Meg Whitman v. Jerry Brown Debate

by Jack Lee

Brown went on the attack early in the debate citing Whitman’s tax breaks to rich and corporations and claiming it will come directly from the schools. “I don’t want to further enrich millionaires and billionaires.” Brown said. But, he told a half truth about the school money, there’s nothing in Whitman’s plan to take money directly from the school budget. Granted, when money is taken from the general fund it could impact school funding, but Brown stretched the truth a bit.

Later on Brown told another half-truth when he said that Whitman wants to suspend the state’s climate change law. Whitman came out this week against Proposition 23, the ballot measure which would all but kill Dan Logue’s Assembly Bill 32 because it would suspend it until the state’s unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters.

Whitman made a come back of sorts when she advocated the death penalty, which has always been popular with the citizens of this state and her “tougher laws” approach was good too. “I will appoint conservative judges” contrasts with old Jerry Brown’s record of appointing liberal judges, anyone remember Chief Justice Rose Bird? I do, she was a nighmare for law enforcement back then. She started a citizens backlash where people started asking for victim’s rights – Bird was focused on protecting the rights of criminals.

Whitman said Brown’s idea of creating green jobs to save the economy was a fantasy. She pointed out that only about 3% of the state’s economy involves conservation, she advocated helping businesses start hiring and cut through the red tape like Texas.

By the close of the debate both candidates managed to avoid talking about specifics on our budget issues and almost any other topic too. They were both engaging in party rhetoric and sloganeering. However, Whitman pointed out that state hired 33,000 during this recession and she said of Brown and the state’s budget…”Like putting Count Dracula in charge of the blood bank.” But, how much control does the Governor have over the budget? Not that much, just ask Arnold.

Brown fired right back and slammed Whitman for exempting cops and firefighters from pension reform and said, “When confronted by powerful forces she caves.” Police and Fire pensions are the most costly in the state and it’s a good place to start pension reform, but apparently not if Whitman is elected and who thinks Brown would be any better? He’s in the tank for state employee unions who have given him millions for his campaign.

Whitman said she supported the recently failed $11 billion water bond and she admitted it had some pork. Her response to this admission was, “Sometimes perfect is the enemy of progress.” Not an original line, but it worked.

There is one major defining issue between these candidates and its water. Whitman supports a canal and Brown said he wants to be sure it’s absolutely needed and that it would not cause environmental harm. It’s ironic that Brown championed the Peripheral Canal as governor and worked his tail off to get it approved. Unfortunately, voters rejected it in 1982 – Brown was right and if we had gone forward it would have saved a lot of farms from ruin in the central valley region. Brown said if he did vote for it, and that “users should pay” and this was my idea when I ran for Assembly. Does anyone know where Whitman is on the “end user pays” idea? I have no clue.

This was their first debate and I hope both candidates will be reflective and learn from it and the next debate should be more telling. Whitman started out a little nervous, and who wouldn’t? But, to her credit she gain momentum the longer she was on stage.

Brown sounded more confident and perhaps more genuine, but he lost his focus a few times, not unusual for a man of his years.

Whitman needs to avoid restating old policy points and get with the specifics. I like her to explain more about how she would give a billion tax dollars to the UC system and let them determine how it’s spent. That struck me as plan for disaster. She also need to take on Brown’s past performance more, he’s a career politician and wide open for a legacy of blunders. If Whitman doesn’t and sticks on old talking points absent details she is going to go stale and her poll numbers will falter.