4A Saturday, December 29, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
WASHINGTON/POLITICS
Jerry Brown bows out after 5 decades in politics
Associated Press
Democratic Gov.-elect Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., left, and Republican
Gov. Ronald Reagan pose for photographers at the Capitol in Sacramento,
Calif., Nov. 8, 1974.
BY KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It was
a matter of life and death in 2015
when California Gov. Jerry Brown
pondered an assisted suicide bill
granting terminally ill people the
right to choose when they die.
After much speculation, Brown
signed the measure, a victory
for “death with dignity” advo
cates and a blow to the Catholic
Church, which vigorously opposed
it. Brown, who once considered
becoming a priest, added to his
signature a five-paragraph state
ment outlining how he made his
decision: He sought contradict
ing perspectives from the church,
families of the terminally ill, his
friends and doctors. And he pon
dered his own existence.
“I do not know what I would do
if I were dying in prolonged and
excruciating pain. I am certain,
however, that it would be a comfort
to be able to consider the options
afforded by this bill, ” Brown wrote.
“And I wouldn’t deny that right to
others.”
Brown, who leaves office Jan. 7,
has signed thousands of bills, but
this one stands out to Dana Wil
liamson, Brown’s cabinet secre
tary at the time.
“His ability to articulate his
deliberations and why he landed
the way he did — to me that’s
quintessential Jerry Brown,” she
said.
Brown has honed that decision
making style over five decades in
public life , including a record 16
years as California’s governor, first
from 1975 to 1983 and again since
2011.
He used the spotlight that comes
with governing the nation’s largest
state to mount three unsuccessful
bids for president and urge swifter
action on climate change — some
thing he’ll continue when he leaves
office — and he’s credited with
pulling California out of a financial
sinkhole that had observers deem
ing the state ungovernable when
he returned to Sacramento in 2011.
The son of Gov. Pat Brown, Jerry
Brown became governor at 36 and
built a reputation as an idealist who
eschewed traditional trappings of
wealth and power. During his first
term, he earned the condescend
ing nickname “Gov. Moonbeam”
after proposing a state communi
cations satellite.
Now 80, he’s still an idealist but
one who during the last eight years
championed fiscal moderation, a
position that sometimes put him
at odds with fellow Democrats
who wanted more social program
spending. Yet Brown’s popular
ity surged as he took the state
from a deep budget deficit when
he entered office to a surplus and
$14.5 billion socked away in a rainy
day fund.
He never gave up on the satellite
idea. Last fall, at the end of a global
conference on climate change that
he organized, he announced Cali
fornia would launch its “own damn
satellite” to track pollutants.
“Jerry is an original and always
has been,” said his sister Kathleen
Brown, the former state treasurer
who ran unsuccessfully for gover
nor in 1994.
Jerry Brown was 20 when his
father was elected to the first of
two terms in 1958. Politics wasn’t
his plan — he chose to attend a
Jesuit seminary. There he learned
the Latin motto: “Age quod agis,”
or “Do what you are doing.” He
chafes when asked to reflect on his
accomplishments or legacy.
“Taking pride is not something
that I have been trained to pur
sue,” Brown said recently at a Sac
ramento Press Club appearance.
But the priesthood ultimately
wasn’t for Brown; he instead got a
law degree at Yale and a job at a
Los Angeles firm before embark
ing on his political career by win
ning a spot on a community college
district board of trustees.
Brown leaves the governorship
with an unmatchable history in
California politics. He was elected
secretary of state in 1971 on a plat
form of transparency and reform,
and then governor in 1974. Two
years later, Brown was running
for president. He lost, but his star
continued to rise, powered in part
by his relationship with popular
singer Linda Ronstadt. The two
appeared on the cover of News
week magazine under the headline
“The Pop Politics of Jerry Brown.”
Brown again ran unsuccessfully
for president in 1980, with a slo
gan that reflected the same sensi
tivities he has today: “Protect the
Earth, serve the people, explore
the universe.”
After losing a bid for the U.S.
Senate in 1982, he traveled abroad,
re-entering politics as California
Democratic Party chairman and,
in 1992, seeking the presidency for
a third time and losing to Bill Clin
ton. He returned to elected office
six years later as Oakland mayor
then became state attorney gen
eral. In 2011, he won the governor
ship, and his political comeback
was complete.
He prefers the second two terms
to the first.
“I was more experienced, the
people who work with me were
more skilled, I had a wonder
ful wife who was my partner and
companion in all this,” he told The
Associated Press in a recent inter
view. Brown’s wife, Anne Gust
Brown, is a former Gap executive
who friends and advisers say helps
Brown execute his ambitious ideas.
The second time around, Brown
more easily persuaded the Legisla
ture and voters to make politically
painful decisions such as cutting
services or raising taxes on them
selves. Lawmakers often over
rode his vetoes in the 1970s, but
they did not do it once in the last
eight years. Unlike his early terms,
Brown didn’t have his sights set on
the presidency.
“Jerry Brown One was quirky
and an interesting governor. Jerry
Brown Two is not quirky. Jerry
Brown Two is deliberative, and
he likes to have it his way,” said
Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen,
who served in the Legislature from
1978 to 1987 and returned in 2008.
In the 1970s, Brown brought
younger, more diverse voices into
state government. He appointed his
campaign manager, Tom Quinn,
to head the state Air Resources
Board and quickly advanced poli
cies to curb air pollution. Quinn
cracked down sharply on the auto
industry for violating California’s
vehicle emissions standards, still
the nation’s strictest and now a tar
get of the Trump administration.
