Opinion: David vs. Goliath… and the Constitution

By Thomas A Benigno / Former Elected Republican Committee Member

On October 23rd I went to the 11th Congressional district forum in Tracy at the Monte Vista middle school, where the incumbent, Jerry Mc Nerney, David Harmer & David Christensen, all candidates for the 11th congressional district squared off to see who the best person for the job was. Incumbent Mc Nerney looked confident with his entourage while he came into building, with a roar of Jerry! Jerry! as his supporters blasted out. Then on the other side came David Harmer with the same sort of supporters roaring, chanting, Harmer! Harmer!

Then out of no where was a lone candidate who walked up to the stage and went over and shook hands with Dave Harmer and then Jerry McNerney. That candidate was David Christensen who made the ballot the hard way, representing the American Independent Party, who had few supporters, per say at the event.

When each candidate sat down to their assigned seats, it was Christensen, Harmer and McNerney on the other end. As Jon Mendelson, from the Tracy Press introduced each of them, there was a small applause for Christensen and a large roar for Harmer and the same for Mc Nerney. As they settled in, Christensen was the first to give his opening statement, and as it ended I could tell that people were interested in Christensen, as to say, “where did he come from?” He received a fair amount of applause. Then of course the other two candidates gave their statements and it was pandemonium, for about two minutes each. As the questions were raised you could tell that both Harmer and McNerney went after each other, but again when it came to Christensen’s statements he seemed to settle the crowd with his quiet and calm demeanor and going to his little book of the Constitution and stating his position from it. Time after time Dave Christensen hit home with policies that came directly from the Constitution itself.  The argument being made by the Republicans & the Democrats seemed to be against all the things the Constitution stood for.

This went on for quite some time, and as it went on, the support for Dave Christensen seemed to get louder and louder from my left —which was the Harmer camp. But many of the Harmer camp seemed to be Tea Party supporters —I could tell that because Jim Freeman was in the crowd leading the chants. Many times the faces of Harmer and McNerney seemed to be dazed by the statements of Christensen, because they had no way of answering the questions that were raised by Christensen’s statements. Again they were facts that came from the Constitution that were ignored by the Republicans & the Democrats in their platforms.

By the time the closing statement of David Harmer was made, his whole demeanor had changed, because he said he was an attorney and a Constitution candidate. Also, for me, it was the first time I have ever seen Jerry McNerney humble down and slow his comments as to “How Should I Answer This Question?”  The way I saw it, the third party intervention and the spelling out of the constitution in every question answered was a testament to someone answering questions that were given to each candidate and Dave Christensen seemed to have the answers that came from our forefathers who wrote the Constitution of the United States of America.

So for me, the experience was a learning one, being a candidate for many political races and being on many of these forums.

The big picture will be in the future. Many candidates had better learn what the constitution is really about. Government can’t continue to run ramped over the land because someone wrote a new law that seems better than the one written over 250 years ago by people much smarter than anyone could understand.

So the next time you see someone running for office that’s not one of the two major parties or is treated like an outsider, keep your eye on that person. He or she just might be your next Congressperson.

Now that we are experiencing a stalemate in the election results on the vote count between Harmer & McNerney, just hold your breath for a while.