Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown
31st Attorney General of California
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 9, 2007
Governor	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Preceded by	Bill Lockyer
44th Mayor of Oakland
In office January 4, 1999 – January 8, 2007
Preceded by	Elihu Harris
Succeeded by	Ron Dellums
34th Governor of California
In office January 6, 1975 – January 3, 1983
Lieutenant	Mervyn Dymally Mike Curb
Preceded by	Ronald Reagan
Succeeded by	George Deukmejian
24th Secretary of State of California
In office January 4, 1971 – January 6, 1975
Governor	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	H. P. Sullivan (Acting)
Succeeded by	March Fong Eu
Born	April 7, 1938 (1938-04-07) (age 72) San Francisco, United States
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Anne Gust
Residence	Oakland, California
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley Yale Law School
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American politician. He is a former California Governor (1975–1983), having been preceded by Ronald Reagan, and was also the Secretary of State of California. Currently serving as California's Attorney General, he is facing former eBay CEO Meg Whitman for Governor of California in the 2010 general election, having won the June Democratic primary against nominal opposition.

Brown has had a lengthy political career, spanning terms on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees (1969–1971), as California Secretary of State (1971–1975), as Governor of California (1975–1983), as chair of the California Democratic Party (1989–1991), the Mayor of Oakland (1998–2006), and the Attorney General of California (2007–present). He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nominations for president in 1976, 1980, and 1992, and was an unsuccessful Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in 1982. Since Brown's terms in office are not covered by the term limits that came into effect in 1990, he is not barred from running for Governor again.^[1]

Early life and education

Brown was born in San Francisco, California, the only son of Bernice Layne Brown and former San Francisco lawyer, district attorney and later Democratic governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, Sr. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1955 and studied at Santa Clara University. In 1956, he entered Sacred Heart Novitiate, a Jesuit seminary, intending to become a Catholic priest. However, Brown left the seminary and entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics in 1961. Brown went on to Yale Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1964.

After law school, Brown worked as a law clerk for Supreme Court of California Justice Mathew Tobriner and studied in Mexico and Latin America.

Legal career and entrance into politics

Brown returned to California, but initially failed the state bar exam.^[2] After passing the exam, Brown settled in Los Angeles, California and joined the law firm of Tuttle & Taylor. In the late 1960s, he entered politics by organizing migrant workers and anti-Vietnam War groups which garnered him support from California's young liberals. In 1969, he ran for the newly created Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, which oversaw community colleges in the city, and placed first in a field of 124.

In 1970, Brown was elected California Secretary of State. Brown used the position, which was historically limited in power, to bring lawsuits against corporations such as Standard Oil of California, International Telephone and Telegraph, Gulf Oil, and Mobil for violations of campaign-finance laws and argued in person before the California Supreme Court.

Brown also enforced laws requiring members of the California State Legislature to disclose sources of campaign funds and investigated allegedly falsely notarized documents that had allowed Richard Nixon to claim a large tax deduction.^[3] Brown also played an important role in the drafting and passage of the California Fair Political Practices Act.^[4] These highly-publicized actions resulted in statewide acclaim, and led to his election as governor in the next statewide election.

Governorship

Official gubernatorial portrait of Jerry Brown^[5]

In 1974, Brown was elected Governor of California, succeeding the Republican Governor Ronald Reagan, who was retiring from office after serving two terms, and who had become governor after defeating Brown's father, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, Sr., in the 1966 election. Jerry Brown took office on January 6, 1975.^[6]

Upon taking office, Brown gained a reputation as a fiscal conservative.^[7][8] The American Conservative noted he was "much more of a fiscal conservative than Governor Reagan."^[8] His fiscal restraint resulted in one of the biggest budget surpluses in state history.^[8] He was both in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment and opposed to Proposition 13, the latter of which would decrease property taxes and greatly reduce revenue to cities and counties. When Proposition 13 passed, he heavily cut state spending and used much of the surplus his government had built up, roughly $5 billion, to meet the proposition's requirements and help offset the revenue losses.^[9][8] His actions in response to the proposition earned him praise from Proposition 13 author Howard Jarvis who went as far to campaign for Brown's successful reelection bid in 1978.^[9]

