BROWN, EDMUND G. ("JERRY"), JR., 1938-
governor of california, 1974-1982
Governor Moonbeam
A charismatic and controversial figure during the 1970s, Jerry Brown fused old-fashioned liberalism to an assimilated counterculture and offered some of the more unconventional departures in American politics during the 1970s. First elected California governor in 1974, Brown rode a wave of voter disgust with "politics as usual" into office; from there he used his position to advocate unusual politics. He urged Americans to "lower their expectations" and live sparingly; as governor he eliminated elaborate ceremonies and sought to simplify official language. He expressed the traditional liberal concern with the rights of minorities (especially migrant workers), but he attacked bureaucracy, high taxes, and elitist education. He inaugurated programs to utilize California's geothermal, solar, and wind power. His vocal opinions, willingness to argue abstractions (fluent in Latin and Greek, he had a predilection for the theologies of Jesuits and Zen Buddhists), propensity to propose odd programs (a state of California space academy, never passed), and unorthodox lifestyle (he was often accompanied in public by pop singer Linda Ronstadt) earned him the somewhat humorous nickname of Governor Moonbeam.
Electoral Reformer
The only son of former California governor Edmund G. ("Pat") Brown, Jerry Brown was born in San Francisco on 7 April 1938. Originally planning to become a Jesuit priest, Brown abandoned the seminary and graduated from Berkeley in 1961. He went on to Yale Law School, graduating in 1964, and set up a law practice in Los Angeles. In the late 1960s he began to be politically active, organizing migrant workers and antiwar groups. In 1970 he was elected secretary of state of California and used the office, traditionally limited in scope, to initiate highly publicized suits for campaign-contribution violations against corporations such as Standard Oil and International Telephone and Telegraph. Brown's suits won him the acclaim of voters, and in 1974, without much help from his father's political allies, he won the gubernatorial race.
An Unorthodox Governor
As governor of California, Brown adopted some standard liberal positions, such as vetoing the death penalty (overridden), favoring the right to choose abortion, strengthening environmental regulation and conservation, and protecting the rights of migrant workers. He simultaneously made significant departures from traditional liberalism, such as favoring right-to-die legislation, urging an equal-wage law for California state employees, and adopting a heavy law-and-order stance. More important, his willingness to refuse the trappings of his office—canceling a raise for himself, refusing to ride in limousines, failing to occupy the governor's mansion—proved popular with voters, and by the 1976 presidential election Brown's California approval rating stood near 80 percent. Brown attempted to cash in on this popularity with a last-minute run at the Democratic presidential nomination, but he started too late, after Jimmy Carter
