Talk about issues turned personal Tuesday in the final debate of the governor's race, as candidates Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman traded barbs on issues ranging from capital gains taxes to illegal immigration.

The candidates also sounded off on the recent controversies that have shaken what has become the most expensive governor's race in U.S. history.

Throughout the 60-minute debate held at Dominican University, Brown and Whitman repeated themes they've hammered since the June 8 primary, with the Republican painting Brown as a lackey to his union supporters, and the Democrat calling his opponent an out-of-touch billionaire former CEO.

The debate's most heated moments came as moderator Tom Brokaw let the candidates go after one another in a back-and-forth of accusations and rebuttals.

Brown, the state's attorney general and former governor, fired the first rhetorical volley by slamming Whitman's proposal to eliminate the state capital gains tax, saying it would force the state to cut education spending. The tax has generated anywhere from $3.2 billion to $11.7 billion in annual state revenues over the past decade.

He then faced Whitman onstage and said, "I'd like to ask you: How much money will you save if this tax break goes into effect this year or last year?"

Brown's supporters in the audience cheered, and Whitman responded, "I'm an investor, and investors will benefit from this and so will job creators, and I was a job creator."

She then shot back, "My business is creating jobs. Your business is politics. You've been doing this for 40 years, and you have been part of the war on jobs in this state for 40 years."

Whitman later assailed Brown's law enforcement record by highlighting his personal opposition to the death penalty and announcing the endorsement of the California Narcotics Officers Association. Brown noted he has enforced the death penalty as state attorney general, despite his personal views.

"Jerry Brown has a 40-year record of being soft on crime," Whitman said. "He appointed judges who were recalled by the voters, Rose Bird being the very best example, who were simply not fit to be a judge."

Brown responded later in the debate by touting his endorsement by the California Police Chiefs Association, although he stumbled over his words by saying, "I've got the police chiefs in my back - backing me, because they know I'm tough on crime."

Whitman laughed, saying Brown seemed to be on the verge of saying "he's got the police chiefs in his back pocket."

Brown replied, "Sometimes, unaccustomed as I am to politics, I stumble in one of my phrases."

The debate's tensest moments followed Brokaw's questions about recent controversies that have hit both candidates and made national headlines.

When asked about a campaign aide who was inadvertently recorded calling Whitman a "whore," Brown disputed Brokaw's assertion that the word was as offensive to women as "the N-word" was to African Americans. He then apologized to Whitman directly.

Whitman responded, "I think every Californian and especially women know exactly what's going on here, and that is a deeply offensive term to women."

Brown then asked Whitman, "Have you chastised your chairman, Pete Wilson, who called the Congress whores to the public-sector unions?"

Whitman responded, "You know better than that, Jerry. That's a completely different thing. The fact that you are defending your campaign for a slur and a personal attack on me is not befitting of California."

In a post-debate news conference, Whitman said she was "stunned by Gov. Brown's insensitivity to what that word means to women."

She declined to go into detail about how Wilson's use of the word was different from that of Brown's aide.

Brown, speaking to reporters in his own news conference, wouldn't identify which member of his campaign team used the word.

Brokaw also asked Whitman about her tough stance on businesses who have hired illegal immigrants despite recent revelations that she had employed an illegal immigrant housekeeper for nine years.

Whitman said, "We went through an employment agency. We looked at three forms of identification. Our housekeeper falsified those documents and came to admit it nine years later. It broke my heart, but I had to fire her."

Brown dinged Whitman's treatment of her housekeeper, saying, "after working for nine years, she didn't even get her a lawyer."

The Democrat went on to call for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

"These are real people," he said. "These are mothers and dads and kids."

Whitman doesn't support such a change but instead proposes a temporary guest worker program.

Public opinion polls show the two candidates have been locked in a close race since the June 8 primary, although Brown began building a slight lead over Whitman in some polls after the first debate was held Sept. 28 in Davis.

Whitman has invested $141.6 million of her own money in her campaign, making her the biggest self-funding candidate in U.S. history. She put in $20 million Tuesday, with the contribution recorded on the secretary of state's website just as the debate was getting under way.

Brown has spent $11 million through September. As of Tuesday, independent expenditure groups have spent $20.2 million supporting him.