As for his personal life, Brown refused many of the privileges and trappings of the office, forgoing the newly constructed governor's residence (which was sold in 1983) and instead renting a modest apartment at the corner of 14th and N Streets, adjacent to Capitol Park in downtown Sacramento.^[10] Instead of riding as a passenger in a chauffeured limousine as previous governors had done, Brown was driven to work in a compact sedan, a Plymouth Satellite.^[11][12]

Brown at premiere of Sylvester Stallone's movie F.I.S.T. in 1978

During his two-term, eight-year governorship, Brown had a strong interest in environmental issues. Brown appointed J. Baldwin to work in the newly created California Office of Appropriate Technology, Sim Van der Ryn as State Architect, and Stewart Brand as Special Advisor. He appointed John Bryson, later the CEO of Southern California Edison Electric Company and a founding member of the Natural Resources Defense Council, chairman of the California State Water Board in 1976. Brown reorganized the California Arts Council, boosting its funding by 1300 percent and appointing artists to the council.^[13]

In 1975, Brown obtained the repeal of the "depletion allowance", a tax break for the state's oil industry, despite the efforts of the lobbyist Joe Shell, a former intraparty rival to Richard M. Nixon. The decisive vote against the allowance was cast in the California State Senate by the usually pro-business Republican Senator Robert S. Stevens. Shell claimed that Stevens had promised him that he would support keeping the allowance: "He had shaken my hand and told me he was with me." Brown later rewarded Stevens with a judicial appointment, but Stevens was driven from the bench for making salacious telephone calls.^[14]

Brown appointed more women and minorities to office than any other previous California governor.^[13]

In 1982, Brown unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate. He lost to then San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson, who later became Governor of California.

Like his father, Brown strongly opposed the death penalty and vetoed it as Governor, which the legislature overrode in 1977. He also appointed judges who opposed capital punishment. In 1960, he lobbied his father, then Governor, to spare the life of Caryl Chessman and reportedly won a 60-day stay for him.^[15][16] Currently, as Attorney General, he is obligated to represent the state in fighting death penalty appeals and stated that he will follow the law, regardless of his personal beliefs.^[15]

Brown was succeeded as governor by George Deukmejian, then the Attorney General of California, in 1982.

Governor Moonbeam nickname

As Governor, Brown proposed the establishment of a state space academy and the purchasing of a satellite that would be launched into orbit to provide emergency communications for the state—a proposal similar to one that was indeed eventually adopted. In 1979, an out-of-state columnist, Mike Royko, then at the Chicago Sun-Times, nicknamed Brown "Governor Moonbeam".^[17] A year later Royko expressed his regret for creating the nickname^[18] and in 1991 he disavowed it entirely, proclaiming Brown to be just as serious as any other politician.^[19][20]

Electoral history

1976 presidential campaign

While serving as governor, Brown twice ran for the Democratic nomination for president. The first time, in 1976, Brown entered the race in March after the primary season had begun, and over a year after some candidates had started campaigning. He declared: "The country is rich, but not so rich as we have been led to believe. The choice to do one thing may preclude another. In short, we are entering an era of limits."^[21][22]

Brown's name began appearing on primary ballots in May and he won a big victory in Maryland, followed by Nevada, and his home state of California.^[23] Brown missed the deadline in Oregon, but he ran as a write in candidate and finished a strong third behind Carter and Senator Frank Church of Idaho, another late candidate. Brown is often credited with winning the New Jersey and Rhode Island primaries, but in reality, uncommitted slates of delegates that Brown advocated in those states finished first. With support from Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards Brown won a majority of delegates at the Louisiana delegate selection convention, thus Louisiana was the only southern state to not support Southerners Carter or Alabama Governor George Wallace. Despite this success, he was unable to stall Carter's momentum, and his rival was nominated on the first ballot at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Brown finished third with roughly 300 delegate votes, narrowly behind Congressman Morris Udall and well behind Carter. Brown's name was placed in nomination by United Farm Workers President, Cesar Chavez.

