Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown
Governor of California
Incumbent
In office
1975 - 1983, 2011 - Present
Term ends
January 5, 2015
Years in position (current service)	2
Years in position (previous service)	8
Party	Democratic
Compensation
Base salary	$173,987
Elections and appointments
First elected	November 2, 2010
Next election	November 4, 2014
Term limits	2 terms (not including previous service as governor)
Prior offices
California Secretary of State
1971 - 1975
Mayor of Oakland
1999 - 2006
Attorney General of California
2007 - 2011
Education
High school	St. Ignatius High School
Bachelor's	University of California-Berkeley
J.D.	Yale Law School
Personal
Birthday	April 7, 1938
Place of birth	San Francisco, California
Websites
Office website

Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. (born April 7, 1938, in San Francisco, California) is the current Democratic Governor of California. In a protracted battle, he edged out Republican Meg Whitman in the 2010 election. He served previously as the Attorney General of California, the California Secretary of State, the Mayor of Oakland. He was also previously the Governor of California from 1975 to 1983.

Biography

Brown was born on April 7, 1938 in San Francisco, California. He is a graduate of St. Ignatius High School, the University of California at Berkeley, and Yale Law School.

Shortly after receiving his law degree, Brown worked as a law clerk for Justice Matthew Tobriner at the California State Supreme Court. He later went on to study briefly in both Mexico and Latin America. Brown returned to the United States and was admitted to the California State Bar, after having initially failed the bar exam. He joined the Los Angeles private practice law firm of Tuttle & Taylor.

Beginning in 1995, Brown hosted a daily call-in talk show on the local Pacifica Radio station, KPFA-FM, in Berkeley, California. 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."

Education

• St. Ignatius High School
• Attended Santa Clara University
• Attended Sacred Heart Novitiate (1958)
• BA, Classics, University of California at Berkeley (1961)
• JD, Yale Law School (1964)

Political career

Governor of California 2011-present

Judicial appointments

As governor, Brown is responsible for appointing judges to California state courts. Nominees to the California Supreme Court and California Courts of Appeal must be confirmed by the California Commission on Judicial Appointments. Appointed appellate judges stand for retention in the gubernatorial election following appointment; judges of the Superior Courts run for the seat in the next general election. For an up-to-date list of all of Brown's appointees, see Judgepedia's page on his appointments.

Veto rate

The secretary of the California Senate reported that when Brown served his first two terms as governor (between 1975-1983), he approved bills at a rate of 96% on average, "and set a record in 1982 when he approved 98 percent of the bills that crossed his desk." While he did not break the record he set in 1982, after the fall 2012 surge of legislative activity subsided, The Associated Press published an analysis of Brown's signing and vetoing behavior during the 2010-2012 legislative session that showed him to have the highest rate of bill singing of any governor since he left office the first time. Records collected from the California State Library and the secretary of the California State Senate revealed that Brown vetoed 13 percent of the 1,866 bills the legislature put before him over the last two years. Before Brown began his third non-consecutive term as governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, vetoed bills at a rate of 27%. Brown presides in concert with a dual chamber Democratic majority in the state legislature, which translates to a higher rate of approval, in contrast with the experience of his Republican predecessor.

Environmental-agency legislation

Brown approved a number of changes regarding environmental agency policy during the fall of 2012. Among them was a bill to change the name of the Department of Fish and Game to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Assembly Bill 2402 aims to concentrate the department's efforts on ecosystem conservation through science-based policy. Other provisions include expanding the department's collection of fees beyond the money raised through hunting and fishing licenses and the department's law enforcement capabilities. The same week, Brown approved a state ban on "the centuries-old practice" of using hounds to hunt bears and other natural predators. The third change, SB 1148, to earn Brown's signature that week will allow the department, which will be rechristened January 1, 2013, to raise money by contracting with nonprofit conservation groups "to manage state-owned lands and charge fees for using more of its properties." The money raised could offset the $300,000, according to the state legislature's estimates, it will cost the department to redo the department's website and computer systems, as well as help curtail the state's persistent financial crisis.

