In a debate Saturday morning mired by technical difficulties, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman lashed out at Democrat Jerry Brown for helping bring to light the handling of her former housekeeper.

"You should be ashamed for sacrificing Nicky Diaz on the altar of your political ambitions," Whitman said to Brown during the debate held in Fresno, according to the Fresno Bee's John Ellis. She later re-emphasized a point she made on Fox News Saturday that no one will care about Nicky Diaz, her former housekeeper, after the Nov. 2 midterm elections.

Brown responded that Whitman is blaming everyone but herself, showing a lack of accountability as a leader.

"You can't be a leader unless you’re willing to stand on your own two feet and say, yup, I made a mistake and I’m going on from here,'" he said.

A tape-delayed broadcast of the debate will air on Univision at 4 p.m. Saturday. The broadcast will be in Spanish, though closed-captioning in English will be available. The live debate endured about a 40-minute delay in the middle because of trouble with the in-house English-Spanish translation system. Questions were read in Spanish, translated to English for the candidates, answered in English and then translated back to Spanish. The candidates left the stage during the delay.

Brown used the debate to highlight his green jobs plan, which could prove important for swaying voters in Fresno and other Central Valley cities with high unemployment. Brown was also quick to mention that he was the one who signed the bill in 1975 that gave farmworkers the chance to collectively bargain. Farmworkers had been excluded from the original FDR-era National Labor Relations Act. 

The next debate takes place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12 from Dominican University in the Bay Area. NBC's Tom Brokaw moderates.

Reach executive producer Paresh Dave here. Follow him on Twitter @peard33.

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