Excerpt
Jerry Brown has seen this before: a budget in crisis, a Legislature divided, a state confronting the possibility that its glory days are behind it.
But as Mr. Brown — who in 1974 was elected as the state’s youngest governor and on Tuesday was elected as its oldest — met with state lawmakers on Thursday to confront a potential $19 billion shortfall, he was looking at a vastly different world. Within the year, Mr. Brown may have to oversee another round of state layoffs and a battle over pension cuts with the unions that supported him.
In some ways, the governor-elect’s associates said, Mr. Brown — whose quirky and often edgy personality made him an object of national attention even before he ran for president three times — also has changed over the decades.
This time, Mr. Brown, 72, will not be serving under the shadow of his father, Pat, a former governor and a legendary force in California politics, who died in 1996. Many of Mr. Brown’s friends said they considered his excesses the first time he served as governor as an attempt to distinguish his career from his father’s.
His closest aide of 30 year ago — a bald Frenchman who wore a beret, and whose presence fed the zany image Mr. Brown fought to escape — has been replaced by Mr. Brown’s wife, Anne Gust, the former chief administrative officer of the Gap.
As much as an iconoclast as Mr. Brown is, he is a product of the political world, in contrast to the current governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who came from Hollywood and never seemed at ease with the glad-handing that is often necessary in state government.
“I have already spoken to him five times since his election,” John A. Perez, the Assembly speaker, said of Mr. Brown.
“After the current governor, they are going to find an old, steady, experienced hand good to work with,” said Charles T. Manatt, who served as both state and national Democratic leader while Mr. Brown was first governor. “He’s matured. He’s double the age that he was when he was first governor. He has a nice wife. He has settled down. He has changed.”
Mr. Brown, in an interview on Thursday, said the situation he is facing now is much more dire than last time.
“Not even close,” he said. “No comparison. The budget gap is enormous. Polarization is deep. The contradiction between what is wanted and what is funded is enormous.”
Jerry's quirkiness AND long political experience is why I voted for him.
If anyone can start to correct the mess in California, it's Jerry.
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