Controversies

ACORN

See also: Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

Throughout his tenure as Governor of California, Brown has singled out the embattled liberal political organization, ACORN, for praise, saying, "[I]n this job I spend my time calling on that same network of community organizers that has been there right along…When I talk to people about community programs, I want to talk to the people from ACORN and Fair Share and Mass Advocacy -- all the community groups that I've known over a period of years."

In June 2001, Brown, as mayor of Oakland, worked closely with both ACORN and ACORN Housing on an anti-predatory lending campaign called "Don't Borrow Trouble."

The June 2008 Survey and Scorecard report published by ACORN gave Brown an A letter grade. The report was published to shine the spotlight on state attorneys general "leading the fight to protect homeowners from joining the flood of Americans losing their homes to foreclosure," so says the group. The grade distributed to the individual attorneys general "generally broke down along party lines," with the exception of Louisiana's Buddy Caldwell.

In September 2009, conservative investigative journalists James O'Keefe and Hanna Giles posed as a pimp and a prostitute and secretly videotaped conversations with ACORN employees. Reps in various offices across the country, including the San Diego branch office where Juan Carlos Vera worked, counseled the pair on how to set up a brothel for young girls, barely thirteen years of age, from El Salvador. When asked how such an operation should be reported to the IRS, several individuals supplied the needed information. Following the release of the tapes, Vera was fired. A month later, Brown's office announced it was opening an inquest into both ACORN and the circumstances under which the political action group was videotaped. California Penal Code Section 632 prohibits the recording of 'confidential communications' without consent. California is one of twelve states that require notification of both parties prior to recording. In 1989, a California State appellate court ruled that "this statute applies to the use of hidden video cameras to record conversations as well."

ACORN official David Lagstein, speaking to the East County Democrat club on October 15 about the California Attorney General Jerry Brown's investigation, seemed to suggest the fix was in. He assured supporters, saying, "The attorney general is a political animal, but certainly every bit of the communication we have had with them has suggested that the fault will be found with the people that did the video and not the people with ACORN."

Cuba trip

Nearly a week after Meg Whitman, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in California, was dealt a political setback with allegations over her dismissal of a maid who was an illegal resident in the United States, Brown faced a scandal of his own involving the Latino community. According to allegations, a July 2000 political junket that Jerry Brown, who at the time was Mayor of Oakland, and his staff took to Cuba was in violation of America's sanctions against the Communist dictatorship. The purpose of the trip was to formalize Oakland's sister-city status with Santiago de Cuba. While Brown's trip has been a matter of public record for a decade, the fresh attention it is receiving comes from an article, published in The Daily Beast and the San Francisco Chronicle, detailing Brown's movements on the island and reporting snippets of conversation.

Later reports said Brown's entire trip was set up by a former CIA agent who became a double agent for Cuba before defecting to the island. Phillip Agee, a CIA expert on Latin America in the 1960s, divulged the names of hundred of American agents before fleeing the United States in the mid-1970s; many in America's intelligence community believe information he divulged led to at least one murder. MI6, Britain's intelligence agency, also connects the assassinations of two of their agents in Poland to Agee's leaked info. After setting up in Havana, he reinvented himself as a travel agent, and eventually came to count Jerry Brown as a client. Agee was candid about his ambitions for his "Cubalinda" travel agency: "Well, I would like to see people ignore the law, that is to the degree the law doesn't have any meaning anymore." Agee also admitted that he was instructing his American clients to make payments through European accounts to skirt regulations on U.S. travel to Cuba. Of Agee's services, Brown allegedly said, he's "a very good travel agent...got everything done...he’s quite a guy.”

At the time of Brown's excursion, Agee's U.S. passport had long been revoked and his travel agency was not on the list of OFAC's approved businesses. OFAC, the Office of Foreign Asset Control, operates under the auspices of the U.S. Treasury, whose approval is legally required before American citizens may travel to Cuba. U.S. Sanctions against Cuba fall under the "Trading with the Enemy Act" and are specifically enumerated in the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 CFR Part 515. According to OFAC guidelines for travel to Cuba, "Unless authorized by a general or specific license, any person subject to U.S. jurisdiction who engages in any Cuba travel-related transaction violates the Regulations."

