OAKLAND — More than a quarter-century after he burst on the California political scene as secretary of state, Jerry Brown is back on the ballot, this time aiming for attorney general.
In between, of course, he”s been a two-term governor, three-time presidential hopeful and, most recently, two-term mayor of Oakland.
The first two jobs give him a huge name-recognition edge over opponent Chuck Poochigian, a Republican state senator. But his third job has provided some campaign ammunition, with Poochigian characterizing a spike in Oakland homicides this year as a sign Brown isn”t right to be California”s top cop.
“The city is gripped by a public-safety crisis,” Poochigian campaign spokesman Kevin Spillane said.
Brown says the crime figures are being used out of context and counters that serious crime is down when his first seven years in office are compared with the previous seven.
He portrays Poochigian as being out-of-step with California, noting he voted against a ban on rifles that fire .50-caliber, armor-piercing rounds and is against abortion.
“This man has an abominable record, and he”s trying to obscure it by his hysterical statements on crime,” Brown said.
On the contrary, says Spillane, describing Poochigian as well-respected legislator. Poochigian does oppose abortion but has no plans to try to outlaw it, Spillane said.
As a prominent Democrat in a state where Democrats hold a voter registration edge, Brown has an advantage, said Barbara O”Connor, who years ago produced a radio show for Brown when he was running for U.S. Senate.
She now is director of the Center for the Study of Politics and the Media at California State University, Sacramento.
“Many would argue that Jerry has a lot of experience and that he”s grown in office over the years and would bring that to play,” she said. “He has at least a reputation for going and rolling his sleeves up and trying to deal with localized problems.”
A Field Poll this summer found Brown was 21 points ahead of Poochigian. He also led in fundraising as of June 30, the end of the last reporting period, when he had about $5.2 million in campaign funds compared to Poochigian”s $3.6 million.
The two have been slugging it out on the electronic frontier, blasting each other via the Web.
“Don”t be fooled California! It”s the same old Jerry Brown. Great at rhetoric. Lousy at results,” declares a Poochigian Web site, moveonjerry.org.
“World Premiere: Poochigian”s Toxic Legacy Exposed,” is the title of a Brown offering on YouTube.com that criticizes Poochigian”s environmental record.
On his MySpace page, Poochigian pokes a little fun at his own name “Tough to Pronounce. Tougher on Crime.” He also brings up Brown”s old nickname of “Gov. Moonbeam,” a tag dreamed up in the 1970s by the late Chicago humor columnist Mike Royko, who subsequently apologized and tried to retract it.
Poochigian has attacked Brown as a lifelong opponent of the death penalty and painted him as overwhelmed by crime in Oakland, where homicides topped 100 by mid-September compared to 94 for all of last year.
Brown, who has been endorsed by a number of law enforcement agencies including the California Police Chiefs Association, says he has firsthand experience in fighting crime that Poochigian lacks.
“I”m in the nitty gritty of enforcing the laws of California,” said Brown, who lives in a tough neighborhood near downtown Oakland. “I know what is required to back up police chiefs and cops.”
As for the death penalty, Brown says he is personally opposed to capital punishment but would enforce it as law.
As mayor, Brown delivered on campaign promises to get more residents downtown. Schools, which he had hoped to reform, were taken over by the state three years ago following a financial crisis, but Brown was able to establish two charter schools.
Dan Schnur, a Republican media consultant and political lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks Brown”s “done a pretty good job of getting rid of the old Governor Moonbeam image.”
But he”s not endorsing Brown.
“The fact that he still wants to engage in public service is commendable, but it seems like he picked the single least suitable office for his biography,” Schnur said. “An anti-death penalty governor and a mayor who hasn”t been able to crack down on his city”s crime rate is not an ideal candidate for attorney general.”
Brown, 68, won his first statewide race, for secretary of state, in 1970. His Web site commemorates his long political pedigree, including a picture of Brown on the cover of Time in 1974, working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta and being married (to long-term girlfriend Anne Gust) by Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
If Brown were to win in November, it would be the second time he has followed his father”s footsteps. The late Pat Brown was a two-term governor who before that served as attorney general.
