Know Your Future Governator: Jerry Brown

This week in Know Your Future Governator, meet Jerry Brown (although this guy, you probably already know)!

Mr. Brown has a rather interesting history, if I may say so myself. Born in San Francisco, he graduated from St. Ignatius High School, spent a year at Santa Clara University before answering God’s call to become a Jesuit Priest. Four years later, he went back to school at UC Berkeley and afterwards attended Yale Law. His political career looks something like this:

1969: Elected to Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees
1970: Elected to be California’s Secretary of State
1974: Elected to be California’s Governor (Reelected in 1978.)
1982: Ran for U.S. Senate and lost to Pete Wilson, so he went to India to work with Mother Teresa
1989: Became Chairman of the State Democratic Party
1992: Ran for U.S. President against Bill Clinton in the Democratic primaries and won Maine, Colorado, Vermont, Connecticut, Utah and Nevada
1998: Elected to be Mayor of Oakland (Although I’m not sure he ever lived there before becoming Mayor. He was reelected in 2002.)
2006: Elected to be California State Attorney General

This is quite the record I have to admit. I know what you’re all thinking: What did he do as Governor of California in the 1970s? Most sources cite him as having a strong environmental record, including the creation of the California Conservation Corps by the former Governor and making the California Coastal Protection Act permanent law. He also takes credit on his campaign site (http://www.jerrybrown.org/about) for California producing 25% of the nation’s new jobs during his tenure. However, since that was the very beginning of the technology boom, I’m not sure I feel comfortable giving him all the kudos for that.

What I find the MOST interesting about Jerry Brown and his website, is the lack of information about the issues! If you check out his website, you’ll notice that it has more than you could ever possibly want to know about his political career and who Jerry Brown is, but zero information about his views on California’s budget crisis, the economy, the drought, or education.

Granted it is extremely early in election season, but what I find the most disturbing about this are the preliminary polls. You can find these on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,_2010. Even with his lack of a plan, Mr. Brown appears to be the favorite in every single poll. I’m certainly not saying that he doesn’t have the potential to do great things, if you check out his “Fighting for You” tab on his Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/jerrybrown#/jerrybrown?v=wall&viewas=0, it’s clear that he is all about reform. It would just be nice to know exactly what reforms we can look forward to (exactly what reforms we are in for), before we go to vote.