"Whore" comment

A private conversation that was inadvertently recorded via a voicemail message machine in 2010 showed Brown supposedly willing to slander his Republican opponent, Meg Whitman, as a "whore" after she announced she would "exempt public safety officials from key parts of her pension reform plan," something Brown refused to do as State Attorney General. The controversial comment came after Brown telephoned the Los Angeles Police Protective League and left a voicemail message requesting their endorsement in the gubernatorial contest. Brown, believing he had hung up the phone, then engaged in a conversation with his campaign aides, venting his frustration that his refusal to concede to an exemption for police officers in his state pension reform proposal could cost him their endorsements. When the repartee turned to the discussion of releasing an advertisement blasting Whitman for this compromise, an aide interjects by asking if they should say that she is a whore. Brown, in response, said, "Whore. Well, I am going to use that." While acknowledging the conversation took place, a spokesman for the Brown campaign argued that the gubernatorial candidate "was responding to the notion of accusing Whitman of cutting a deal to gain endorsements, not to the use of the word ‘whore,’" though the tape itself seems to suggest otherwise.

Attorney General of California (2007-2011)

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, including a sworn declaration with the statement "I meet the statutory and constitutional qualifications for this office (including, but not limited to, citizenship, residency, and party affiliation, if required)."

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. Regardless, Brown easily 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 race except in the United States Senate in which Dianne Feinstein's opponent did not mount a strong challenge.

At the Attorney General of California, Brown brought suits against Standard Oil of California, International Telephone and Telegraph, Gulf Oil, and Mobil for violation of campaign-finance laws, often arguing in person before the California State Supreme Court, and enforcing laws requiring members of the California State Legislature to disclose sources of campaign funds. He played a significant role in the drafting and passage of Proposition 9 - The California Fair Political Practices Act, which established the California Fair Political Practices Commission (CFPPC). The mission of the CFPPC is to investigate alleged violations of the Political Reform Act, impose penalties when appropriate, and assist state and local agencies in developing and enforcing conflict-of-interest codes.

Controversies

State public employee pension

Brown stole the California political spotlight in late-July 2010 when he laid into the governmental employees of Bell, a city located outside Los Angeles that is one of the poorest in the state, after the Los Angeles Times "reported that the city manager makes almost $800K a year and stands to receive a pension worth $30 million." He called the outlandish salaries "shocking and beyond belief" and called for a full scale investigation into the matter. As a state public employee himself, however, local political watchdog groups question whether Brown's words and actions in this regard are a bit hypocritical.

Overseen by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, also known as CalPERS, the Legislators' Retirement System (LRS), established in 1947, operates as a special pension program for elected constitutional officers, legislative statutory officers, and members of the state legislature prior to November 7, 1990. The LRS operated in relative obscurity until the passage of Proposition 140 in 1990, which limited the number of terms that California state senators and representatives can stay in office and, perhaps most importantly in regards to this issue, eliminated pensions for state lawmakers. As a result, only thirteen working public officials are members of the independent pension program. Still, even in light of this attempt at local governmental reform, the law "prevents" either CalPERS or LRS from answering questions pertaining to specific members.

In spite of this obstacle, the Orange County Watchdog combed through the LRS actuarial statements and found an individual who matches Jerry Brown's age and salary. If this is indeed Jerry Brown, there appears to be a discrepancy in the records according to the Watchdog. The LRS has this person listed as having served twenty-five to twenty-nine years in public office; again, if this is Brown, he should only have sixteen years of service. Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the Brown gubernatorial campaign, claims that neither he nor the attorney general's office know what is going on here. He did, however, note that Brown "started receiving an annual pension of about $20,000 when he turned 60 in 1998 and pocketed it every year until he assumed the attorney general’s office, when it was suspended." What is at issue here are tens of thousands of state taxpayer dollars - if he served sixteen years, Brown's annual LRS pension salary would come to $73,720; if, however, it was twenty-five years or more, as LRS actuarial statements appear to suggest, it would be $110,580. This comes to a difference of $36,860.

