the clear and rational explanation of why McClintock took his per-diem which has actually been stated repeatedly...that he purchased a 2nd home in the Sacramento area so that he could be with his wife and kids.
The rules allow him to apply the per-diem to housing expenses. There is nothing shady going on there and Ose knows it and the Journal is not reporting it.
This *is* rather poorly written, but I don't necessarily see any "agenda" as the previous poster suggests.
The reason they do not provide the clear and rational explanation of why McClintock took his tax-free per-diem, is because there is not a clear and rational explanation. In fact, Doug Ose did an excellent job of explaining exactly why this is such a major issue. MCCLINTOCK TOOK TAX-FREE MONEY FROM THE TAX PAYERS TO PAY RENT ON A HOUSE HE DOES NOT LIVE IN!!! Yes, other legislators get the same per-diem and many of them actually DO pay rent or mortgage on two houses. Many of them donate the money to charity. Tom McClintock pocketed the money. There is neither a clear nor rational reason for doing so other than GREED!!!!!!
Please don't get caught up in the nonsense of the negative attack tactics of these two career politicians. The real issues of this year are:
Iraq War; How would you end it?
Energy/Green House Gas(GHG) crisis; What plans do you have to get us off fossil fuels and into clean energy with reduced GHG? Are you familiar with "Project Better Place," where Israel and Denmark plan to be off fossil fuels and on to solar and renewal-ables running electric cars within ten years? Will we be able to do this here?
Washington Lobbyists; Do you believe that Public Paid Elections will reduce the strangle-hold that special interest has on Washington? What other plans do you have to change the system in Washington? So, these are the biggies: The War, The Energy Crisis and The Washington Lobbyist System!
Ose was PATHETIC! He was nothing but negative and kept attacking McClintock the whole debate. I understand that he must use this tactic because he knows that his record is not conservative which puts him out of step with our district. But it was pretty sad to see him constantly trying to tear McClintock down instead of being positive about his own agenda (even if he won't win).
He also looks miserable and smug. And I don't believe he has any teeth because I didn't see him smile once the whole debate!
Ose is a hypocrite. He can claim no more roots to this area than McClintock. His ads reveal his true character.
GuntherToody,
I atended the Ose-McClintock debate at WJU and agree with you regarding Ose's bearing. Arrogant, rude...those words are fairly descriptive.
On content, though, he had McClintock beat. McClintock offers no plan and has no track record for getting things done. He will dig in his heels and "fight for the right" even as his ships rolls over to starboard and sinks. He should be running for a job as a judge instead of a legislator. His philosophy and interpersonal skills are better suited to jurisprudence. And he did take per diem he didn't need because he only owns one house and uses his mother's address in Thousand Oaks to maintain residency in his district.
I didn't like either of these candidates.
Realist,
Have you received any flyers in your mail from McClintock? I have. 2/3 of the content is attacks against Ose. I have researched some of them. One, the claim that Ose voted to give social security to illegal aliens, is a flat-out lie.
And you should look at how McClintock has voted on veteran's issues. Abysmal.
Ose needs to explain why he took $600K in farm subsidies that he had a hand in while in Congress.
As I said, neither of these guys would make a good representative for this district.
The previous poster should do his homework better. Doug Ose *did* vote to give social security to illegal aliens. You can check this very easily by going to the following page: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HZ00745:
You will see that this amendment dealt with blocking benefits for illegal aliens. You can also very easily check Doug Ose's vote on this amendment by going to this page: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/roll439.xml
There were 225 NO votes (meaning they did not want to block benefits for illegal aliens). Ose was one of those votes.
Let's all remember that we had a majority in Congress that lost spent like drunken sailors and forgot their conservative principles. Doug Ose was one of those congressmen. Now he's trying to hide that. Don't let him get away with it! Send a real conservative to Washington - vote McClintock!