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Jerry Brown shows O.C. his moderate, populist side
October 30th, 2009, 12:35 pm · 30 Comments · posted by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter
Taking the stage at UC Irvine’s Crystal Cove Auditorium on Thursday, Jerry Brown presented himself as a pragmatic, moderate populist and governmental elder.
The former governor (1975-1983), former Oakland mayor (1998-2006), and current attorney general leads each of the declared candidates for next year’s gubernatorial election by at least 20 percentage points, according to an October Field Poll. And he hasn’t yet formally announced his candidacy.
He noted that he had been the state’s youngest governor in 110 years and, if elected next year, would at age 72 become the state’s oldest ever.
“When I was there the first time, I was, ‘Throw them out. Let’s get fresh blood. Let’s get somebody with hair on their head,’” the bare-domed Brown deadpanned during his 1 1/4-hour talk. “Now the shoe’s on the other foot.”
Because he’s so far out in front, Brown doesn’t yet need to officially declare his candidacy and join Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner, Tom Campbell and Gavin Newsom in relentless early campaigning up and down the state.
He also doesn’t have to box himself into corners on issues. While he discussed budget, business, water, prisons and education, he offered few details about what his approach would be. And he noted an advantage in laying low for the time being.
“The more they (voters) see, the less the like,” he quipped.
But he did address Proposition 13 - the property tax limit - and taxes.
“I don’t think taking on Prop. 13 is viable,” said Brown, who was on hand as part of speaker’s series at the school. “I don’t think it (change) is needed. I don’t think it’s desirable.”
And he noted a pragmatism to that approach.
“As a candidate, if you even peep about a tax, you’re dead,” he said. “We’ve got to downsize government to the maximum degree. We’ve got to make it efficient and bring it to the community.”
Brown said he opposed reducing the two-thirds majority vote required for tax hikes, but said he was more open to reducing the two-thirds majority vote needed to approve the budget. He voiced support for the state’s three-strikes law, remained uncommitted on a public option for health care, and said he supported a path toward legalizing those now in the country illegally.
He added that we need to work with Mexico to address the problem of illegal immigration.
“We need to pay attention to helping Mexico create jobs,” he said. “They’re a lot closer to us than Iraq or Afghanistan, and look at all the money we’re spending there.”
Brown spoke adamantly and pragmatically about his support for the existing initiative process, which some have said should have limits placed on it to limit voters’ ability to spend the state’s money through the ballot box.
Brown noted that voters would have to approve giving up their existing power - and called those who were wary of voters’ power “elitists.”
“The people have the right to decide,” he said. “I’m going to put my stake with the people, not the elitists.”
He expressed both a cynicism and a hope for politics in California, commenting that the often-successful tactic of negative campaigning.
“It doesn’t matter so much what you’re for as it does showing how bad your opponent is,” he said. He said campaigns focus on opponents flaws, then “repeat it over and over in television ads.
“The key deciders in elections are the people who are least engaged, because the other people have already made up their minds. But I don’t want to insult them, because I need their vote….
“They’re making their decision based on 30-second commercials during ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I don’t watch that myself. Well, not too much….
“In this state, we have a lot of potential. We have to remind people what brought them here.”
He said there was a need for more politicians to work across the aisle.
“Something’s got to be done,” he said. “It can’t be done by one party or the other. There’s got to be a coming together of different groups that don’t like each other. I’m confident that will happen…. We need a new design of how government works. We’ve got to summon up the courage to make the changes.”
More than two hundred people were on hand for Brown’s appearance and while there were plenty of empty seats, VIPs in attendance included prominent Orange County Republicans George Arygros and Marian Bergeson.