Proposition 8

See also: California Proposition 8 (2008)

Though the attorney general of a state normally argues in support of laws that have been passed by the electorate, Brown took the unusual, and extremely controversial, step of declining to defend Proposition 8, a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution that banned same-sex marriage. Filing his own legal challenge against the amendment, Brown came to the conclusion that Proposition 8 "deprives people of the right to marry, an aspect of liberty that the Supreme Court has concluded is guaranteed by the California Constitution."

On May 26, 2009, the California State Supreme Court surprisingly voted 6-1 to uphold Proposition 8 on state constitutional grounds.

In spite of this ruling, however, Brown continues to oppose defending the law, arguing in front of a federal court that the initiative "violates federal due process and equal protection guarantees" promised in the Fourteenth Amendment.

CEI rating

In an analysis of state attorneys general published in July 2010, Brown was named "The Nation's Worst Attorney General" by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. Basing their criteria on dubious dealings, fabricating law, usurping legislative power, and predatory practices, the California Attorney General, who at the time of the publication was a gubernatorial candidate, received a letter grade of F in all four categories. CEI accused Brown his responsibility as state attorney general to defend all state laws against constitutional challenges "by picking and choosing which laws to defend, and even seeking to undermine those he disagreed with," such as Proposition 8.

Ballot titles

In October 2009, Brown was accused of re-writing the ballot title for the California Continuous Coverage Auto Insurance Discount Act (2010) in a way that is more advantageous to that initiative after receiving a $13,000 campaign contribution from Mercury Insurance, its main sponsor.

Mayor of Oakland (1999-2007)

Mayor of Oakland, Jerry Brown

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 Mayor of Oakland. He won the general election contest in June 1998 and seven months later was sworn into office. Within just a few short weeks, he drew the ire of the far left after he invited the United States Marine Corps to stage their war games, titled Urban Warrior, in the defunct Oakland Army Base and on the closed grounds of the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital after the National Park Service rejected the Marines' request to use Crissy Field in San Francisco. Also during his tenure he was able to get the approval of the electorate to convert Oakland's weak mayor political structure (the mayor as chairman of the city council and official greeter) to a strong mayor structure (the mayor as chief executive over the nonpolitical city manager and thus the various city departments and not a council member). This strong mayor structure in many ways is similar to that of the nearby city of San Francisco. Other efforts including acquiring millions of dollars in state and federal funding to open two charter schools that are now among the top-ranked in Oakland. Brown was re-elected with over 60 percent of the vote in 2002.

In 2003, Brown and fellow Democratic Mayor Jim Hahn of Los Angeles praised Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his decisive actions regarding the suppression of the reinstitution of portions the vehicle license fee (labeled by opponents as the car tax) and some restoration of state funding for city governments, implying that Gray Davis (who had been Governor Brown's Chief of Staff in the 1970s) had acted poorly in this regard.

Controversies

Crime rate in Oakland

The murder rate in Oakland in the first two months of 2006 was triple what it was during the same time period the year before. Two years later, the CQ Press annual report ranked Oakland the fifth-highest crime rate among U.S. cities in 2007. These statistics have led critics to suggest that Brown had failed as mayor to make the city safer.

Chairman of the California Democratic Party (1989-1991)

After briefly studying abroad, Brown returned to California and successfully ran for the chairmanship of the state's Democratic Party in 1989, defeating the less experienced Steve Westly. Although he had greatly expanded the party's donor base and enlarged its coffers during his tenure, he was criticized for not spending enough money on television advertisements, which many within the state party contributed for close Democratic losses in 1990. Brown abruptly resigned from the chairmanship in early 1991 and announced he would seek the United States Senate seat left open following the retirement of Democratic Senator Alan Cranston. In spite of consistent polls numbers, he abandoned his senatorial campaign in favor of a third attempt at the presidency.

