The five general election candidates in California’s 10th Congressional District special election squared off in a public debate last night at St. Mary’s in Orinda. The differences between Democrat John Garamendi and Republican David Harmer could not be more clear:
Harmer said Obama needs to stop “equivocating” and define the mission, provide resources to further that mission and stick with it.
Garamendi said military operations need to wind down and social and economic development plans need to ramp up. “We will not win this war militarily,” he said. Once the education system is improved, the country will change itself, he said.
Harmer said if troops were withdrawn now it would create a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
“I’m astonished that self-proclaimed liberals don’t see the vacuum that would ensue,” he said.
The two candidates shared similar views on a state water proposal that could include a peripheral canal.
Garamendi opposed the peripheral canal, saying that state should instead: pursue water conservation, urge Southern California to reuse its water, protect the Delta, shore up levies and improve storage.
Harmer says he’s “highly skeptical” of a peripheral canal for the cost alone, but also potential water property rights violations as well. He said he would fight for local drinking, agricultural and environmental water concerns, and lastly the concerns of Southern California water stakeholders.
Also in attendance were three third-party candidates from the Green Party, American Independence Party and the Peace and Freedom Party:
Cloward, a 38-year-old political science professor at Diablo Valley College who lives in Pleasant Hill, repeated throughout his remarks that military spending must be cut to properly fund other more important programs, such as education.
Denham, a 74-year-old insurance agent and financial planner from Walnut Creek, steered most questions back to the Constitution. The American Independent candidate vowed, if elected, to cut each federal agency by 25 percent and reduce the size of federal government by 90 percent.
McIlroy, 50, of El Cerrito, called for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and proposed taxing oil and altering Prop. 13.
The forum will be televised three times prior to next week’s election: Friday, October 30 at 8pm, Saturday, October 31 at 11:30am, and 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 1 at 7pm on Contra Costa Television (CCTV).