1980 presidential campaign

Governor Brown in 1978

In 1980, Brown challenged Carter for renomination. His candidacy had been anticipated by the press ever since he won reelection in 1978 over the Republican Evelle Younger by the biggest margin in California history, 1.3 million votes, but he had trouble gaining traction in both fundraising and polling. This was widely believed to be the result of the more prominent candidacy of liberal icon Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Brown's 1980 platform, which he declared to be the natural result of combining Buckminster Fuller's visions of the future and E.F. Schumacher's theory of "Buddhist economics", was much expanded from 1976. Gone was his "era of limits" slogan, replaced by a promise to, in his words, "Protect the Earth, serve the people, and explore the universe." Three main planks of his platform were a call for a constitutional convention to ratify the Balanced Budget Amendment, a promise to increase funds for the space program, and, in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, opposition to nuclear power.

On the subject of the 1979 energy crisis, Brown decried the "Faustian bargain" that he claimed Carter had entered into with the oil industry, and declared that he would greatly increase federal funding of research into solar power. He endorsed the idea of mandatory non-military national service for the nation's youth, and suggested that the Defense Department cut back on support troops while beefing-up the number of combat troops. He described the health care industry as a "high priesthood" engaged in a "medical arms race" and called for a market-oriented system of universal health care.

As his campaign began to attract more and more members of what some more conservative commentators described as "the fringe", including activists like Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, and Jesse Jackson, Brown's polling numbers began to suffer. He received only 10% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary and he was soon forced to announce that his decision to remain in the race would hinge on a good showing in the Wisconsin primary. Although he had polled well there throughout the primary season, a disastrous and bizarre attempt at filming a live, special effects-filled, thirty-minute commercial (produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola) led to the melt-down of his candidacy. He received just 12% of the vote in the primary. He withdrew from the race the next day, having spent $2 million, won no primaries, and received exactly one delegate to the convention.

Defeat and return

In 1982, Brown chose not to seek a third term as Governor. Instead, he ran for the U.S. Senate for the seat being vacated by Republican S.I. Hayakawa. That year, his alleged mishandling of a medfly infestation of the state's fruit farms sent his approval ratings into a nosedive, and he was defeated by Republican San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson by a margin of 52% to 45%. Republican George Deukmejian, a Brown critic, narrowly won the governorship in 1982, succeeding Brown, and was reelected overwhelmingly in 1986. After his Senate defeat in 1982, many considered Brown's political career to be over. During the 1980s, Brown traveled to Japan to study Buddhism, studying with Christian/Zen practitioner Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle under Yamada Koun-roshi. He also visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, where he ministered to the sick in one of her hospices.

Upon his return from abroad in 1988, he announced that he would stand as a candidate to become chairman of the California Democratic Party. Brown won the position in 1989 against the less experienced Steve Westly, who criticized Brown as the candidate of monied interests.

Brown experienced an abbreviated tenure that could best be described as controversial. He greatly expanded the party's donor base and enlarged its coffers, with a focus on grassroots organizing and get out the vote drives, but was criticized for not spending enough money on TV ads, which was felt to have contributed to Democratic losses in several close races in 1990. In early 1991, Brown abruptly resigned his post and announced that he would run for the Senate seat held by the retiring Alan Cranston. Although Brown consistently led in the polls for both the nomination and the general election, he quickly abandoned the campaign, deciding instead to run for the presidency for a third time.

1992 presidential campaign

When he announced his intention to run for president against President George H.W. Bush, many in the media and his own party dismissed his campaign as an ego-trip with little chance of gaining significant support. Ignoring them, Brown embarked on an ultra-grassroots campaign to, in his words, "take back America from the confederacy of corruption, careerism, and campaign consulting in Washington". To the surprise of many, Brown was able to tap a populist streak in the Democratic Party.

