Brown Campaign Apologizes to Whitman Over Slur
By JESSE MCKINLEY
The Los Angeles Times released a recording on Thursday night of a voice-mail message left by Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate for governor in California, in which an unidentified person apparently can be heard suggesting that his opponent, the Republican Meg Whitman, is “a whore.”
The recording — the authenticity of which the Brown campaign confirmed to The Los Angeles Times — was apparently made in early September when Mr. Brown called a police union in Los Angeles to ask for its support. In the recording, Mr. Brown leaves a message and then apparently believes he has hung up, but the call remains connected and a conversation can be heard faintly. The Los Angeles Times reports that in the recording, Mr. Brown is heard worrying aloud that he might lose the union’s endorsement to Ms. Whitman because of his position on public employee pensions.
Then an unidentified person speaks, according to the Times, saying something that sounds like, “What about saying she’s a whore?”
That statement is followed by a jumble of sounds, and then Mr. Brown is reported by newspaper to have said: “Well, I’m going to use that. It proves you’ve cut a secret deal to protect the pensions.”
The Los Angeles Times said the recording was turned over to the newspaper by the union.
Sarah Pompei, a spokeswoman for the Whitman campaign, said in a statement that the use of word whore was “an insult to both Meg Whitman and to the women of California” and “an appalling and unforgivable smear.”
Steven Glazer, Mr. Brown’s campaign manager, called the recording “jumbled and often inaudible,” but acknowledged that “at times our language was salty.”
“We apologize to Ms. Whitman and anyone who may have been offended,” Mr. Glazer said in a statement. |
