SACRAMENTO - A press conference on congressional candidate Charlie Brown's actions in 2005 at the home of an anti-war display nearly descended into conflict itself, with disruptions before, during and after the event and a near-appearance by police officers.

The campaign for State Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) had staged the press conference to show a video of Brown, in military uniform, at a Sacramento home in 2005 where the owners had hung a dummy dressed as a soldier in effigy as a protest against the Iraq war.

The video, which is also being used in a 30-second TV commercial, was meant to debunk Brown's assertions that he was at the home in a camouflage jacket, not his uniform his from his days as a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel.

Brown, a Roseville Democrat, is competing against McClintock to replace U.S. Rep. John Doolittle (R-Roseville) in the 4th Congressional District in northeastern California.

But before the event even began, a handful of Brown supporters - accompanied by Brown's campaign manager, Todd Stenhouse - were asked to leave so that they wouldn't cause a disruption.

One man loudly protested that as a military veteran and the father of an active-duty U.S. soldier, he felt he could stay. "This is not Russia," he said.

McClintock campaign consultant John Feliz and Stenhouse eventually got the man to agree to leave, but not before security at the Hyatt hotel where the press conference took place made calls to Sacramento police to remove the man.

When the press conference began, Debra Johns, a mother of a U.S. soldier and a member of Move America Forward, a conservative political activist group, told media what she saw Brown do at the home of the couple with the effigy.

"He was in uniform and he was supporting the anti-American hate crowd," said Johns, who was part of a candlelight vigil Move America Forward had organized outside the home. "He was there when the effigy was there."

Johns also said Brown did not make contact with members of the vigil, as he said Monday he had done. "He can't say one thing and have done another," she said.

Johns was questioned by a previously silent man who did not appear to be a member of the media, who asked whether Brown wasn't within his free-speech right to attend such an event. The man was asked to leave.

McClintock's campaign then introduced two veterans who said that wearing a military uniform in an obviously political situation was offensive to other veterans.

"This is a uniform, this is not casual dress," said James D'Orso, a retired U.S. Navy officer. "Under normal custom, officers do not wear uniforms to political situations."

But a third man who was with the veterans pointed out that Brown was within his First Amendment right to do so, prompting Feliz to ask him to leave as well, while also saying Brown should re-enlist and face a court martial for his actions.

The man, who gave his name as Bret Sherlock, said afterward that he attended because he was tired of non-veterans like McClintock smearing veterans like Brown.

"Did he do anything illegal?" Sherlock said of Brown, adding that if anyone should be able to protest the war, it should be Brown, as both a veteran and a father of a soldier who has served four tours of duty in Iraq.

McClintock campaign spokesman Bill George said the video came from a "concerned citizen." Neither McClintock nor Brown appeared at the press conference.

After the press conference concluded, Stenhouse tried to give McClintock's campaign a pledge to join a Brown program that donates 5 percent of Brown's campaign contributions to nonprofit community groups that work with charities.

Feliz angrily took it and threw it down without looking at it.

Stenhouse said afterward that he brought a group to the meeting because many veterans don't like to see another veteran smeared.

"Tom McClintock has now committed the ultimate act of cowardice, in smearing a decorated combat veteran," Stenhouse said. "This is the latest link in a long chain."

Stenhouse gave a list of misstatements and what he called fabrications from McClintock during the campaign, and added that the uniform Brown was wearing on the video was not standard military dress. "If he came onto a base wearing that, he'd be dressed down for it," Stenhouse said.

Stenhouse added, "He did absolutely not lie," of Brown's previous characterizations of his appearance at the house. "He walked on both sides of the street. And I'll take the word of a 26-year military veteran on that."

Stenhouse also distributed a list of votes McClintock has made as a legislator that were against veterans.

"The real issue is whether Tom McClintock is going to offer veterans anything but smears," Stenhouse said.

He was asked whether there is any progress on arranging debates between the two men, and replied that he'd had no response from McClintock's campaign after making an open challenge to debate a month ago.

That drew a rebuke from George, who was standing nearby. "They won't return our calls," George said, before adding to Stenhouse, "You have our number."

The Pindell Report on Politicker.com lists the race as "likely Republican."