Rich Pedroncelli/Associated
Press Jerry Brown has had successes few would have
imagined when he became governor of California in 2010, and his re-election,
should he run, seems almost assured.
N.Y. TIMES ADAM NAGOURNEY
When Jerry Brown became governor of California again, three years ago, this state was on a steep decline, crushed by budget deficits, deep spending cuts, governmental paralysis, high unemployment and a collapsing housing market. California, a place that once symbolized promise and opportunity, seemed caught in an intractable reversal of fortune.
But these days, Mr. Brown — who at 75 is the oldest governor in the nation and about to become the longest-serving governor in the history of California — is enjoying a degree of success and authority he and his opponents could scarcely have imagined when he returned to Sacramento to begin a second tour as governor in 2010.
The state’s budget problems are largely resolved, at least for the short term. Mr. Brown is the dominant figure in Sacramento, strengthened by overwhelming Democratic control of the Legislature and the decline of the Republican Party. He has pushed through major initiatives on education financing and prison reorganization. Even Republicans say his re-election next year seems considerably more than likely.
Max Whittaker for The New York
Times
Gov. Jerry Brown, center, working with aides at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
“Some people were ridiculing California, and some were calling it a failed state,” Mr. Brown, a Democrat, said in an interview. “The unemployment came down from 12.2 to 8.5. Real estate is rebounding. There’s a lot of confidence out there. That’s what happened.”
Mr. Brown has his share of problems. He unsuccessfully resisted a federal court order to move inmates out of overcrowded prisons. Changes in the state employee pension system approved last year do not, in the view of most analysts, come close to addressing the long-term pension liabilities over the horizon.
His latest proposal to overhaul California’s water distribution system is smacking up against the same entrenched geographical and business factions that defeated him when he tried to address the problem as governor from 1975 to 1983. Mr. Brown’s signature plan to build a high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco remains a target of skepticism and ridicule. In a setback Friday night, a superior judge in Sacramento ruled that the agency overseeing the project failed to comply with the cost and environmental requirements in a ballot measure authorizing the project. And the governor has so far shown little inclination to use his considerable political capital to take on some of the most divisive problems that have long plagued this state, among them a dysfunctional governmental structure and tax system.
Yet by almost every measure, Mr. Brown, the son of another California governor, has accomplished a turnaround in a state where his family has been a dynasty for more than 50 years. He has defied critics who questioned how someone who last served as governor in a wholly different era could thrive today, much less rescue a state that had gone from being a model for American aspiration to a case study in governmental dysfunction.
“He’s proven better at the job than perhaps his critics anticipated,” said Bill Whalen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. “In 2010, his critics wanted to criticize him as a flaky moonbeam,” he said. “Instead we have a governor who is very serious and sober about his choices. You can’t find a governor in recent history who has a smoother road to re-election.”