SACRAMENTO (AP) -- The president of the National Organization for Women on Wednesday called on California's candidates for governor to fire any staffer who uses the word "whore," as a campaign aide to Democrat Jerry Brown did in reference to Republican opponent Meg Whitman's efforts to win an endorsement.

NOW President Terry O'Neill also criticized Brown for saying during a debate Tuesday night that the private banter— inadvertently captured on a telephone voicemail—is the kind of thing that typically happens in a campaign.

"The word should not be used in political discourse; it shouldn't be there," O'Neill said.

In a statement specifically about Brown's campaign, O'Neill initially said "NOW calls on Brown to fire any member of his staff who uses this word or any hate speech against women."

She later clarified the release, saying she was referring to the future use of the word by any staffer in either campaign.

Brown apologized to Whitman for the comment during their debate Tuesday but also defended it, noting that it was said during a private conversation as the group discussed a police union's endorsement of Whitman.

Brown has said the union agreed to endorse her after Whitman vowed to exempt public-safety officers from her proposal to convert state government pensions to something like the 401(k) plans used in the private sector.

"It's an unfortunate, private conversation. ... So I again, Ms. Whitman, I'm sorry it happened. That does not represent anything other than things that happen in a campaign," he said during their debate.

NOW's California chapter has endorsed Brown, and O'Neill said she agrees with the endorsement.

Brown's campaign referred calls to California NOW president Patricia Bellasalma, who said the national organization was wrong to call the slur "hate speech" and said its news release was issued "without knowing all the facts."

"Pretty soon we won't even be able to use 'capitulate' or 'prostrate' because somehow there's an implication that women can't sell themselves politically," Bellasalma said in a telephone interview.

The issue surfaced last week when an official at the Los Angeles Police Protective League released the recording to the Los Angeles Times. It captured a conversation between Brown and his aides last month after he had finished leaving a voice message with the union official over the union's support for Whitman.

Brown apparently thought he had hung up but had not. He can be overhead on the tape saying Whitman was promoting a two-tiered public pension system to curry favor with the Los Angeles police union.

As he and others discuss whether to run an ad on the subject, an aide who appears to be a woman says, "What about saying she's a whore?" The word then appears to be repeated later on the tape.

O'Neill said it did not matter whether the speaker was a man or a woman.

"We live in a world of sexism and unbelievable misogynistic attacks—which was not done in this case—on women who put themselves out in the public domain in a way that men do not get," she said.

Whitman's campaign declined to comment on the relevance of a female speaker making the comment.

"The point is that he was a proactive participant in the conversation, and that is not the way you show leadership," said Whitman spokeswoman Andrea Rivera.

O'Neill said NOW feels it has a responsibility to call out public comments that are degrading to women regardless of the target's political leanings.

She cited NOW's opposition to what it considered offensive slurs about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, which the group denounced despite its strong opposition to her vice presidential run in 2008.

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