Voters in the 4th Congressional District got their first look at the two contenders for the open seat at a debate in Rocklin this evening. Doug Ose and Tom McClintock faced off in an almost two hour debate. The event, hosted by the Placer County Lincoln Club, was packed with almost 500 people in attendance. Gary Dietrich, political report for local KFBK radio, served as the moderator. 
Upon entering the room I noticed that there were lots of people with Ose for Congress stickers on their lapels but as soon as the debate started, it was clear that McClintock was the crowd favorite. Each candidate was given a four minute opening statement with the first turn going to Ose. He immediately launched into his campaign theme of being the only candidate “born and raised in Northern California.”
In his opening statement, McClintock set the tone for the evening by making it clear that this primary race is a battle between two factions in the Republican Party—the traditional conservatives and the moderates. He explained that he believes our country has seriously moved off course. Ronald Reagan renewed the Republican Party, and Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America continued that renewal, but the Republicans in Congress squandered Reagan’s legacy.
The second portion of the debate allowed each candidate to ask three questions of each other. Ose started off with a meandering statement/question about McClintock not living in the district and taking “tax-free benefits” from the state in the form of his legislative per diem. McClintock responded in classic Reaganesque style: “There you go again!” This elicited wild laughter and applause from a crowd obviously tired of the carpet bagger attacks from the Ose camp.
McClintock then went on to explain that every single legislator, with the exception of the two who actually represent Sacramento, receive the per diem and it’s a non-issue. On the matter of why his residence in his home district is shared with his mother, McClintock explained that when his father was deathly ill, his family made the decision to combine the two households in order to care for his parents. McClintock does have ties to the 4th CD and mentioned that, by pure coincidence, the very building where the debate was held was his family’s church when they had lived in Rocklin.
McClintock then went right to Ose’s voting record (where he quite effectively focused the rest of the debate), and asked Ose why he had signed a fundraising letter for the Main Street Partnership, an organization that is committed to electing moderate Republicans. Columnist Michelle Malkin has uncovered that liberal millionaire George Soros actually donated money to this cause. Ose didn’t have much of a response to the question. In fact, throughout the evening he was very unresponsive to any of McClintock’s questions, instead repeatedly returning to his accusations about carpet bagging and per diems.
On the issue of immigration, McClintock pointed out that Ose failed to vote for legislation that would have ended social security and sanctuary cities for illegal aliens. Ose made a feeble attempt to laugh off the issue by recycling the Reagan line again: There you go again! But when he tried to explain that he had gone to the border to “figure out what was going on” and “fix” it, the audience laughed and booed at him.
In the third portion of the debate, audience members were allowed to submit written questions to the candidates. The questions included whether either candidate understood Placer County issues (McClintock supports the Auburn Dam); whether they support veterans (Ose established a shuttle service for veterans); whether they would stop earmarks in Congress (McClintock signed the Citizens Against Government Waste pledge, Ose did not); whether the support the 2nd Amendment (McClintock has an A+ rating from the CA Gun Owners, Ose has an F) and several other issues.
Perhaps the three biggest missteps of the evening were on the issues of abortion, marriage and education. In responding to a question about abortion, Ose made an Obama-like response by saying that he absolutely stands by a woman when she’s been raped or the victim of incest and needs to “take care of it.” When a questioned about marriage, Ose said he does not support the federal marriage amendment and stumbled badly by declaring that he had just signed a Proposition 22 petition recently (he was probably referring to the Protect Marriage initiative). Ose’s surprising lack of knowledge about state education issues came when he referred to the recent home school “State Supreme Court” ruling and said he supports a legislative solution—something that the Home School Legal Defense Association adamantly opposes.
As most Californians know, McClintock is a commanding debater and he was the clear winner in this debate. Ose came across as arrogant and unclear about even his own record in Congress. The broken record attacks about carpet bagging and per diems didn’t fly with the politically aware audience who were eager to have a debate about real issues. This was just the first of many debates to come, but it was obvious from the audience response that momentum is with McClintock.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Ose was clearly out of his league in this debate.
Ose had an entire notebook he repeatedly used to look up his answers when asked a question on the issues. He would put on his glasses, ruffle through his notebook and try and answer the questions.
