Andal denies any connection to civil Grand Jury report; McNerney camp stays quiet

It seems the people of California's Stockton-centered 11th Congressional District just love to watch a good political scrap when they get the chance.

Back in 2006 they witnessed Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney take on and knock off multi-term incumbent Republican Richard Pombo.  Two years later GOP challenger Dean Andal appears to be getting ready for the political fight of his life in a district that is just about even in voter registrations between Democrats and Republicans.

But with McNerney enjoying the power of incumbency and so far raising more money than Andal, those handling the freshman congressman's first reelection campaign say that they are optimistic about his chances this November.

Boosting that confidence were the news reports last week that Andal had become wrapped up in a Grand Jury investigation related to the San Joaquin Delta College District board of trustees and his work as a consultant  with Sacramento-based developer Gerry Kamilos.

Kamilos is vying to build a new 108-acre campus for the district in Tracy. But when he apparently missed a deadline to present letters of credit, district lawyers in a closed door meeting with college trustees deemed him in breach of contract and therefore out of contention for the multi-million dollar project.

To be built with public bond funds, the project has so far foundered.  While millions have been spent on its design, the project is both off schedule and over budget, public reports show.

The Grand Jury investigation focused in part on a fax and phone calls sent to Kamilos and, allegedly, to Andal the day after the closed door session. If true, the trustees would have violated the state's Brown Act, California's primary "sunshine in government" law by publicly disclosing confidential information.

Through spokesman Richard Temple, Andal emphatically denied that he was the unnamed consultant mentioned in the Grand Jury report.

"Dean is not the man involved," Temple told PolitickerCA.com on Monday.

For their part, McNerney's campaign staff and surrogates said Monday they would continue to monitor the situation but would have no immediate comment on the case.