Protesters, Supporters Gather Outside Debate Hall

"Tax the Rich!" "No more Jerry Brown!" "California be aware, Meg Whitman doesn't care!" 

 Those were some of the chants blasting forth from the placard-waving protesters and partisans packed behind the barricades at Dominican University, where a carnival-like atmosphere prevailed before the start of Tuesday night's gubernatorial debate. 

 Dozens of Brown supporters – ironworkers and nurses and people waving red United Farm Workers flags – rubbed shoulders with an equal number of Whitman partisans, some wearing red "Join the Tea Party!" t-shirts. They shared space with a mob Green Party members, some with green sashes covering their mouths, protesting the exclusion from the debate of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Laura Wells. 

The Greens had even more to protest when Wells was arrested trying to enter Angelico Hall, where the debate was held, using a ticket issued to somebody else. When campus security asked to her turn over the ticket and leave the area, Wells "became argumentative" and refused, according to San Rafael Police public information officer Margo Rohrbacher. Because she was on private property, Wells was put under citizen's arrest and turned over to the police, who cited her for trespassing and released her.

Earlier, Santa Rosa Junior College student Fabiola Duran stood in a crowd of Brown supporters under a white tent carrying a sign saying "I Am Nicky." It referred, of course, to Whitman's undocumented former maid. She and others chanted "I am Nicky" and the same phrase in Spanish, "Yo soy Nicky."

"I'm here to call out Meg Whitman for the way she fired Nicky," said Duran.  

Added Mac Martinez, a Santa Rosa radio programmer:  "She used Nicky and then threw her out like garbage. We support Jerry Brown. He was a good governor before, and he knows how to manage a government."

 Elaine and Barry Gilbert, the parents of famed tennis player and coach Brad Gilbert – like them, he lives in the Dominican area – disagree. They're big on on Whitman. They showed up with their gray poodle, Samantha, to give the former eBay boss Whitman a shout out.

"I'm supporting her because I don't like Jerry Brown," said Elaine Gilbert, who's retired from the real estate business. "I think he's archaic. The most important thing right now is the economy. He's not going to be a friend to business. I'd like to see someone in the governor's chair with a business background."

Nearby stood retired Mill Valley oral surgeon John Johnson, waving a "Meg in 2010" banner and wearing a "Join the Tea Party!" shirt. Do Marin tea party types drink organic tea?

"I've been known to drink green tea," replied the congenial Republican, who thinks Whitman "know how to create jobs." Pinole ironworker Jason Gallia, wearing a T-shirt that said "Money Can't Replace Experience," doesn't buy that.

"Whitman is for outsourcing jobs to other countries," Gallia said. "We need jobs to stay right here. Jerry Brown is the guy for that."

 On the other side of the barricade, the campus was crawling with reporters, photographers and TV crews, cops, firemen and official-looking people with badges and walkie-talkies.  Olive and Acacia streets were lined with TV trucks and humming generators.

Marin county sheriff's deputy Dan Marrett was strolling the area with Terry, a gentle, bomb-sniffing white lab. They'd made their rounds earlier and all was well. San Rafael parking enforcement officer Frank Matteucci was putting around in his three wheeler – "no parking" signs were placed on a number of streets on and around campus – and was pleased to report he hadn't written a single ticket.

"Everyone is 100 percent compliant with the rules," he said. "It's perfect."

A neighborhood couple, who'd heard the protestors from a few blocks away, moseyed down to campus to "see who was making all that noise," said the man, who declined to give his name. 

"It's like the circus came to town," he said. " This is really fun."