The Honorable
Jerry Brown |
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| 34th and 39th Governor of California |
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Assumed office
January 3, 2011 |
| Lieutenant | Abel Maldonado
Gavin Newsom |
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| Preceded by | Arnold Schwarzenegger |
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In office
January 6, 1975 – January 3, 1983 |
| Lieutenant | Mervyn Dymally
Mike Curb |
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| Preceded by | Ronald Reagan |
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| Succeeded by | George Deukmejian |
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| 31st Attorney General of California |
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In office
January 9, 2007 – January 3, 2011 |
| Governor | Arnold Schwarzenegger |
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| Preceded by | Bill Lockyer |
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| Succeeded by | Kamala Harris |
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| 47th Mayor of Oakland |
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In office
January 4, 1999 – January 8, 2007 |
| Preceded by | Elihu Harris |
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| Succeeded by | Ron Dellums |
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| Chairman of the California Democratic Party |
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In office
1989–1991 |
| Preceded by | Peter D. Kelly III |
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| Succeeded by | Phil Angelides |
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| 24th Secretary of State of California |
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In office
January 4, 1971 – January 6, 1975 |
| Governor | Ronald Reagan |
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| Preceded by | H. P. Sullivan (Acting) |
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| Succeeded by | March Fong Eu |
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| Personal details |
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| Born | Edmund Gerald Brown Jr.
April 7, 1938 (age 78)
San Francisco, California, U.S. |
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| Political party | Democratic |
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| Spouse(s) | Anne Gust (2005–present) |
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| Residence | Governor's Mansion |
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| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley
Yale Law School |
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| Religion | Roman Catholicism[1] |
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| Signature |  |
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| Website | Official website |
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Edmund Gerald "
Jerry"
Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American politician and lawyer, who has been serving as the
39thGovernor of California since 2011. A member of the
Democratic Party, Brown previously served as the 34th governor from 1975 to 1983, and is the longest-serving governor in California history.
[2] Prior to and following his first governorship, Brown served in numerous state, local and party positions, including three times a candidate for the Democratic nomination for
President of the United States.
Brown declined to run for a third term in
1982, instead running for the
United States Senate in
1982. However, Brown was defeated by Republican San Diego Mayor
Pete Wilson (who would later become governor), and many considered his political career to be over. After travelling abroad, Brown returned to California and served as Chairman of the
California Democratic Party (1989–1991), choosing to resign to run for the Senate again in 1992. Changing his mind, Brown ran for the
Democratic nomination for president in 1992, once again finishing second in the popular vote, carrying six states and coming second in the convention, though substantially behind
Governor Bill Clinton of
Arkansas.
After six years out of politics, Brown returned to public life, serving as
Mayor of Oakland (1999–2007), and then
Attorney General of California (2007–2011). Brown decided to run for another term as governor,
[3] and was able to do so due to a
grandfather clause in a term-limit law passed in 1990 for California state office. The law limited a governor to two terms; however, the four living governors when the law was passed (which consisted of himself, Brown's father
Pat, his predecessor
Ronald Reagan, and his successor
George Deukmejian, who was in office when the law was enacted) were still eligible for the election.
Early life, education, and career[edit]
Returning to California, Brown took the state
bar exam and passed on his second attempt.
[10] He then settled in
Los Angeles and joined the
law firm of Tuttle & Taylor. In 1969, Brown 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.
[11]
California Secretary of State (1971–1975)[edit]
34th Governor of California (1975–1983)[edit]
First term[edit]
In 1974, Brown ran in a highly contested Democratic primary for Governor of California against
Speaker of the California Assembly Bob Moretti, San Francisco Mayor
Joseph L. Alioto, Representative
Jerome R. Waldie, and others. Brown won the primary with the name recognition of his father, Pat Brown, whom many people admired for his progressive administration.
[12] In the General Election on November 5, 1974, Brown was elected Governor of California over California State Controller
Houston I. Flournoy; Republicans ascribed the loss to anti-Republican feelings from
Watergate, the election being held only ninety days after President
Richard Nixon resigned from office. Brown succeeded
Republican Governor
Ronald Reagan, who retired after two terms.
