Commentary: Who won and who lost in Thursday night's California gubernatorial debate? Our columnists weigh in

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

For the sixth and final time before votes are counted, the leading contenders for California governor gathered Thursday night for a televised debate, this one a 90-minute session in San Francisco.Times columnists Gustavo Arellano, Mark Z.Barabak and Anita Chabria absorbed the rhetorical blows, followed the heated back-and-forths and took in each and every one of the candidates’ myriad policy prescriptions.

Here’s their assessment:Arellano: Near the end of the debate, co-moderator and San Francisco Examiner editor-in-chief Schuyler Hudak Prionas groaned as candidates talked over each other while trying to answer a question that was supposed to elicit a yes or no response.That’s pretty much how California voters have reacted to this primary.In an era where politics are far too often about choosing the least worst option, voters in this election are left with the political version of the Angels baseball team.No candidate has polled higher than 20-some percent — a testament to how many are in the running, but also an indication that none of them has truly captured the zeitgeist of today’s California.This year’s debates have done little to catapult anyone to the top, and tonight was more of the same.

I still don’t know who I’m going to vote for, and no one inspired me to side with them.No one offered a clear vision of how they would pull Californians out of a spiritual malaise that has so many of us leaving the state, or thinking about leaving.Instead, what I heard too many of the candidates evoke was the glories of the past — their past.The social media blowback exploded like a digital Montezuma’s revenge.

Some noted that “street tacos” are made with corn tortillas and bought from a food truck or street stall.Antonio Villaraigosa’s closing remarks made a mantra out of “Dream with me,” a slogan he used back when he was L.A.mayor — that was 13 years a...