I can”t wait to have McClintock represent me in congress.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
This article is a very interesting take on the Ose McClintock debate. I think the most interesting part is that the far right wing Republicans who attended the debate think it is OK to take tax free $300,000 in per diem that the recipient is not entitled to (the per diem is supposed to compensate for having to support two households, one in the district where the legislator and their family live full time and one in the capitol where the legislator lives in a rented apartment or house because we have a full time legislature). Clearly, Tom McClintock lives full time with his family about 14 miles from the capitol and the house he claims is his “family home” in the district is the house his mother occupies and on which he pays no rent or mortgage. But if Tom McClintock (who said he has this arrangement because he must take care of his mother, but who rarely visited his district last year) is good with taking this tax free money and his far right wing supporters are OK with it, I guess it must be OK. So much for integrity and honesty in our legislators.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Tom McClintock won this debate hands down before a crowd that clearly favored McClintock. Yet Ose maintained a smug expression while being arrogant and condescending. As I’ve contemplated the apparent disconnect between Ose’s presentation and the audience’s negative response, I’ve concluded that Ose believes that it doesn’t matter that McClintock captured the hearts of the audience and even that McClintock represents the views of the 4th District. Ose believes that the combination of his public attacks and his millions will convince voters to vote for him. In other words, he can buy the election which means he also expects the voters of the 4th district to be sheep that will believe his lies if only he repeats them often enough. So will we? The results of this race will answer that question and indicate whether the movement to return the Republican party to its conservative roots is gaining traction.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Bob,
You forgot the part where the crowd actually laughed at former Congressman Ose when he said he had moved into the district: Even the Ose supporters knew that using a friend’s pool house to register in the district was a stretch! Perhaps our nickname “Cabana Boy” is going to stick!
My favorite part was when Senator McClintock answered the charge, leveled by the Narcotics Law Enforcement Association on behalf of the Cabana Boy, that Tom had wrongly voted for a drug study, when one of the letters of support for that bill came from…
You guessed it, the Narcotics Law Enforcement Association.
With all the millions that this liberal former congressman is spending you think he could get better research!
John
April 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
As John Stoos indicated, carpet-bagging is a non-issue in this race since neither major candidate are technically “from” the district. The fact that former-Congressman Ose used this charge (and the absolutely specious per diem issue, which most of the public will tune out as irrelevant) shows he has no problem with his own hypocrisy.
Former-Congressman Ose proved in his prior six years as the THIRD District’s representative that he has not seen an earmark he did not like. Despite claims of those who pretend to be fiscal conservatives (leaving out his VERY liberal social tendencies), it is impossible to argue that Ose is the choice to rein in out-of-control spending in Washington.
State Senator McClintock on the other hand, has become a hero to grassroots conservatives of California because he stands on principle and will not back down from his solid Republican principles.
While I am not a constituent of the 4th CD, I am a very interested observer. It would be very unfortunate if former-Congressman Ose wins this primary. Washington needs to change from its profligate spending ways, and former-Congressman Ose is not the solution.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I was stunned when Tom McClintock reveled that Ose accepted $600,000 in farm subsidies for agricultural land Ose owned while serving on the House agriculture committee. This is at best not right, and at worst. corruption…. voting to give yourself taxpayer’s money for farm subsidies?? How did Ose accumulate so much wealth while in office??… why would Ose spend $1.3 million of his own $ to get elected the first time??… why would Ose spend millions of his own $ this time?… the picture is becoming clear. Ose is exactly what is wrong in Washington.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Ah yes, it is good to see that the far right wing Republican stalwarts are good with Tom McClintock taking $300,000 in tax payer money that he is not entitled to based on his lame excuse that he had to “take care of my mother after my father died.” The fact that he rarely visited his mother while living 14 miles from the capitol building is irrelevant, you say. Your god has feet of clay, my friends. And if Tom McClintock wins the primary, he will lose the general to Charlie Brown, the Democrat. And you far right wing people will again be able to say “we don’t care if we win; we are sending a message” and follow that bromide with your mantra “if the voters don’t vote for our ‘good’ candidate, the deserve what they get.”
April 19th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Drugs are bad, mmmmkay.
Dick Mountjoy beat Dianne Feinstein by 6 points in the 4th Congressional district in 2006. IOW, a Republican who doesn’t campaign wins there against the most popular Democrat in the state. No way does any Republican who’s not facing indictment lose to MoveOn wacko Charlie Brown (and even Doolittle beat him).
Go off and be the designated Republican for all things socialist somewhere else, Bob.