After taking office, Brown gained a reputation as a
fiscal conservative.
[13] The American Conservative later noted he was "much more of a fiscal conservative than
Governor Reagan."
[14] His fiscal restraint resulted in one of the biggest budget surpluses in state history, roughly $5 billion.
[15][16] For his personal life, Brown refused many of the privileges and perks of the office, forgoing the newly constructed 20,000-square-foot governor's residence in the suburb of
Carmichael and instead renting a modest apartment at the corner of 14th and N Streets, adjacent to Capitol Park in downtown Sacramento.
[17] Instead of riding as a passenger in a chauffeured
limousine as previous governors had done, Brown walked to work and drove in a
Plymouth Satellite sedan.
[18][19]
As governor, Brown held a strong interest in environmental issues. He appointed
J. Baldwin to work in the newly created California Office of Appropriate Technology,
Sim Van der Ryn as State Architect,
Stewart Brand as Special Advisor,
John Bryson as chairman of the California State Water Board. Brown also reorganized the
California Arts Council, boosting its funding by 1300 percent and appointing artists to the council
[11] and appointed more women and minorities to office than any other previous California governor.
[11] In 1977, he sponsored the "first-ever tax incentive for rooftop solar" among many environmental initiatives.
[20] In 1975, Brown obtained the repeal of the "
depletion allowance", a tax break for the state's oil industry, despite the efforts of
lobbyist Joe Shell, a former intraparty rival to
Richard M. Nixon.
[21]
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. One of these appointments,
Rose Bird as the Chief Justice of the
California Supreme Court, was later
recalled by voters in 1987 after a strong campaign financed by business interests upset by her "pro-labor" and "pro-free speech" rulings. The death penalty was only "a trumped-up excuse"
[22] to use against her, even though the Bird Court consistently upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty.
[23] In 1960, he lobbied his father, then governor, to spare the life of
Caryl Chessman and reportedly won a 60-day stay for him.
[24][25]
Brown 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.
[26] When Proposition 13 passed in June 1978, he heavily cut state spending, and along with the Legislature, spent much of the $5 billion surplus to meet the proposition's requirements and help offset the revenue losses which made cities, counties, and schools more dependent on the state.
[15][26] His actions in response to the proposition earned him praise from Proposition 13 author
Howard Jarvis who went as far as to make a television commercial for Brown just before his successful
re-election bid in 1978.
[26][27] The controversial proposition immediately cut tax revenues and required a two-thirds
supermajority to raise taxes.
[28] Proposition 13 "effectively destroyed the funding base of local governments and school districts, which thereafter depended largely on Sacramento for their revenue".
[29] Max Neiman, a professor at the
Institute of Governmental Studies at University of California, Berkeley, credited Brown for "bailing out local government and school districts" but felt it was harmful "because it made it easier for people to believe that Proposition 13 wasn't harmful."
[20] In an interview in 2014, Brown indicated that a "war chest" would have helped his campaign for an alternative to Proposition 13.
[30]
1976 presidential election[edit]
Brown first ran for the Democratic nomination for president in March 1976, after the primary season had begun, and over a year after some candidates had started campaigning. Brown 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."
[31][32]
Brown's name began appearing on primary ballots in May and he won in
Maryland,
Nevada, and his home state of California.
[33] He missed the deadline in
Oregon, but he ran as a write-in candidate and finished in third behind
Jimmy Carter and Senator
Frank Church of
Idaho. 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 Carter.
Second term[edit]
Brown won re-election in 1978 against Republican state Attorney General
Evelle J. Younger. Brown appointed the first
openly gay judge in the United States when he named
Stephen Lachs to serve on the
Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1979.
[34] In 1981, he also appointed the first openly
lesbian judge in the United States,
Mary C. Morgan to the San Francisco Municipal Court.
[35] Brown completed his second term having appointed a total of five gay judges, including
Rand Schrader and
Jerold Krieger.
[36][37] Through his first term as governor, Brown had not appointed any openly gay people to any position, but he cited the failed 1978
Briggs Initiative, which sought to ban homosexuals from working in California's public schools, for his increased support of
gay rights.