In his stump speech, first used while officially announcing his candidacy on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Brown told listeners that he would only be accepting campaign contributions from individuals and that he would accept no contribution over 100 dollars. Continuing with his populist reform theme, he assailed what he dubbed "the bipartisan Incumbent Party in Washington" and called for term limits for members of Congress. Citing various recent scandals on Capitol Hill, particularly the recent House banking scandal and the large congressional pay-raises from 1990, he promised to put an end to Congress being a "Stop-and-Shop for the monied special interests".

As he campaigned in various primary states, Brown would eventually expand his platform beyond a policy of strict campaign finance reform. Although he would focus on a variety of issues throughout the campaign, most especially his endorsement of living wage laws and his opposition to free trade agreements such as North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), he mostly concentrated on his tax policy, which had been created specifically for him by Arthur Laffer, the famous supporter of supply-side economics who created the Laffer curve. This plan, which called for the replacement of the progressive income tax with a flat tax and a value added tax, both at a fixed 13% rate, was decried by his opponents as regressive. Nevertheless, it was endorsed by The New York Times, The New Republic, and Forbes, and its raising of taxes on corporations and elimination of various loopholes which tended to favor the very wealthy, proved to be popular with voters. This was, perhaps, not surprising, as various opinion polls taken at the time found that as many as three-quarters of all Americans believed the current tax code to be unfairly biased toward the wealthy.

Quickly realizing that his campaign's limited budget meant that he could not afford to engage in conventional advertising, Brown began to use a mixture of alternative media and unusual fundraising techniques. Unable to pay for actual commercials, Brown used frequent cable television and talk radio interviews as a form of free media to get his message to the voters. In order to raise funds, he purchased a toll-free telephone number, (the same number is still in use by Brown) which adorned all of his campaign paraphernalia. During the campaign, Brown's constant repetition of this number (at rallies, during interviews, and in the middle of debates), combined with the ultra-moralistic language he used, led some to describe him as a "political televangelist".

Despite poor showings in the Iowa caucus (1.6%) and the New Hampshire primary (8.0%), Brown soon managed to win narrow victories in Maine, Colorado, Nevada, Alaska, and Vermont, but he continued to be considered an also-ran for much of the campaign. It was not until shortly after Super Tuesday, when the field had been narrowed to Brown, former Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and frontrunning Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, that Brown began to emerge as a major contender in the eyes of the press.

On March 17, Brown forced Tsongas from the race when he received a strong third-place showing in the Illinois primary and then defeated the senator for second place in the Michigan primary by a wide margin. Exactly one week later, he cemented his position as a major threat to Clinton when he eked out a narrow win in the bitterly-fought Connecticut primary.

As the press now focused on the primaries in New York and Wisconsin, which were both to be held on the same day, Brown, who had taken the lead in polls in both states, made a serious gaffe: he announced to an audience of various leaders of New York City's Jewish community that, if nominated, he would consider the Reverend Jesse Jackson as a vice-presidential candidate. Jackson, who had made a pair of comments that were perceived to be anti-Semitic about Jews in general and New York City's Jews in particular while running for president in 1984, was still a widely hated figure in that community and Brown's polling numbers suffered. On April 7, he lost narrowly to Bill Clinton in Wisconsin (37–34), and dramatically in New York (41–26).

Although Brown continued to campaign in a number of states, he won no further primaries. Despite this, he still had a sizable number of delegates, and a big win in his home state of California would deprive Clinton of sufficient support to win the nomination, possibly bringing about a brokered convention. After nearly a month of intense campaigning and multiple debates between the two candidates, Clinton managed to defeat Brown in this final primary by a margin of 48% to 41%. Although he did not win the nomination, Brown was able to boast of one accomplishment: At the following month's Democratic National Convention, he received the votes of 596 delegates on the first ballot, more than any other candidate but Clinton. He spoke at the convention and to the nation without endorsing Clinton by seconding his own nomination.

