The race for California's newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District is heating up. So KQED's Forum invited Democratic Congressman John Garamendi and Republican challenger Kim Vann to debate the issues on this morning's Forum show.
Host Dave Iverson--and several callers--asked Garamendi and Vann about a variety of topics. Here's a sampling of the debate:
Q: What do you think of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's controversial "47 percent" comments.
Vann: "I look at it very differently. We're in an environment where we aren't creating jobs. It's sad that we're even having to have that conversation, and what we should be focusing on is that those people don't have good solid jobs to be going to... [But] no I don't think that 47 percent of people believe they're victims."
Garamendi: "It's disgusting, it's a disgusting comment about America. I mean, this is a great country, and Americans are the hardest working people in the world. Now there's a lot of people that are unemployed--they want to go back to work."