McClintocks asks Brown to buck Pelosi, House Democrats

Congressional candidate Tom McClintock called Friday on his opponent, Democrat Charlie Brown, to match his rhetoric and buck U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) on the issue of increasing domestic energy supplies.

In a statement, McClintock said Brown should call for Pelosi to bring the House of Representatives back into session to vote on a Republican bill aimed at reducing energy prices, including allowing offshore oil drilling.

"Charlie Brown claims that he puts the needs of American families first," McClintock said. "He can prove that by joining me to demand that Pelosi and Congress finally act to develop American oil on American land right now."

Brown and McClintock, a state senator from Thousand Oaks, are competing to replace U.S. Rep. John Doolittle (R-Roseville) in California's 4th Congressional District.

Todd Stenhouse, Brown's campaign manager, said Brown also believes Congress should be having an ongoing discussion about energy, but questioned whether McClintock has credibility on the issue.

Stenhouse said Brown released a domestic energy plan weeks ago, while McClintock, in a opinion piece in local newspapers earlier this week, reiterated a discredited claim that the Chinese were drilling for oil off Cuba and near U.S. territorial waters.

"Charlie Brown is for drilling, but he's also for investing," Stenhouse said. "He believes there's no partisan solution with the energy crisis."

Pelosi has recessed the house for five weeks, but some House Republicans have stayed in session to castigate majority Democrats and call for more domestic oil production.

The Republicans' proposal would also lift regulatory barriers to building new oil refineries and nuclear power plants.

Stenhouse said Brown is in favor of both of those proposals.