There's not much love lost between U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Emken and the 13 other Republicans hoping to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein this November.
But Emken and some of her chief GOP rivals found something to agree on Wednesday during The Bee's hourlong live chat featuring 11 of the 24 candidates on the June ballot.
After tackling the federal budget, gay marriage, the drinking age and water policy, the session closed with a question from a reader with extraterrestrial troubles in mind:
How would you protect California from pending alien attacks from Pluto?
"With pirates and ninjas, of course," quipped Republican Dirk Allen Konopik of Rancho Cucamonga, a master's degree student in business administration.
"I would use the ray gun ... duh," offered Santa Monica businessman Al Ramirez, also a Republican.
Emken, whose endorsement by the California Republican Party had made her the subject of attack from rivals throughout the chat, seemed to second those answers.
"See, Al and Dirk, we agree after all!" she said.
You can read that exchange and more in the chat, archived at www.sacbee.com/ live.
>CAMPAIGN WATCH
President Barack Obama rubs elbows with actor George Clooney at a fundraiser in Los Angeles today, then flies to Reno to push his economic agenda in battleground Nevada. Obama's campaign has been promoting the Clooney fundraiser for weeks, soliciting small donations online by offering a chance to win tickets to the high-dollar event.
>WORTH REPEATING
"There is no existing support system for leaders who are willing to work across the aisle for the good of the state."
SEN. SAM BLAKESLEE, R-San Luis Obispo, announcing that a new think tank called the California Reform Institute would be seeded with $750,000 from wealthy Republican activist Charles Munger Jr., who had backed giving the job of drawing political districts to a citizens commission
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