Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman set for final debate
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Gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown will face off in their third and final debate Tuesday, with each looking to turn the page on recent controversies and break out of the dead heat the pair has been locked in for months.
The debate, to be staged on the campus of Dominican University in San Rafael and moderated by former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, represents the candidates’ last chance to appeal directly to a large swath of undecided and independent voters.
The event will air live at 6:30 p.m. on NBC affiliates statewide. For live updates, go to latimes.com.
Political observers noted that public perception of Whitman, a Republican, and Brown, a Democrat, has grown increasingly negative as the candidates launch attack ads and weather controversies. With Californians already casting mail-in ballots and the election three weeks away, they said, the race continues to turn more on character than policy.
“It’s their last chance for a YouTube moment,” said Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a former GOP official. “Brown is hoping to be JFK, Meg is hoping to be Ronald Reagan -– and they’re both hoping each other will end up being Dan Quayle.”
Whitman, who has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration, has struggled to move beyond revelations that she employed an undocumented housekeeper for nine years. The former EBay chief has said that she did not know the woman was in the country illegally and fired her last year upon learning of her status. Brown has used the episode to portray Whitman as a hypocrite, attempting to drive a wedge between her and Latino voters.
Brown, a former two-term governor and the state’s current attorney general, faced his own flareup last week when The Times reported that one of his campaign aides called Whitman a political “whore.” The comment, inadvertently captured on voicemail, came as Brown and his aides discussed the loss of a police endorsement to Whitman, whom they accused of cutting a deal to protect law enforcement pensions to win a union’s support.
While Brown’s campaign has apologized for the remark, Whitman has sought to make political hay. Her campaign called it an “ an unforgivable and appalling smear” and an “insult to both Meg Whitman and to the women of California.”
Some political observers predict fireworks tonight.
“This race has gotten so dirty, so negative, so personal, I think one of these candidates is going to throw a Hail Mary pass,” said Larry Berman, a political scientist at UC Davis. “They’ll make an attempt to break it open.”
-- Michael J. Mishak
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