Tom McClintock and John Garamendi went head-to-head for the second time in a one-hour debate 
before the San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board on Monday. The debate was filmed at KPIX-TV. (Watch it here.)
Executive Life, the Enron-type scandal that has haunted John Garamendi for more than 15 years, triggered a lively discussion between McClintock and Garamendi in the final 10 minutes of the debate. It’s really worth watching… Emmy award-winning political reporter Hank Plante asked the last question of the candidates, and it was about the Executive Life commercials that have been running statewide featuring Sue and Vice Watson.
[See Hank Plante’s video story on the debate here.]
Garamendi: “Well they are nasty and they’re not truthful… In that situation, Executive Life was bankrupt the day I arrived in 1991. We took quick action. 90 percent of the policy holders got their money back because of my action.”
McClintock responded: “The Watsons are in the next room. They came here because they wanted to tell their story when John Garamendi says that 80 percent of their losses became whole. He is simply doing what the judge in the case said about his testimony saying it was utterly devoid of credibility.”
McClintock then summed up Garamendi’s role: “He seized a viable company, sold it for pennies on the dollar to a French consortium, then turned it around and sold it to billions of dollars in profit. And all of that money came out of the settlements, the annuities and the pension of people like the Watsons.”
When Garamendi repeated once again the false claim that “90 percent of the policy holders got their money back because of my action” the Watsons were ready. This time, however, the Watsons were watching the debate from a ‘green room’ nearby ready to dispute such wild claims. Remember, the Watsons lost their home and more than $1.5 million in Executive Life. With a straight face, Garamendi said, the Watson’s story is a sad one, but they had purchased the wrong policy. With that comment, the Watson’s jaws dropped and shaking their heads in disbelief said in the direction of the television set, “And, Garamendi calls us a liar?”
It turns out, the Executive Life Action Network responded to Garamendi’s statement saying, “The Watson’s policy did not have a ‘lower status’ in the Executive Life rehabilitation plan. The Executive Life Action Network said there were 157,000 annuitants in Executive Life who were treated according to the same rules when their policies were re-written under the terms of Garamendi’s chosen successor insurance company, Aurora. With the first of two state audits released last week, Garamendi finds himself with a huge albatross. He is starting to get boxed in by his own words. In will be only a matter of time before the truth eventually comes out. There are two reports that may have all the answers sitting in Garamendi’s or Lockyer’s office.
Patti Garamendi did what?
The Watsons made the rounds to Capitol Press Corps in Sacramento Monday morning before going to San Francisco for debate. Why did they pay Northern California a visit? Sue and Vince say they got tired of being called a liar, by the commissioner and his people. They went down to watch the debate and maybe ask John Garamendi a few questions. The Watsons never made it into the conference room at KPIX-TV, because a woman told them they had to leave unless they were staff. Turns out, the woman was… Patti Garamendi.
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