More about the gubernatorial race:
GOP governor candidates tangle in Irvine
Field Poll: Brown way out front in governor’s race
Columnist attacks Whitman’s budget math
My Q&A with Meg Whitman
My Q&A with Tom Campbell
My Q&A with Steve Poizner
My Q&A with Gavin Newsom
GOP candidate hopes to outrun the ghost of voting past
Democrats in background of 3 GOP governor candidates
Governor candidates wary of citizens’ power
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DENA BUNIS, Washington bureau chief, 202-628-6381 or dbunis@ocregister.com
CHRIS KNAP, Politics team leader, 714-796-2240 or cknap@ocregister.com
BRIAN JOSEPH, Sacramento correspondent, 916-449-6046 or bjoseph@ocregister.com
JENNIFER MUIR, County government reporter, 714-796-7813 or jmuir@ocregister.com
MARTIN WISCKOL, Politics reporter, 714-285-2867 or mwisckol@ocregister.com twitter.com/MartinWisckol
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i dont mind jerry brown. he seems okay on some things.
Considering what we have to choose from - It looks like we’re in for another term with ‘Moonbeam’ ! The Republican’s can’t seem to pull in a serious candidate. Meg Whitman? Is this a candidate or a joke? Is anyone else tired of those who feel they should be in office because they are rich?
The nickname “Gov. Moonbeam” should be considered a badge of honor by Brown. He earned that once-upon-a-time put-down by being years ahead of his time in foreseeing the concept of video conferencing. The origin of the Moonbeam pejorative was Brown’s realization (during commuter flights to Sacramento on which he saw numerous state officials spending taxpayer funds on airfare to attend meetings there) that the state might use satellite technology to bounce video signals for cost-effective teleconferencing by remote attendees. At the time, he was dismissed as a kook for envisioning what has turned out to be a modern-day reality (though now the Internet is the tech medium for such virtual conferencing). Brown the futurist remains a practical thinker and an astute politician.
Moderate side? Isn’t that called ‘Bait & Switch’?
Jerry Brown & moderate = oxymoron
He is a far left ultra liberal proponent of big government and unions. He believes that government knows what is best for the people, and will shove it down you throats if necessary.
It seems like we forget. Remember the “dancing with the stars’ crowd who voted for Barack Obama thinking he was a moderate. If they had bothered to study his voting record they would have discovered he was the number one liberal in the Senate. There is nothing moderate about Cap and Tax, and Obamacare, not to mention all the Mao loving Czars he hired.
News people like Jerry Brown because he is a good interview. However I learned a long time ago to judge people, especially politicians, by what they do, and not by what they say. Look at his past record and see if he is a moderate. He is certainly to the right of The Frisco Kid, but saying all the right things to an OC audience doesn’t mean he will govern that way.
“If they had bothered to study his voting record they would have discovered he was the number one liberal in the Senate”
They didn’t have to study his voting record. It was widely reported on every news channel. Maybe that’s what us “dancing with the stars crowd” wanted.
If anything, Obama has disappointed Liberals like me. He’s compromised WAY too much with Republicans. From the stimulous to health care. Trying too hard to please everyone will make him a one term wonder just like Carter.
There’s a possibility that Moonbeam will get my vote. It’s too early yet to tell. But he’s the lead dog right now in my mind. His political career is practically over. If he gets elected governor I think his last priority will be to make friends. I don’t think he’ll hesitate to step on toes. And that’s what we need. A governor with the courage to openly step on toes. All the others (Whitman, Poizner, Cambell) are up ‘n comers. They’re interested in building political capital which really means selling their souls to the highest bidder.
I think Jerry is our only hope. Is it a risk??? Sure it is. But when I look at the other choices I don’t see any alternatives. Support the old man.
Shame on you OC. Brown single handledly ushered in the era of big powerful government unions that you rail on every day on every post. You vote for him and you cant ever say another word about trough feeders.
Jerry Brown wants to limit government? Sure.
Jerry Brown should move gently into the night .. somewhere .. His style destroyed the state … his was the selfish embrace of the UNION AGENDA that would deliver him power and more of it; the liability for the compensation brokered by Brown and his similarly gaited pals now leaves the state and social services for the public welfare, health and safety bogged down with unsustainable costs for “public employees” who have never been held to accountability, and now draw the costs that should be allocated to social programs for those the “walking wounded” in this economy. Not one social system has emerged unscathed from the metastasis of organized labor, into education and social services and throughout structure of “law enforcement.”
