Candidates Take Stage For Final California Gubernatorial Debate
High profile candidates Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman took the stage Tuesday for the final debate of California’s race for governor.
Tom Brokaw moderated the hour long discussion from Dominican University in San Rafael.
The candidates went back and forth on several issues drawing clear differences between the two.
Their strategies were clear.
Republican Whitman said the California dream is dying and can only be saved with new ideas and not lifelong politicians.
Democrat Brown said he’s done this job before and has the experience to save the state.
Both candidates have been accused of going negative by focusing on personal attacks and not the issues.
The debate certainly got heated at points.
Whitman and Brown didn’t wait long to start landing blows which for some voters was a turn off.
“There’s been so much negative advertisement,” said Aleta Mendonsa, a discouraged voter. “I wish there was a third candidate — neither one of them seem like a good choice.”
Whitman slammed Brown for his response to an audiotape surfacing last week of a member in Brown inner circle calling her a “whore.”
Tom Brokaw said some woman consider that as bad as calling an African American the “N” word.
Brown apologized but said that it was an unfair comparison.
Whitman then took heat for having employing a housekeeper for nine years, only to find out that she was an illegal immigrant from Mexico.
Whitman eventually fired the housekeeper.
“We’ve all probably, you know, hired illegal immigrants and had them do our lawns or do our house cleaning and things like that because we go through agencies, and I think that’s what she did,” said Kevin Pruitt, a Whitman supporter. “I think she tried to do it in the proper manner.”
Pruitt watched the debate and said Brown is a good guy but that Whitman brings fresh ideas.
“I think she might do something with pension reform as well,” he said. “We need to, you know, watch our cost.”
“This is not a job that will allow for on the job training,” said Julie Bornstein, a former Democratic Assemblywoman for the 80th District and Brown supporter.
Brown is California’s current attorney general and former governor.
Whitman is the former CEO and president of online giant ebay.
“Governmental decision making is entirely different from private sector decision making,” said Bornstein. “We need somebody who knows the job, who does not have ambitions for higher office and who will get the job done.”
Both candidates said California’s biggest hurdle is the economy and that jobs are the number one issue.
Pruitt said Brown raised taxes as governor.
“We don’t need more taxes right now,” said Pruitt. “We need job creation and just kind of the same old thing. He’s kind of one of the good old boys I think.”
Polls show Californian’s agree that the economy is the state’s most important issue.
Election Day is just three weeks away.