Governor of California (1975-1983)

Brown was sworn into office as Governor of California in 1975, succeeding outgoing Republican (and future President of the United States) Ronald Reagan. Strongly opposed to the Vietnam War, Brown rode into the governorship on a broad base of young liberal support. Upon election, he refused many of the privileges and trappings of the office, forgoing the grand governor's mansion, which he sold off in 1983, and instead rented a modest apartment. Instead of riding as a passenger in chauffeured limousines as previous governors had done, Brown drove himself to work in a compact sedan - a Plymouth Satellite from the state vehicle pool.

Throughout his tenure in office, Brown expressed a strong interest in environmental issues, which were to be highlighted in the state during the course of the decade. Brown's concern for the environment could seen in his appointments to state positions that directly affected it. His selections included J. Baldwin for the then-newly created California Office of Appropriate Technology, Sim Van der Ryn as State Architect, Stewart Brand as Special Advisor, and John Bryson, the CEO of Southern California Electric Company and a founding member of the Natural Resources Defense Council, chairman of the California State Water Board in 1976.

It was also in the course of his first governorship that he dissolved the fifteen member California Arts Commission and reorganized it into the California Arts Council (CAC), boosting its state funding by as much as 1,300 percent. This became a source of contention during the state's frequent budget crises at the turn of the century, beginning in 2001 when, under Governor Grey Davis, the CAC received $30 million from state coffers. Additionally, Brown, as governor, appointed the first black (Wiley Manuel), woman (Rose Bird), and Latino (Cruz Reynoso) to the California State Supreme Court.

Brown often proposed unorthodox ideas, including 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 would indeed be adopted by the state. In 1978, Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko nicknamed Brown "Governor Moonbeam" because of the latter idea. The nickname quickly became associated with his quirky politics, which were considered eccentric by some in California and the rest of the nation. In 1992, almost 15 years later, Royko would disavow the nickname, proclaiming Brown to be "just as serious" as any other politician. He also obtained the repeal of the depletion allowance for the state's oil industry thanks in large part to the decisive vote cast in the California State Senate by Republican Robert S. Stevens. Stevens was later rewarded with a major judicial appointment, which he had to rescind after he was accused of making salacious telephone calls as a state senator.

Controversies

Proposition 13

See also: California Proposition 13 (1978)

Critics argue that Brown's administration as Governor of California bares partial responsibility for the creation of the economic conditions that prompted state voters to heavily favor the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. Specifically, he is said to have amassed a large surplus in state coffers instead of cutting taxes, leading to the state's infamous tax rebellion, the Jarvis Gann initiative (Proposition 13) which halted increases in property taxes for both homeowners and corporations that held onto their property. However, even with the passage of Proposition 13, "state spending increased by nearly 120 percent during the Brown years after" it became state law.

Unsuccessful Presidential campaigns

Jerry Brown ran, unsuccessfully, three times for President of the United States - in 1976, 1980 and 1992

1976

In the course of serving as Governor of California, Brown twice ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. The first time was in 1976 when he entered the race very late in the primary season as the focus of the movement shifted to stop the nomination of former Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter, who many within the Democratic Party felt was unelectable and lacked the record of success needed to garner popular appeal.

Brown touted his record of having supposedly curbed the state's spending and balanced its budget while expanding services in the area of welfare, employment, and consumer and environmental protection, Brown proclaimed his belief that there would soon be a voter backlash against expansive and costly government policies. "This is an era of limits, and we had all better get used to it," he declared. He won major victories in Maryland, Nevada, and his home state of California in the early primary ballot contests. He also garnered the support of a majority of delegates from Louisiana, the only Southern state in the course of the primary campaign to favor either Carter or Governor of Alabama George Wallace. And despite missing the deadline in Oregon, which resulted in him campaigning as a a write-in candidate, he finished a strong third behind both Carter and Senator Frank Church of Idaho. In spite of these successes, 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 a distant third with roughly 300 delegate votes.