Time for new ideas. Political parties have managed to deter the leadership we desperately need at municipal, county and state levels of government. We can see in Washington, DC the installation of a President with no qualification whatever, another “lawyer,” appointed a cabinet resembling a carnival and an assortment of czars; their policies a disaster in the making; frightening. And all furnished by ORGANIZED LABOR.
you make some excellent points.
Organized labor seems just the ticket these days, with so many people losing jobs and getting pay and benefits cuts. Shout it out, SavyRed!!!
Jerry Brown has advocated small government longer than Ronald Reagan did, and that is a fact.
Republicans — when you got nothin — start calling names!
This guy jerry brown is more of the same…
no plan for justice reform…
jerry brown…more of the same failed tactics…
only the name is different.
Jerry Brown is an ahole always has been and always will be.
Meg Whitman can run as the Democrat she is now that “Any Twosome Newsome” is run home to his Sanctuary City
As a dog returneth to his vomit, so the Democrats return to Jerry Brown.
Jerry Brown!
The man who gave us Rose Bird. The chief justice who substituted her personal law for that of the people.
Impeached from CA supreme court after 10 years.
I don’t think I want to go through that again.
jerry has grown up since that time. you would see a different guy in office this time around.
I SERIOUSLY doubt that ocobserver
Put the kool aid down OC.
Jerry Brown…. “moderate, populist side?” Didn’t know he had one. Moonbeam returns.
If Governor “Moonbeam” is the Democratic Party’s only choice, they will lose…AGAIN!
Jerry is a typical polition. Meg Whitman has the best business sense. She will whip California in shape. Get with it people do we want go backwards or forward. We should also dump Boxer…taxes will kill us forever if she’s re-elected.
Jerry has always been a liberal. So typical of the dems to try and show they are moderates until they get in office. This is why Calif and DC are in such a mess.
Brown had something over Newsome’s head so Newsome quit.
I would rather vote for a candidate who has actually run a business and been successful before voting for another politician.
Go back and study his record. He appointed ultra liberal judges. He dismantled freeway projects based on his persoal ideas of what we should use to get around. he allowed public employees to unionize (look at the mess that has us in today), he raised taxes, he grew state government and the intrusion of same in to the lives of every California citizen and business. More recently, he drove Oakland to the brink of collapse. Name one big case he has brought as Attorney General? He should have gone after all the corporations and indivudals involved with the home loan scams that now have deep in a recession. Didn’t. Go back and study his record.
Just curious if any of you who use the moniker “Moonbeam” really even know how/why it came to be? I’m betting that 95% or more don’t! They just love to apply it and infer that he’s flaky… Actually it’s due to the fact that he was incredibly prescient with regard to satellite use back in 1978.
Actually CK, it was because he had such far out ideas that we coined the term moonbean as in “he’s from outer space”. Had nothing to do with satellites. Had everything to do with being so far left he made the radicals look tame.
Jerry Brown is going to show his moderate side by mooning them. He says he wants to help Mexicans to find work, which is true. Call his office and press 2 and hear it in Spanish. If anyone thinks he won’t try to modify Prop 13, you don’t know Jerry. Unfortunately, he has a very good chance of becoming governor and with a majority in the senate and assembly he may try to out spend Obama.
Meg Whitman has said she “would have voted against Proposition 187″ and also would like “a path to legalization” for illegals.
Jerry Brown has stated “he supported a path toward legalizing those now in the country illegally” and “helping Mexico create jobs” and this I take it, is supposedly a populist position.
Hello? What’s the unemployment rate in California, Jerry? Let’s not forget the part-time workers and those who have given up looking. But what the hay, let’s work more on creating jobs in Mexico, before California.
These I gather, are wonderful politicians, showing more concern for another country and it’s citizens, rather than helping their own.
Once again, the electorate is presented with mediocre and poor voting choices for office.