[34] The Governor also signed AB 489, The
Consenting Adult Sex Act, which decriminalized homosexual behavior between adults, adding to this reputation. He also signed AB 607, which banned homosexuals from receiving civil marriage licenses, in 1977.
In 1981, Brown, who had established a reputation as a strong environmentalist, was confronted with a serious
medfly infestation in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was advised by the state's agricultural industry, and the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection service (
APHIS), to authorize airborne spraying of the region. Initially, in accordance with his environmental protection stance, he chose to authorize ground-level spraying only. Unfortunately, the infestation spread as the medfly reproductive cycle out-paced the spraying. After more than a month, millions of dollars of crops had been destroyed and billions of dollars more were threatened. Governor Brown then authorized a massive response to the infestation. Fleets of helicopters sprayed
malathion at night, and the
California National Guard set up highway checkpoints and collected many tons of local fruit; in the final stage of the campaign, entomologists released millions of
sterile male medflies in an attempt to disrupt the insects' reproductive cycle.
Ultimately the infestation was eradicated, but both the Governor's delay and the scale of the action has remained controversial ever since. Some people claimed that malathion was toxic to humans, as well as insects. In response to such concerns, Brown's chief of staff,
B. T. Collins, staged a news conference during which he publicly drank a glass of malathion. Many people complained that, while the malathion may not have been very toxic to humans, the aerosol spray containing it was corrosive to car paint.
[38] [39]
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, at the
Chicago Sun-Times, picked up on the nickname from Brown's
girlfriend at the time,
Linda Ronstadt, who was quoted in a 1978
Rolling Stone magazine interview humorously calling him "Moonbeam".
[40][41] A year later Royko expressed his regret for publicizing the nickname,
[42] and in 1991 Royko disavowed it entirely, proclaiming Brown to be just as serious as any other politician.
[43][44][45][46]
1980 presidential election[edit]
In 1980, Brown challenged Carter for renomination. His candidacy had been anticipated by the press ever since he won re-election as governor in 1978 over the Republican
Evelle Younger by 1.3 million votes, the largest margin in California history. But Brown had trouble gaining traction in both fundraising and polling for the presidential nomination. This was widely believed to be the result of the more prominent candidate 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. His "era of limits" slogan was replaced by a promise to, in his words, "Protect the Earth, serve the people, and explore the universe."
Brown opposed Kennedy's call for
universal national health insurance and opposed Carter's call for an employer mandate to provide catastrophic private health insurance.
[48] As an alternative, he suggested a program of tax credits for those who do not smoke or otherwise damage their health, saying: "Those who abuse their bodies should not abuse the rest of us by taking our tax dollars."
[48] Brown also called for expanding the use of
acupuncture and
midwifery.
[48]
As Brown's campaign began to attract more members of what some more conservative commentators described as "the fringe", including activists like
Jane Fonda,
Tom Hayden, and
Jesse Jackson, his polling numbers began to suffer. Brown received only 10 percent of the vote in the
New Hampshire primary, and he was soon forced to announce that his decision to remain in the race would depend on a good showing in the
Wisconsin primary. Although he had polled well there throughout the primary season, an attempt to film a live speech in
Madison, the state's capital, into a
special effects-filled, 30-minute commercial (produced and directed by
Francis Ford Coppola) was disastrous.
[49]
Senate defeat and public life[edit]
In 1982, Brown chose not to seek a third term as governor; instead, he ran for the
United States Senate for the seat being vacated by Republican
S.I. Hayakawa. He was defeated by Republican San Diego Mayor
Pete Wilson by a margin of 52% to 45%. After his Senate defeat, Brown was left with few political options.
[50] Republican
George Deukmejian, a Brown critic, narrowly won the governorship in 1982, succeeding Brown, and was re-elected overwhelmingly in 1986. After his Senate defeat in 1982, many considered Brown's political career to be over.
[50]
Brown traveled to Japan to study
Buddhism, studying with Christian/Zen practitioner
Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle under
Yamada Koun-roshi. In an interview he explained, "Since politics is based on illusions, zazen definitely provides new insights for a politician. I then come back into the world of California and politics, with critical distance from some of my more comfortable assumptions."
