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After nearly 40 years of running for political offices, the man known as Governor Moonbeam said he’s relying on his dullness to win his most recent race.
“That’s really the secret plan in American politics, is dullness,” said Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, who won the democratic primary for the California Attorney General on Tuesday. “It just requires a certain amount of discipline, unless you’re dull by nature.”
But most would say Brown, who was nicknamed for his far-out ideas, is not “dull by nature,” and neither is his resume.
He was the California Secretary of State, a two-term California governor, ran for president three times, lead the California Democratic Party, hosted a radio show, studied Zen Buddhism in Japan and volunteered with Mother Theresa in India.
Instead of a traditional portrait, the painting of Brown displayed in the state capitol is impressionistic, which captures his essence, said Corey Cook, an assistant professor of political science at San Francisco State University.
“The way you look at it determines what you see,” he said. “There are many different Jerry Browns.”
For this election, he is trying to be more moderate, Cook said of some Brown’s stances that seem different from his past ideals.
The mayor said it’s all strategy.
“There is a statistical law by convergence to the mean … convergence to mediocrity,” he said. “So this is a very good plan to make sure that we don’t deviate to either end … and stick right in the middle.”
That way, you don’t get negative press, he said.
Brown’s experience gives him an incredible insight on the political game, Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente said.
“His style is kind of a provoking style. He kind of really challenges people; he likes to argue with people,” he said. “He explores too much; he thinks too much about issues.”
Brown is known for his short attention span and not following through on issues, as pointed out by Cook and other local political analysts.
“He does have a reputation for being someone who is impatient with what he perceives as stayed, unimaginative bureaucracies,” said Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at Sacramento State University.
But Brown said he’s learned the realities of government in his nearly 40 years in the political spotlight.
“We always need to be changing things up, but on the other hand, we need a certain steady management in order to get things done,” Brown said. “I understand more how difficult it is to alter institutions.”
Henry Brady, a political science and public policy professor University of California, Berkeley, agreed that Brown usually wasn’t one to follow through with things, but said he’s improved.
“He’s sort of reinventing himself, (from being the) chair of the California Democratic Party, and then becoming Mayor of Oakland,” Brady said.
When asked what he’ll do if not elected, Brown said he can’t even think about losing.
“Defeat is not an option,” he said.
But with all he’s done, what shall be inscribed on Brown’s epitaph is still up in the air.
“I don’t think we know, actually, the legacy of Jerry Brown,” Brady said. “He’s always off to somewhere else, and you never know quite which way he’s going to go next.”
