Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr. (born April 7, 1938), best known as Jerry Brown, is a Californian politician. He served as the 34th Governor of California, was three times a candidate for President of the United States, and is currently the mayor of Oakland, California.
Brown was born in San Francisco, California, the son of former Democratic governor Pat Brown. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1961.
Brown was a Democrat. In 1975 he was elected Governor of California succeeding Republican Ronald Reagan and served two terms until 1983. Jerry Brown's father, Pat Brown, had been Governor prior to losing the 1968 election to Reagan.
Staunchly opposed to the Vietnam War, Brown had a broad base of support from California's young left-wing radicals who dominated the political scene at the time. In 1978 he was dubbed "Governor Moonbeam" by his critics from his proposal for the State of California to purchase its own satellite that would be launched into orbit to provide emergency communications for the state ( a similar program of leasing satellites was later adopted by the state). The nickname quickly became associated with his quirky politics, which were considered eccentric and even radical by some in California and the rest of the nation. He was even the subject of California Ueber Alles by punk band the Dead Kennedys, a bizarre fantasy about Brown being an evil Zen fascist.
While serving as governor, he twice ran for the Democratic nomination for President, in 1976 and 1980. In his first two campaigns, he was considered a youthful firebrand and was not embraced by many in his own party, especially while challenging incumbent Jimmy Carter for the nomination in 1980. His political views took somewhat of a back seat to the ongoing media frenzy surrounding his reported relationship with singer Linda Ronstadt. His outspoken criticism of Carter in 1980 was regarded by some in his party as helping lead to Carter's landslide defeat by Ronald Reagan.
In 1982, Brown declined to run for re-election as California governor and instead ran for the U.S. Senate. He was defeated by Republican Pete Wilson. Republican George Deukmejian won the governorship in 1982, succeeding Brown, and was reelected in 1986. After his Senate defeat in 1982, many considered Brown's political career to be over.
In 1991, when he announced his intention to run for president in 1992 and to challenge George H. W. Bush in his re-election bid, many in the media and his own party dismissed his campaign as an ego-trip with little chance of gaining significant support. Brown made the adoption of a flat tax the centerpiece of his campaign, an issue that became associated with the campaign of Steve Forbes four years later in 1996. To the surprise of many, Brown was able to tap a populist streak in the Democratic Party, which had suffered a string of defeats in presidential elections. In his campaign, he specifically shunned large donors and promoted his decision to seek contributions from individuals in the sum of 100 dollars or less. He was quick to recognize the possible use of alternative media, often at the expense of mockery of his tactics. Appearing on cable television interviews, he would display a toll-free telephone number for donations, a tactic that was effective but considered gauche by the standards of the day. To the astonishment and even embarrassment of many in the media and his party, he won primaries in thirteen states and stayed a viable candidate well past Super Tuesday. He was the last remaining challenger, along with Paul Tsongas, to the eventual nominee Bill Clinton. Brown gave grudging support to the Clinton campaign, which kept him at arm's length, and his popularity did not translate into a lasting position of power within the national party.
In June, 1998, he was elected mayor of the city of Oakland, and took office in January, 1999. Brown was reelected 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 vehicle license fee (also known as the car tax) and state funding for city governments, implying that Gray Davis had acted poorly in this regard.
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| Preceded by: Ronald Reagan |
Governors of California | Succeeded by: George Deukmejian |