PLEASANTON -- From an overtly political perspective, you could say that U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney began his 2008 reelection campaign just a few short weeks after winning office in 2006.

After all, it was back then that the freshman Democrat began a series of seemingly innocuous visitations to all parts of the sprawling CA-11 district. Dubbing them "Congress at your Corner" events, McNerney would sit outside of supermarkets, coffee shops and ice cream parlors and just listen to his constituents.

Sometimes, McNerney would get yelled out by angry people. Sometimes he would be praised. Sometime longtime Republicans would say they still vehemently disagreed with him but they appreciated him being available. Regardless, McNerney kept turning up on Saturdays and over time, he began to morph from that "Liberal that beat Richard Pombo" to just "our congressman."

Now on the eve of Tuesday's election, the Pleasanton Democrat -- two years and 45 Congress at Your Congress sessions later -- is sitting on a comfortable 11 percentage point lead over Republican challenger Dean Andal of Stockton, internal and public polls show.

Sitting in a small Pleasanton bakery late last week, the 57-year-old former wind energy scientist reflected on the campaign over sips of coffee and came to the conclusion that he and his staff have hit most of their marks successfully.

"We haven't made any big mistakes," McNerney said. "So unless they come out with something outrageous that we don't know about yet, I think we're going to be fine."

McNerney added that he was pleased by his clean sweep of editorial board endorsements from newspapers circulating in CA-11 -- one of which included the normally well right of center Stockton Record.

"A lot of the editors told us that they were impressed that we tried to make it back from Washington nearly every weekend,"

McNerney added that in addition to making himself often publicly available, he also concentrated on providing above average constituent case work.

"We try to take care of the people in the district the best we can and I think they respond to that," the congressman noted.

For his part Andal, who has declined to be interviewed by PolitickerCA.com, the effort to unseat McNerney started out well but never enjoyed any real traction with the voters or with conservative fundraisers and donors. Even national Republican leaders abandoned Andal's campaign to help shore up incumbent Republicans elsewhere.

Throw in Andal's still mostly unexplained involvement in a Delta College campus construction project scandal and you have the makings of a weakened campaign that both national and local observers expect to hobble to a second-place finish on Tuesday.

On the issues, Andal, 49, has shaped his campaign around three main issues: Lowering taxes, increasing ethics and accountability in government and national security.

Andal has also chided McNerney as being "immoral" for his votes against Iraq war appropriations bills. McNerney, during the campaign's sole debate, explained that voting against the bills was the only way he and other members of Congress could effectively express their opposition to President Bush for the war that is costing the nation an estimated $12 billion a month.

The former state lawmaker and Board of Equalization member also tried to land political punches saying that McNerney didn't care about consumers suffering from escalating gas prices because of his supposed slow-to-react support for the expansion of offshore oil drilling.

McNerney has advocated that oil companies first drill on the millions of public tracts they've already leased from the government instead of opening up heretofore closed and environmentally sensitive areas.

For his part, McNerney says that he's eager to get back to work and continue the efforts he's started in bringing increasing amounts of federal dollars and other assistance to the district -- a district which has become famous for being the epicenter of the home foreclosure crisis.

"If I'm lucky enough to be reelected, I am going to use whatever political capital I've accumulated to focus on education. It's important because if our schools and students are perceived performing well the process of recruiting those clean energy jobs to the district will become easier. If executives see that our schools are good they will be more inclined to move their families and businesses to the district," McNerney said.

The process of going from the arcane world of technology research and development to the very high-profile world of national politics has been an odyssey for McNerney.

What he has learned is that most voters -- in the end -- care about getting results and having access the most.

"What I've found during my first two years is that people want us to get stuff done. They like face to face politics and even if they disagree with me on everything they appreciate the fact that I'm right there with them, listening to what they have to say," McNerney said.