1980

Brown ran for president a second time in 1980. Even with the high level of anticipation his candidacy amassed, particularly in light of his re-election victory in the state of California's gubernatorial contest by 1.3 million votes, the largest margin of victory for a candidate in the state's history, his presidential campaign failed to gain any traction. Many believed this was largely due to the more prominent candidacy of Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and the prestige his family name brought to the campaign.

His promise to, in his words, "Protect the Earth, serve the people, and explore the universe," served as his slogan. The three main planks of his presidential campaign platform included a call for a constitutional convention to ratify the Balanced Budget Amendment, a promise to increase federal funds for the space program, and, in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, opposition to nuclear power. Brown also made a number of unconventional proposals as well, such as calling for a sharp increase of federal funding for solar power research, endorsing the idea of mandatory non-military national service for the nation's youth, and promising to support a market-oriented system of universal health care.

Support for his campaign among average American Democrats quickly eroded as more and more members of the what conservative commentators called "fringe", such as Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, and Jesse Jackson, among others, joined his cause. Following his disastrous showing in the New Hampshire primary, in which he able to receive ten percent of the vote, he was forced to announce that his candidacy hinged on a good showing in the Wisconsin primary. An ill-timed attempt at filming a live, special effects-filled, thirty-minute commercial, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, was a disaster and ultimately doomed his candidacy. He walked away from the campaign having received just twelve percent of the vote in the Wisconsin primary. Despite having entered the race far earlier then his original attempt at the presidential office, his second effort resulted in him having spent $2 million while winning no primaries and receiving only one delegate at the Democratic National Convention.

1992

In the wake of his announcement declaring his candidacy for president on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, many within both the mainstream news outlets and the Democratic Party itself dismissed his campaign as nothing short of an ego-trip with little, if any, chance of gaining legit support worthy of significance in the primary contest. Ignoring his critics, Brown, correctly gauging the anti-establishment viewpoint of many voters that year, joined Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot who all enjoyed surprisingly successful presidential campaigns. He embarked on an ultra-grassroots campaign - declaring that he would only accept individual campaign contributions of $100 or less - the likes of which would not be seen within the Democratic Party until the early days of Governor of Vermont Howard Dean's ultimately unsuccessful presidential bid.

He made a number of populist-based promises in the midst of the campaign, including calls for term limits for members of Congress, living wage laws, and opposition to free-trade agreements such as NAFTA. Brown joined with economist and former Reagan adviser Arthur Laffer in drafting his tax proposal, which called for the replacement of the progressive income tax with a flat tax and a value added tax, both at a fixed rate of thirteen percent. Despite criticism from his opponents that his policy was regressive, it received the endorsement of major media outlets such as The New York Times, The New Republic, and Forbes.

Democratic Primary Results: Blue denotes a Clinton win, yellow a Brown win, green a Tsongas win, orange a Kerrey win, and purple a Harkin win

Faced with a relatively shoe-string campaign budget, Brown bucked conventional advertising practices, choosing instead to use an unusual fundraising techniques, such as a toll-free telephone number that adorned all of his campaign material, and a mixture of alternative media that included cable and radio interviews being used in lieu of traditional television commercials in order to get his message out to voters.

In spite of poor showings in the Iowa caucus, in which he received a mere 1.6 percent of the vote, and the New Hampshire primary, which secured him only eight percent, Brown was soon able to manage narrow victories in Maine, Colorado, Nevada, Alaska, and Vermont. Nonetheless, he continued to be considered a long shot for much of the campaign. It was not until shortly after Super Tuesday, when the Democratic primary field had been narrowed to Brown, former Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and frontrunner Governor Bill Clinton, that Brown began to emerge as a serious contender in the eyes of the mainstream media.

Senator Tsongas was forced out of the race on March 17 after Brown received a strong third-place showing in the Illinois primary and then defeated the senator for second place in the Michigan primary by a significant margin. Within one week, Brown had cemented his position as a major threat to Clinton's candidacy when he eked out a narrow win the bitterly-contested Connecticut primary. This, however, was short lived after Clinton pulled out victories in both Wisconsin and New York on April 7.