[51] He also visited
Mother Teresa in
Calcutta, India, where he ministered to the sick in one of her
hospices.
[52] He explained, "Politics is a power struggle to get to the top of the heap. Calcutta and Mother Teresa are about working with those who are at the bottom of the heap. And to see them as no different than yourself, and their needs as important as your needs. And you're there to serve them, and doing that you are attaining as great a state of being as you can."
[51]
Upon his return from abroad in 1988, Brown announced that he would stand as a candidate to become
chairman of the
California Democratic Party, and won against investment banker
Steve Westly.
[53] Although Brown greatly expanded the party's donor base and enlarged its coffers, with a focus on
grassroots organizing and
get out the vote drives, he 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 abandoned the campaign, deciding instead to run for the presidency for a third time.
1992 presidential election[edit]
When Brown 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 having little chance of gaining significant support. Ignoring them, Brown embarked on a
grassroots campaign to, in his own words, "take back America from the confederacy of
corruption,
careerism, and campaign
consulting in Washington".
[54] 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 not accept over $100.
[55] 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 moneyed
special interests".
As Brown campaigned in various primary states, he would eventually expand his platform beyond a policy of strict
campaign finance reform. Although he focused on a variety of issues throughout the campaign, he highlighted his endorsement of
living wage laws and opposition to
free trade agreements such as
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 percent 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. He "seemed to be the most left-wing and right-wing man in the field... [calling] for term limits, a flat tax, and the abolition of the
Department of Education."
[56] Brown scored surprising wins in Connecticut and Colorado and seemed poised to overtake Clinton.
Due to his limited budget, Brown began to use a mixture of
alternative media and unusual fund raising techniques. Unable to pay for actual commercials, he used frequent
cable television and
talk radio interviews as a form of free media to get his message to voters. In order to raise funds, he purchased a
toll-free telephone number, which adorned all of his campaign stances.
[57] During the campaign, Brown's repetition of this number combined with the moralistic language used, led some to describe him as a "political
televangelist" with an "anti-politics gospel".
[58]
Despite poor showings in the
Iowa caucus (1.6%) and the
New Hampshire primary (8%), Brown soon managed to win narrow victories in
Maine,
Colorado,
Nevada, and
Vermont, but he continued to be considered a small threat 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 frontrunner then-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
Connecticutprimary. As the press 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
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.
[59] Jackson, who had made a pair of
anti-semitic comments about Jews in general and New York City's Jews in particular while running for president in 1984, was still despised in Jewish communities. Jackson also had ties to
Louis Farrakhan, infamous for his own anti-semitic statements, and with
Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the
Palestine Liberation Organization.
[59] 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. Although overwhelmingly outspent, Brown won upset victories in seven states and his votes won to money raised ratio was by far the best of any candidate in the race.
[60] 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 Democratic 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 Brown did not win the nomination, he 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 national viewing audience, yet without endorsing Clinton, through the device of seconding his own nomination. There was animosity between the Brown and Clinton campaigns, and Brown was the first political figure to criticize Bill Clinton over what became the
Whitewater controversy.
[57]
Mayor of Oakland (1999–2007)[edit]
In 1995, with Brown’s political career at a low point, in the motion picture
Jade, the fictional Governor of California tells an assistant district attorney to drop a case, “unless you want as much of a future in this state as Jerry Brown.” The assistant DA responds “Who’s Jerry Brown?”
[61]
What would become Brown's re-emergence into politics after six years was in
Oakland, California, an "overwhelmingly minority city of 400,000."
[62] Brown ran as an independent "having left the Democratic Party, blasting what he called the 'deeply corrupted'
two-party system."
[62] Prior to taking office, Brown 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 non-political
city manager and thus the various city departments, and break tie votes on the Oakland City Council.
[62] He won with 59% of the vote in a field of ten candidates.
[62] The political left had hoped for some of the more progressive politics from Brown's earlier governorship, but found Brown "more pragmatic than progressive, more interested in downtown redevelopment and economic growth than political ideology".
[63] As mayor, he invited the
U.S. Marine Corps to use Oakland harbor lands for mock military exercises as part of
Operation Urban Warrior.
