The Recorder
By Cheryl Miller
October 12, 2006
"The former governor and current mayor is a lock to replace Bill Lockyer as California's attorney general."
SACRAMENTO — Moonbeams do not shine on Jerry Brown's campaign trail.
In fact, the ex-governor, who polls say is very likely California's next attorney general, has a very down-to-earth message for voters: Forget the over-hyped caricatures from the 1970s and '80s. Meet the candidate of pragmatism, of moderation, of experience.
"I'm going to take a very practical, common-sense approach as attorney general," Brown said in a recent interview. "I'm someone who's acutely aware of the fact that we as a state have added 25,000 laws since I was governor. I think we ought to give people some space to live their lives."
For more than a year now, Brown has campaigned as an elder statesman, a two-term mayor of Oakland eager to serve the state again. He's still the pugnacious politician, ready to tweak anyone who misstates a detail of his 38 years in public life. But he's worked hard to change his image from a grandiose-thinking, pop-star-dating liberal governor to that of a 68-year-old, sweater-wearing public servant who features a photo of his 2005 wedding to Anne Gust on his campaign Web site.
Jerry Brown takes a microscopic look at the Alameda offices of Advanced Cell Technology while promoting stem cell research.