Although Brown continued to campaign in a number of other states, he won no further primary contests. Despite this, he had secured a sizable number of convention delegates. A big win in his home state of California he believed would deprive Clinton of sufficient support to guarantee the nomination, which would then result in 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%. At the Democratic National Convention, Brown received the votes of 596 delegates on the first ballot, more than any other candidate save for Clinton.

Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees (1969-1971)

Throughout the late-1960s, Brown was active in both state and national politics, organizing migrant workers and anti-Vietnam War groups. In 1969, he ran for his political office position on the then-newly created Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, which oversaw community colleges in the city. Brown went on to place first in the field of one-hundred twenty-four candidates. The next year, he successfully campaigned to be California Secretary of State.

Elections

2014

See also: State executive official elections, 2014

Brown filed a "Statement of Intention" to run for re-election as Governor of California in 2014.

2010

See also: California gubernatorial election, 2010

Although he filed official paperwork with the Secretary of State Office in late-September 2009 to start an exploratory committee, usually the first step in launching a formal campaign, Brown had yet to make his entry into the state's 2010 gubernatorial contest official as late as February 2010. And in spite of the passage of California Proposition 140, which, among other things, imposes a lifelong ban against anyone seeking the same office once the limits have been reached, Brown's candidacy is not effected on the basis that the amendment does not apply to former governors who served prior to its passage in 1990.

Jerry Brown 2010 Campaign logo

In January 2010, Brown said that whoever is elected, they face a challenging term in office: ""The state is profoundly screwed up, and anybody who thinks they got an idea, I would say, 'Give me a call, I'd like to listen to it.' Because I can tell you we're in for blood, sweat and tears over the next four years no matter who runs."

A Rasmussen poll published in mid-February 2010 showed that in a head-to-head matchup the California gubernatorial contest in November between Brown and the likely Republican nominee, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, would be a virtual dead heat with each candidate garnering forty-three percent. The survey, however, also points out that six percent of those interviewed selected other primary candidates and eight percent were undecided, leaving plenty of opportunity for either major party candidate to take the lead.

On Tuesday, March 2, 2010, Brown finally announced on his website that he was officially entering the 2010 California gubernatorial election contest. Over a month later, Rasmussen, whose survey two months earlier had shown a virtual dead heat between Whitman and Brown, released polling data that placed the State Attorney General with a six-point margin of victory over his likely Republican challenger. However, nine percent of those interviewed chose a different candidate other then Brown and Whitman while another nine percent remained undecided.

2010 Race for Governor - Democratic Primary
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Jerry Brown	84.4%
	Democratic Party	Richard William Aguirre	4.0%
	Democratic Party	Charles "Chuck" Pineda, Jr.	4.0%
	Democratic Party	Vibert Greene	2.3%
	Democratic Party	Joe Symmon	2.3%
	Democratic Party	Lowell Darling	1.6%
	Democratic Party	Peter Schurman	1.4%
Total Votes			2,395,287

2010 Race for Governor - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Jerry Brown	53.4%
	Republican Party	Meg Whitman	41.5%
	American Independent Party	Chelene Nightengale	1.6%
	Libertarian Party	Dale Ogden	1.5%
	Green Party	Laura Wells	1.2%
	Peace and Freedom Party	Carlos Alvarez	0.8%
Total Votes			8,085,908

2006

In the final weeks leading up to the State Attorney General election in 2006, Brown's eligibility as a candidate was questioned by his Republican challenger, Contra Costa County Republican Central Committee chairman and state GOP vice-chair candidate Tom Del Beccaro. Citing California Government Code §12503, which states that "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," Republican plaintiffs in the case argued that Brown did not meet these basic requirements. Since passing the bar exam in June 1965, "Brown on several occasions over the past four decades failed to renew his membership and was rendered inactive," renewing it just three years prior to entering the state attorney general contest. The case was eventually thrown out after the court acknowledged that although he was 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."