Jerry Brown was the first political figure to criticize Bill Clinton over the Whitewater controversy during the 1992 Democratic Presidential primary season.^[24]

Radio show host

Beginning in 1995, Brown hosted a daily call-in talk show on the local Pacifica Radio station, KPFA-FM, in Berkeley. Both the radio program and Brown's political action organization, based in Oakland, were called We the People. His programs, usually featuring invited guests, generally explored alternative views on a wide range of social and political issues, from education and health care to spirituality and the death penalty. He strongly critiqued both the Democratic and Republican parties, often referring to himself as a "recovering politician" (a phrase intended as an analogy to the term "recovering alcoholic").

Oakland mayoral campaign

In early 1998, Brown announced that he was leaving the Democratic Party and changed his party registration to "Decline to State". He terminated his radio show that same year in order to run for the nonpartisan office of Mayor of Oakland. All municipal and county offices in California are by law nonpartisan, but candidates can be registered with any party they wish.

Prior to taking office, Brown also campaigned to get the approval of the electorate to convert Oakland's weak mayor political structure, which structured the mayor as chairman of the city council and official greeter, to a strong mayor structure, where the mayor would act as chief executive over the nonpolitical city manager and thus the various city departments, and break tie votes on the Oakland City Council.

Mayor of Oakland

Then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown (left) with Senator Dianne Feinstein (middle) and then-San Francisco Supervisor Gavin Newsom (right) in Feinstein's Washington Office. Both were considered possible challengers for Brown in the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Within a few weeks of Brown's January 1999 inauguration, one of his first acts as Mayor of Oakland was to invite the United States Marine Corps to stage war games titled "Urban Warrior" in the defunct Oakland Army Base and on the closed grounds of the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital after access to the Presidio of San Francisco was rescinded due to the protests of bay area residents and Presidio caretakers.^[25] At least one hundred bay-area citizens and anti-military activists rallied against the exercise.^[26]

Other efforts included acquiring millions of dollars in state and federal funding to open two charter schools, one of which was a charter military school.

As Mayor of Oakland Brown took on a new centrist ideology. He explained this shift was necessary due to the realities of being a big-city mayor with real problems. After having left the Democratic Party because he felt that it no longer stood up for progressive ideals, Brown re-registered as a Democrat shortly thereafter. In 2000, Brown endorsed Al Gore for President shortly before the California primary.^[27]

10K redevelopment doctrine

Brown continued his predecessor Elihu Harris's public policy of supporting downtown housing development in the area defined as the Central Business District in Oakland's 1998 General Plan.^[28] Since Brown worked toward the stated goal of bringing an additional 10,000 residents to Downtown Oakland, his plan was known as "10K." It has resulted in redevelopment projects in the Jack London District, where Brown purchased and later sold an industrial warehouse which he used as a personal residence, and in the Lakeside Apartments District near Lake Merritt. The 10k plan has touched the historic Old Oakland district, the Chinatown district, the Uptown district, and Downtown.

Attorney general

Election

In early 2004, Brown expressed his interest to be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of California in the 2006 election. On May 18, 2004, he formally filed the necessary papers to begin his campaign for the nomination.

Brown had an active Democratic primary opponent, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. Delgadillo put most of his money into TV ads attacking Brown and spent $4.1 million on the primary campaign. Brown defeated Delgadillo, 63% to 37%. In the general election, Brown defeated Republican State Senator Charles Poochigian 56.3% to 38.2%, which was the largest margin of victory in any statewide California race except the US Senate in which Dianne Feinstein's opponent did not mount a strong challenge.^[29]