[64]
The city was rapidly losing residents and businesses, and Brown is credited with starting the revitalization of the city using his connections and experience to lessen the economic downturn, while attracting $1 billion of investments, including refurbishing the
Fox Theatre, the
Port of Oakland, and
Jack London Square.
[62] The downtown district was losing retailers, restaurateurs and residential developers, and Brown sought to attract thousands of new residents with
disposable income to revitalize the area.
[65] 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.
[66]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,
[62] 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. Brown surpassed the stated goal of attracting 10,000 residents according to city records, and built more
affordable housing than previous mayoral administrations.
[65]
Brown had campaigned on fixing Oakland's schools, but "bureaucratic battles" dampened his efforts. He concedes he never had control of the schools, and his reform efforts were "largely a bust".
[62] He focused instead on the creation of two
charter schools, the
Oakland School for the Arts and the
Oakland Military Institute.
[62] Another area of disappointment was overall crime. Brown sponsored nearly two dozen crime initiatives to reduce the crime rate,
[67] although crime decreased by 13 percent overall, the city still suffered a "57 percent spike in homicides his final year in office, to 148 overall".
[62]
Attorney General of California (2007–2011)[edit]
In 2004, Brown expressed interest to be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for
Attorney General of California in the 2006 election, and in May 2004, he formally filed to run. He defeated his Democratic primary opponent Los Angeles City Attorney
Rocky Delgadillo 63% to 37%. In the general election, Brown defeated Republican State Senator
Charles Poochigian 56.3% to 38.2%, one of the largest margins of victory in any statewide California race.
[68] 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). Plaintiffs claimed Brown did not meet eligibility 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.
[69][70]
As attorney general, Brown represented the state in fighting death penalty appeals and stated that he would follow the law, regardless of his personal beliefs against
capital punishment. Capital punishment by
lethal injection was halted in California by federal judge
Jeremy D. Fogel until new facilities and procedures were put into place.
[71] Brown moved to resume capital punishment in 2010 with the execution of
Albert Greenwood Brown after the lifting of a statewide
moratorium by a California court.
[72] Brown's Democratic campaign, which pledged to "enforce the laws" of California, denied any connection between the case and the gubernatorial election. Prosecutor
Rod Pacheco, who supported Republican opponent Meg Whitman, said that it would be unfair to accuse Jerry Brown of using the execution for political gain as they never discussed the case.
[73]
In June 2008, Brown filed a fraud lawsuit claiming mortgage lender
Countrywide Financial engaged in "unfair and deceptive" practices to get homeowners to apply for risky mortgages far beyond their means."
[74][75] Brown accused the lender of breaking the state's laws against
false advertising and unfair business practices. The lawsuit also claimed the defendant misled many consumers by misinforming them about the workings of certain mortgages such adjustable-rate mortgages,
interest-only loans, low-documentation loans and home-equity loans while telling borrowers they would be able to
refinance before the interest rate on their loans adjusted.
[76] The suit was settled in October 2008 after
Bank of America acquired Countrywide. The settlement involved the modifying of troubled 'predatory loans' up to $8.4 billion.
[77]
39th Governor of California (2011–present)[edit]
Third term[edit]
Brown at a campaign rally in
Sacramentotwo days before the election
Brown announced his candidacy for governor on March 2, 2010.
[83] 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 term.
[84][85]
Brown was sworn in for his third term as governor on January 3, 2011, succeeding Republican
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Brown is working on a budget that would shift many government programs from the state to the local level, a reversal of trends from his first tenure as governor.
[91]
On June 28, 2012, Governor Brown signed a budget that made deep cuts to social services with the assumption that voters would pass $8 billion in tax hikes in November 2012 to close California's $15.7-billion budget deficit. "This budget reflects tough choices that will help get California back on track," Governor Brown said in a statement.
[92]
Governor Brown has stated: "We need budget cuts. We need the continued growth of the economy for a long period of time. We’re suffering from the mortgage meltdown that killed 600,000 jobs in the construction industry. … We’re recovering from a national recession slowly—over 300,000 jobs [gained] since the recession. We’ve got a million to go. That needs to continue, but that depends not only on Barack Obama and the Congress and the Federal Reserve, but also on [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, China, the European Union, and the self-organizing quality of the world economy."
