Jerry Brown 2010 | A Few Facts about Governor Moonbeam

1969: Elected to Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees.

1974: Elected governor of California, succeeding Ronald Reagan, who had defeated his father, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, in 1966.

1976: In the middle of his first term, Brown runs for president. Loses to eventual nominee, Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter.

1978: Property-tax cutting Proposition 13 passes. Brown opposed the measure, but later called himself a "born-again tax cutter."

1980: In the middle of his second term, Brown again seeks the Democratic nomination for president. He finishes a distant third behind Sen. Edward Kennedy and the eventual nominee, incumbent President Carter.

1982: Brown doesn't seek a third term and instead runs for U.S. Senate, losing to Republican Pete Wilson.

1980s: After losing to Wilson, Brown studies Buddhism in Japan.
1989: Elected chairman of the California Democratic Party.

1991: Briefly explores running to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston.

1991: Brown makes his third run for president. Often clashes with eventual nominee, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

2010: Announces campaign for California governor.


Opposed Prop. 13 before he was for it: Tax surpluses that accumulated during Brown's administration led to the voter revolt that produced 1978's property-tax-cutting Proposition 13. Brown opposed Prop. 13 when it was proposed. (After it passed, he called himself a "born-again tax cutter.") Even the hint of opposition to Prop. 13 is political uranium in California.

Opposes the death penalty: Brown has proposed many severe punishments for criminals over the years, but the former seminarian's lifetime opposition to the death penalty has been a staple of many campaigns run against him. It will be again this year - as a majority of Californians support it.

Oakland public school system: Though he had no direct control over the schools as mayor of Oakland, Brown promised to transform the city's public schools after he took office in 1999. In 2003, the state took over the district after loaning it $100 million - one of the largest bailouts in history. The district returned to local control in 2009.

Oakland crime: Upon assuming office in Oakland, Brown promised that "by the time we're finished, there will be a lot less crime in Oakland than there is in Walnut Creek." The number of homicides rose from 60 when Brown began as mayor to 109 in 2003 before falling slightly by the time he left office. Overall crime dropped during his tenure in office.

Outtakes from his "We the People" radio show: Brown's comments on his 1995-98 talk show on KPFA in Berkeley are rife with attack-ad fodder, which Brown defends as provocative talk show bait. Like his take on the prison system: "Here's the real scam - the drug war is one of the games to get more convictions and prisoners."

Blaming Brown for gridlock: Drive-time radio ads are coming that criticize Brown's '70s-era support of high-occupancy-vehicle lanes and a slowdown of highway construction as a contributor to the state's snarled traffic.

Rose Bird: As governor, Brown appointed Bird to be chief justice of the state Supreme Court. After she invalidated the death sentence of every case she reviewed, voters in 1986 made her and two others the first judges unseated from the court. To voters older than 45, Bird's name is shorthand for "liberal judges."

Same-sex marriage: Brown signed a state law banning same-sex marriage as governor, and later defended that law and a similar ballot measure as attorney general. Then he changed position and refused to defend the voter-approved Proposition 8, which re-enacted those laws as a state constitutional amendment.

Gray Davis: The governor recalled by California voters in 2003 was Brown's chief of staff as governor.

Does the fire still burn? After running for president three times, mayor twice, U.S. Senate once, and alternately embracing and trashing party politics, voters can expect to hear plenty about Brown's unusual career path.