In the final weeks leading up to Election Day, Brown's eligibility to run for Attorney General was challenged in what Brown called a "political stunt by a Republican office seeker" (Contra Costa County Republican Central Committee chairman and state GOP vice-chair candidate Tom Del Beccaro). Republican plaintiffs claimed Brown did not meet California's eligibility requirements for the office of Attorney General: according to California Government Code §12503, "No person shall be eligible to the office of Attorney General unless he shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the state for a period of at least five years immediately preceding his election or appointment to such office." Legal analysts called the lawsuit frivolous because Brown was admitted to practice law in the State of California on June 14, 1965, and had been so admitted to practice ever since. Although ineligible to practice law because of his voluntary inactive status in the State Bar of California from January 1, 1997 to May 1, 2003, he was nevertheless still admitted to practice. Because of this difference the case was eventually thrown out.^[30][31]

Norman Hsu affair

Attorney General Brown's office played a role in events surrounding prominent Democratic Party fundraiser Norman Hsu in 2007. Hsu had voluntarily returned to California in response to a 1992 warrant for failing to appear for sentencing in a fraud conviction.^[32] Brown's office negotiated a 50% reduction in bail with Hsu's attorneys, but the court did not accept the agreement and imposed the full $2 million bail specified in the arrest warrant.^[33][34] Additionally, Brown's office did not challenge releasing Hsu on bail without turning in his passport. After being released on bail, Hsu fled the state with his passport.^[35] Hsu was quickly apprehended by federal authorities in Colorado.^[36]

Brown received a $3,000 political contribution from an associate of Norman Hsu in 2005,^[37] and a lawsuit filed against Hsu by an Orange County investment company alleged that Brown praised Hsu at a 2006 Democratic Party event.^[38] Brown's spokesman stated that Brown may have stopped briefly at the event but did not praise Hsu "or in any way vouch for him."^[38]

Proposition 8

Brown in 2009

Brown declined to defend Proposition 8, a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution that banned same-sex marriage, as he himself opposed the amendment.^[39] On May 26, 2009 the California Supreme Court voted 6–1 to uphold Proposition 8.^[40] On August 4, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Proposition 8 violated the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.^[41]

2010 gubernatorial campaign

Brown announced his candidacy for governor on March 2, 2010.^[42]

First indicating his interest in early 2008, Brown formed an exploratory committee in order to seek a third term as Governor in 2010, following the expiration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's current term.^[43] The fact that he has served two terms already does not affect him because Proposition 140 does not apply to those who served as Governor before the law passed in 1990.

Should Brown be re-elected, it will mark the longest period (nearly 28 years) one person has elapsed between serving two non-consecutive periods as governor in California. He would also become the oldest governor of California at the time of inauguration (surpassing Frank Merriam), and, should he serve a full four-year term, would surpass Earl Warren as California's longest-serving governor.^[44]

Personal life

A bachelor as governor and mayor, Brown achieved some prominence in gossip columns for dating high-profile women, the most notable of whom was the singer Linda Ronstadt.^[45]

Brown has a long term friendship with Jacques Barzaghi, his aide-de-camp, whom he met in the early 1970s and put on his payroll. Author Roger Rapaport wrote in his 1982 Brown biography California Dreaming: The Political Odyssey of Pat & Jerry Brown, "this combination clerk, chauffeur, fashion consultant, decorator and trusted friend had no discernible powers. Yet late at night, after everyone had gone home to their families and TV consoles, it was Jacques who lingered in the Secretary (of state's) office." Barzaghi and his sixth wife Aisha, lived with Brown in the warehouse in Jack London Square and was brought into Oakland city government upon Brown's election as mayor, where Barzaghi first acted as the mayor's armed bodyguard. Brown later rewarded Barzaghi with high-paying city jobs, including "Arts Director." Brown dismissed Barzaghi in July 2004.^[46]

In March 2005, Brown announced his engagement to his girlfriend since 1990, Anne Gust, former chief counsel for The Gap. They were married on June 18 in a ceremony officiated by Senator Dianne Feinstein in the Rotunda Building in downtown Oakland. They had a second, religious ceremony later in the day in the Roman Catholic church in San Francisco where Brown's parents had been married. Brown and Gust live near downtown Oakland, at the former Sears Roebuck Building, with their black Labrador, Dharma.