[93]
In September 2012, Brown signed legislation sponsored by California State Senator
Ted Lieu that prohibits protesters at funerals within 300 feet, with convicted violators punishable with fines and jail time; the legislation was in response to protests conducted by the
Westboro Baptist Church.
[94]
In the November 2012 general elections, voters approved Brown's proposed tax increases in the form of
Proposition 30. Prop 30 raised the state personal income tax increase over seven years for California residents with an annual income over US$250,000 and increased in the state sales tax by 0.25 percent over four years. It allowed the state to avoid nearly $6 billion in cuts to public education.
[95]
On September 16, 2014, Gov. Brown signed a historical package of groundwater legislation. The plan will regulate local agencies and also implement management plans to achieve water sustainability within 20 years.
[97]
Fourth term[edit]
Brown announced his bid for re-election on February 27, 2014. On June 3, he came first in the primary election by over 1.5 million votes. He received 54.3% of the vote and advanced to the general election with Republican
Neel Kashkari, who took 19.38% of the vote.
There was only one gubernatorial debate. When asked to schedule another, Brown declined.
[98] During the debate in Sacramento on September 4, 2014, Kashkari accused Brown of failing to improve California's business climate. His leading example was the
Tesla Motors factory investment, creating 6,500 manufacturing jobs, going to Nevada rather than California. Brown responded that the cash payment upfront required by the investment would have been unfair to California taxpayers.
[99] A range of issues were debated, including recent legislation for a ban on plastic bags at grocery stores that Brown promised to sign and Kashkari thought unimportant.
[100]
Brown said that if he were elected to a fourth and final term, he would continue transferring power to local authorities, particularly over education and criminal justice policy, and would resist fellow Democrats' "gold rush for new programs and spending."
[30]
In the general election, Brown was re-elected by 3,645,835 votes (59.2%) to Kashkari's 2,511,722 (40.8%). His stated goals for his unprecedented fourth term in office are to construct the
California High-Speed Rail, to create
tunnels to shore up the state's water system and to curb carbon dioxide emissions. He still has $20 million in campaign funds he can use to advance ballot measures in case the legislature does not support his plans.
[101]
Electoral history[edit]
Personal life[edit]
A bachelor as governor and mayor, Brown attracted attention for dating high-profile women, the most notable of whom was singer
Linda Ronstadt.
[102] In March 2005, Brown announced his engagement to his girlfriend since 1990, Anne Gust, former chief administrative officer for
The Gap.
[103] They were married on June 18, 2005 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 in the Oakland Hills in a home purchased for $1.8 million, as reported by
The Huffington Post.
[104]
Beginning in 1995, Brown hosted a daily call-in talk show on the local
Pacifica Radio station,
KPFA-FM, in
Berkeley broadcast to major US markets.
[51] Both the radio program and Brown's political action organization, based in
Oakland, were called
We the People.
[51] 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.
[51]
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 spouse Aisha lived with Brown in the warehouse in Jack London Square; Barzaghi was brought into Oakland city government upon Brown's election as mayor, where Barzaghi first acted as the mayor's armed bodyguard. Brown dismissed Barzaghi in July 2004.
[106]
In April 2011 Brown had surgery to remove a
basal-cell carcinoma from the right side of his nose.
[107] In December 2012, media outlets reported that Brown was being treated for early stage (the precise stage and grade was not stated) localized
prostate cancer with a very good prognosis.
[108]
In popular culture[edit]
Bibliography[edit]
- 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, 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 0-88289-497-8
- 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
- Rarick, Ethan (2006). California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown. Berkeley, California, United States: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24828-1
- Schell, Orville. Brown (New York: Random House, 1978). ISBN 0-394-41043-2
Essays and reporting[edit]
- "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
- "The Governor's Last Stand", Marc Cooper, Pacific Standard, August 16, 2012
- Fallows, James (June 2013). "The Fixer". The Atlantic. 311 (5): 46–55. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
- "How Jerry Brown Quietly Pulled California Back From The Brink", Alexander Nazaryan Newsweek, April 4, 2016
Television interviews[edit]
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