kevin riggs, you're next. >> this goes to focus and preparation for the job. ms. witman, you have apologized for your failure to vote for much of your adult life. you have described it as atrocious, no excuse for that. my question is, has your failure to participate in california's complex initiative process left significant gaps for you in your understanding of california public policy? >> well, first of all, i will am not proud of my voting record and i have apologized for it and tonight i apologize to everyone in california. it was not the right thing to do and no one is more embarrassed by it than me. if i could change history, i would. but what i can do is tell voters about how i believe we can turn this state around. this state in an enormous mess. i am a big believer -- you know, einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results. we have to challenge the status quo in sacramento. i want to answer one of the charges governor brown just said. i have put my own money into this campaign. i have

kevin riggs with our nbc station in sacramento has the latest on what is now the longest california budget stalemate ever. >> no sense of urgency at the capital where lawmakers and the governor have taken the weekend off from talks, even though the budget is now a record breaking 80 days late. >> i find it unacceptable. >> capital visitors say the irresponsibility is appalling. >> i think if i didn't pay my bills for 80 days i would have creditors coming to my house and taking things. >> as long as they continue to screw around and take a long time and not view their job in a timely manner, they're going to be out of office real soon. >> without a budget, health care providers and other vendors are going unpaid. state workers are being furloughed, now an anti-tax group says all this pain is deliberate. >> i think this is a strategy that calls for delaying the budget until -- as much as possible to make an issue of the budget delay. >> an issue says the taxpayer's to build support for proposition 25. that measure would reduce the budget vote requirement from two thirds to a simple majority.

questions coming tonight from our panel of three journalists, amy chance from the sacramento bee, kevin riggs of kcra tv, and marion russ of capitol public radio. and as they take their seats, we should let you know that both campaigns have agreed to keep answers to less than 90 seconds and rebuttals less than 30 seconds. there was a flip of the coin who would design who would get the first question. the first question coming from amy chance. >> california has set a record this day for the delay of our state budget, and there's no end in sight. what would you say to those who say that california is ungovernable? and if it wasn't, how would you end the gridlock? >> first of all, let me say thank you to the sponsors of this debate. i'm delighted to be here tonight. i want to talk to you about how we're going to put this state back together. we have one of the most dysfunctional state governments in the country. here's my plan. first, we have to get californians back to work. if we do not put californiians back to work and bring down our 12.4% unemployment rate, there's no way out of this mess.