He won passage of the California
Agricultural Labor Relations Act in
1975, the first in the nation to give
farmworkers collective bargain
ing rights. It was hailed as a vic
tory, but its long-term effectiveness
remains disputed.
Brown also fell victim to his
presidential ambitions, giving
lawmakers and voters the impres
sion he was focused elsewhere. In
1978, a property tax revolt led to
the passage of a ballot measure
that radically changed California’s
financial picture.
Although Brown opposed it, his
embrace of the measure once it
passed earned him the endorse
ment of tax crusader Howard Jar
vis and reinforced that Brown’s
idealism was wrapped in political
pragmatism.
House leader: Democrats won’t
seat candidate in unresolved race
DHS head at border
after child’s death
BY EMERY P. DALESI0
AND JONATHAN DREW
Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — The
dissolution of North Caro
lina’s elections board Friday
injected further uncertainty
into a still-undecided con
gressional race as a U.S.
House Democratic leader
rejected the idea of filling
the seat until an investigation
of ballot fraud allegations is
complete.
Gov. Roy Cooper was
met with Republican resis
tance after announcing he
would appoint an interim
Board of Elections after a
three-judge state court panel
ruled Thursday that the cur
rent board should disband
at noon Friday. The Demo
crat’s move would fill the
gap — and allow the board
to proceed with a Jan. 11 evi
dentiary hearing about the
9th District congressional
race — until a new law gov
erning the statewide elec
tions panel can take effect
Jan. 31.
Amid the turmoil, incom
ing U.S. House Majority
Leader Steny Hoyer issued
a statement saying House
Democrats won’t allow
Republican Mark Harris
to be sworn in next week
because of the ongoing
investigation.
“Given the now well-doc
umented election fraud that
took place in NC-09, Demo
crats would object to any
attempt by Mr. Harris to be
seated on January 3,” Hoyer
said, adding that
“the integrity of our
democratic process
outweighs concerns
about the seat being
vacant at the start of
the new Congress.”
The U.S. Constitu
tion states that the
House is the judge
of the elections of its
members and the final arbi
ter of contests.
The state Elections Board
has refused to certify the
race between Harris and
Democrat Dan McCready
while it investigates absentee
ballot irregularities
in the district in the
south-central part
of the state. Harris
holds a slim lead in
unofficial results,
but election officials
are looking into
criminal allegations
against an operative
hired by the Harris
campaign.
Friday’s standoff was set
in motion by the latest ruling
from a state court that previ
ously had found the elections
board’s makeup unconstitu
tional after the Republican-
controlled legislature altered
the board in 2016. The court
had ruled earlier this year
to allow the board to remain
in place until Friday while
it investigates the congres
sional race. The latest ruling
came as lawmakers enacted
a new law Thursday
to largely restore the
board to how it oper
ated before 2016.
Cooper started the
process of rebuild
ing the elections
board Friday by
informing the state
Democratic and
Republican parties
that he plans to cre
ate an interim panel with
five members of the current
elections board, unless he
receives different picks from
the state parties. The interim
board would last until the
new law takes effect Jan. 31.
He said he would
appoint both Demo
crats and Republi
cans to comply with
pre-2016 state elec
tions law he says is
temporarily back in
force.
“All of these
members have elec
tion law experience
and an awareness
of the circumstances around
the allegations involved in
the Ninth Congressional Dis
trict election,” Cooper said in
his letter to state party heads.
But state GOP Chairman
Robin Hayes said the dis
solving board’s four GOP
members “will not accept
appointments to an uncon
stitutional, illegal sham Roy
Cooper creation.” Republi-
Harris
McCready
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cans instead will withhold
GOP nominees until the
new law takes effect, he
said.
The outgoing state
board refused a last-
minute formal request by
Harris to certify him the
winner.
The elections board
reorganization threat
ens to delay the Jan. 11
hearing. Lawyers for
Harris and McCready
had a Monday deadline
to submit requests to the
elections board for peo
ple they wanted to have
compelled to appear and
testify at next month’s
hearing. But if the cur
rent elections board is
disbanded without a new
one to replace it, the
board chairman or vice
chairman who could issue
the requested subpoenas
wouldn’t exist.
Last week, elections
board chairman Josh
Malcolm said in an affi
davit to the three-judge
panel that investigative
staffers — who can con
tinue working through
any reorganization —
had collected more than
182,000 pages of mate
rials in response to 12
subpoenas.
Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas —
Homeland Security Sec
retary Kirstjen Nielsen is
visiting the Texas border city
where an 8-year-old Gua
temalan boy was detained
with his father before dying
in government custody.
DHS spokeswoman Katie
Waldman said Nielsen
is heading to El Paso on
Friday.
Waldman says Nielsen
will tour multiple stations
and substations operated by
U.S. Customs and Border
Protection.
Nielsen is also scheduled
to meet with emergency
medical technicians and
medical professionals,
as well as local officials.
Nielsen will go to Yuma, Ari
zona, on Saturday.
The trip comes four days
after the death of 8-year-old
Felipe Gomez Alonzo. Felipe
was the second Guatemalan
child to die in CBP’s custody
in three weeks.
Nielsen has called
the death “concerning
and heartbreaking” and
requested medical help
from other government
agencies.
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