Brown and Whitman Duke It Out
In first gubernatorial debate, candidates spar, highlight their contrasting careers
From jobs to taxes, California Attorney General Jerry Brown and his rival Meg Whitman unfurled vastly different plans to solve the state's thorniest problems in a rhetorical joust marked by cutting barbs during their first gubernatorial debate Tuesday night.
The candidates tangled with each other for one hour over the state budget, immigration and soaring pension costs. The debate was set against a tense political backdrop: California is grappling with the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation, at 12.4 percent, and lawmakers are bickering over a $19 billion projected shortfall as part of next year's budget, now three months overdue.
It is not clear that either candidate emerged as the triumphant winner as they pounded each other for waffling on key public policies that have bedeviled them both: the death penalty for Brown and immigration for Whitman.
Brown, a longtime political fixture in California politics, sought to paint Whitman as a political neophyte whose experience as eBay's former chief executive officer left her ill-equipped and tone deaf.
"I've got the know-how, I've got the experience," Brown said. "My values are different, I wouldn't give millionaires and billionaires a tax break."
Whitman fired back, repeatedly addressing her Democratic opponent — a former two-term California governor — as "Governor Brown," in an apparent effort to portray him as a career politician who cannot untangle himself from labor interests, much less deliver on reform.
Whitman, the Republican nominee, has far eclipsed Brown in campaign spending by plowing $119 million of her personal fortune into her election bid — the largest personal contribution in U.S. history.
But the candidates are locked in a fractious race, with a recent poll showing Brown slightly ahead of Whitman — although the Whitman campaign promptly challenged the methodology of the poll.
"They both did an exceptional job of explaining who they are to voters, and in this way, they both won," said Larry Berman, a political science professor at the University of California, Davis, which hosted the debate. "Whitman did a good job of showing that she can take on some of these issues such as jobs and welfare. Brown did a good job of explaining why his age and experience would make him an effective governor."
The candidates diverged on both substance and delivery. Whitman stuck to her script, hammering on issues like jobs and smiling slightly at tense moments to soften her message. By contrast, Brown ducked and weaved throughout the exchange, provoking guffaws from the audience with several self-deprecating remarks about his age.
"At 74, I'm ready," Brown said. "I have a wife … I don't try to close down the bars in Sacramento like I used to do when I was governor."
Experience or not, Brown squandered a state budget surplus as governor and left Oakland public schools in shambles after his tenure as mayor there, Whitman said.
"We need a governor who knows how to get California back to work," Whitman said.
Both candidates railed against ballooning pension costs. Brown pledged to raise retirement ages and halt pension spiking — the practice of using overtime to boost one's retirement benefits. Whitman said she would also raise the retirement age and increase vesting periods.
In an oblique reference to Brown's labor backing, Whitman said: "The first thing is you cannot be beholden to public sector employees."
When asked about criticism that she was buying the governor's office, Whitman sidestepped, saying she was using her own fortune to beat back labor and other special interests.
"I have invested my own money so that I have the independence," Whitman said.
For his part, Brown defended his long-standing support from labor unions and sought to tie his opponent to the excesses of Wall Street that ravaged the economy.
As governor, "I was legendary for my frugality," Brown said. "Unions, yeah they have their problems. But what about business interests?"
On the hot-button issue of immigration, and in particular illegal immigrants living in the state, the candidates took opposite tacks.
"At the end of the day, we have a couple of million people in the shadows," Brown said. "We can't round them up and deport them … we have to find a path to citizenship."
Whitman said she would not support a path to legalization.
"We have to secure the borders," she said. "We have to hold employers accountable for hiring undocumented workers, and third, we have to eliminate sanctuary cities" such as San Francisco.
At each turn, the candidates sought to convince voters that their background would help them lead the state. Brown invoked his government pedigree while Whitman referenced her exceptional corporate trajectory.
"Much more important than their differences on the issues is their battle of the biography," said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at University of Southern California. "Both Brown and Whitman are working very hard to convince voters that their respected brands of experience are enough to qualify them to solve the state's economic difficulties."
Not a member yet? Register Now
You must sign in to post a comment.