Political criticism of Brown

Voters passed Proposition 13 during Brown's tenure as governor, and Brown was criticized for not decreasing the state's surplus by cutting property taxes and thereby paving the way for the success of the proposition. Wrote Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post, "As incomes and property values rose, Sacramento's tax revenue soared—but the parsimonious Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, neither spent those funds nor rebated them. With the state sitting on a $5 billion surplus, frustrated Californians grumped to the polls and passed Proposition 13, which rolled back and then froze property taxes—effectively destroying the funding base of local governments and school districts, which thereafter depended largely on Sacramento for their revenue. Ranked fifth among the states in per-pupil spending during the 1950s and '60s, California sank to the mid-40s by the 1990s."^[47]

In 2006, the murder rate in Oakland in the first two months was triple the same period in 2005,^[48] leading some critics to suggest that Brown had failed to make the city safer.^[49] His campaigns to fix the schools, fill downtown with residents, create an "arts" city and curb crime have had mixed success.

The song "California Über Alles" by the Dead Kennedys is sung from the perspective of Jerry Brown during his tenure as Governor. The song has Brown painting a picture of a hippie-fascist state, satirizing what they considered his mandating of liberal ideas in a fascist manner. Lyricist Jello Biafra later said in an interview with Nardwuar that he now feels different about Brown, as it turned out he wasn't as bad as he thought he would be.^[50]

In 2008, the First Amendment Coalition requested access to Brown's gubernatorial records.^[51] After leaving the governorship, Brown helped seal his records and those of future governors for a 50-year (or death) secrecy period.^[52] He has been urged to release his records before the election and to help shorten or eliminate the secrecy period.^[53]

References

Bibliography

• Bollens, John C. and G. Robert Williams. Jerry Brown: In a Plain Brown Wrapper (Pacific Palisades, California: Palisades Publishers, 1978). ISBN 0-913530-12-3
• Brown, Governor Jerry. Thoughts (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1976)
• Brown, Jerry. Dialogues (Berkeley, California: Berkeley Hills Books, 1998). ISBN 0-9653774-9-0
• Bachelis, Faren Maree (1986), The Pelican Guide to Sacramento and the Gold Country, Pelican, ISBN 0882894978, http://books.google.com/books?id=0amolLa9xGkC 
• Lorenz, J. D. Jerry Brown: The Man on the White Horse (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1978). ISBN 0-395-25767-0
• McDonald, Heather. "Jerry Brown’s No-Nonsense New Age for Oakland", City Journal, Vol. 9, No. 4, Autumn 1999.
• Pack, Robert. Jerry Brown, The Philosopher-Prince (New York: Stein and Day, 1978). ISBN 0-8128-2437-7
• Rapoport, Roger. California Dreaming: The Political Odyssey of Pat & Jerry Brown (Berkeley, CA: Nolo Press, 1982) ISBN 0-917316-48-7
• Schell, Orville. Brown (New York: Random House, 1978). ISBN 0-394-41043-2

External links

• Office of California Attorney General Jerry Brown official California government site
• Jerry Brown 2010 official gubernatorial campaign site
• Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown official biography from the State of California
• Biography, interest group ratings, public statements, vetoes and campaign finances at Project Vote Smart
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Campaign contributions at FollowTheMoney.org
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Blog at TypePad (last entry October 8, 2005)
• Blog at Huffington Post (last entry October 21, 2009)
• "For Many, Jerry Brown Is the Life of the Party, John Balzar, Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2006
• Newsmaker of the Week: Jerry Brown, SCVTV, May 31, 2006 (video interview 30:00)
• "Jerry Brown envisions still another public role", Christian Science Monitor, November 6, 2006
• "New office, but vintage Jerry Brown, Tim Reiterman, Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2007
• "Sacramento Dreaming Again, George F. Will, The Washington Post, August 7, 2008

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