2006 Race for Attorney General - Democratic Primary
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Jerry Brown	63.3%
	Democratic Party	Rocky Delgadillo	36.7%
Total Votes			2,456,498

2006 Race for Attorney General - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Jerry Brown	56.3%
	Republican Party	Chuck Poochigian	38.2%
	Green Party	Michael S. Wyman	2.3%
	Libertarian Party	Kenneth A. Weissman	2.1%
	Peace and Freedom Party	Jack Harrison	1.1%
Total Votes			8,450,009

Campaign donors

Ballotpedia collects information on campaign donors for each year in which a candidate or incumbent is running for election. The following table offers a breakdown of Jerry Brown's donors each year. Click [show] for more information.

Jerry Brown's Campaign Contributions
	2010 California Governor		2006 California Attorney General
Total Raised	$40,568,641		$8,268,057
Total Raised by General Election Opponent	$177,983,519 (Rep.) $64,985 (Amer Ind.) $30,669 (Green) $10,675 (Lib.)		$5,587,587 (Rep.) $1,238 (Green) $200 (Peace and Freedom)
Top 5 contributors	Brown for Attorney General 2010	$7,668,900	California Democratic Party	$62,721
	California Democratic Party	$3,910,275	AT&T	$29,800
	Food and Commercial Workers Region 8 States Council	$80,700	AFSCME	$22,200
	AT&T	$75,700	District Council of Ironworkers	$22,200
	California Hospital Association	$53,300	California State Council of Service Employees	$22,200
Individuals	$15,588,122		$4,361,224
Institutions	$12,861,441		$3,353,485
In-state donations	$37,798,487		$6,835,211
Out-of-state donations	$2,757,921		$991,196

Personal

Brown currently resides near downtown Oakland, at the former Sears Roebuck Building, with his wife, Anne Gust, former chief counsel for Gap Inc.

Recent news

This section displays the most recent stories in a google news search for the term "Jerry + Brown + Governor + California"

All stories may not be relevant to this individual due to the nature of the search engine.

Jerry Brown News Feed

• California Gov. Jerry Brown let stand 80 percent of killer parole decisions - The Reporter
• California Gov. Jerry Brown Is NOT Resigning, But His Spokesperson May Be - Mediaite
• Texas vs. California: The increasingly testy Rick Perry-Jerry Brown jobs fight - The Week Magazine
• California Governor Jerry Brown Issues Statement on Death of San Bernardino ... - Sierra Sun Times
• Jerry Brown calls Texas Gov Rick Perry's ad 'barely a fart' - Sacramento Bee (blog)
• Jerry Brown says California has confounded critics - Sacramento Bee
• California Gov. Jerry Brown pitches his $14 billion water tunnel project to ... - The Desert Sun
• Gov. Jerry Brown: 'Texas, come on over' - Los Angeles Times
• A second act for Jerry Brown ? and California - Washington Post
• Can Gov. Jerry Brown rebuild public education in California? - Baltimore Sun (blog)

See also

• Governor of California
• Lieutenant Governor of California
• Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom

External links

Suggest a link

• Official Jerry Brown Campaign website

• Biography at the National Governors Association
• Summary, biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Campaign contributions at Follow The Money
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Collected news and commentary at The Washington Post
• Works by or about Jerry Brown in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Profile at Facebook
• Profile at Twitter
• Profile at Wikipedia
• Profile at MySpace
• Brown's Typepad Blog (Not Updated Since Oct. 2005)
• Jerry Brown Blog at Huffington Post (Not Updated Since Oct. 2009)

References

Political offices
Preceded by H.P. Sullivan	California Secretary of State 1971–1975	Succeeded by March Fong Eu
Preceded by Ronald Reagan	Governor of California 1975–1983	Succeeded by George Deukmejian
Preceded by Elihu Harris	Mayor of Oakland, California 1999–2006	Succeeded by Ronald V. Dellums
Preceded by Bill Lockyer	California Attorney General 2006–2010	Succeeded by Kamala Harris
Preceded by Arnold Schwarzenegger	Governor of California 2010–present	Succeeded by NA