Jerry Brown expected to formally announce gubernatorial bid

State Attorney General Jerry Brown is expected to formally announce Tuesday that he’s running for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor. For months, he’s been raising money for the campaign.

Jerry Brown, 71, is seeking to return to an office he held more than three decades ago. Brown was governor from 1975 until 1983, after his father held the office in the early 1960s.

The Brown name is one of the best known in state Democratic Party circles. No major opponent has stepped forward to challenge him for the nomination.

Brown’s long political career has taken a few side roads. After failing in a bid for the U.S. Senate, he spent the late 1980’s studying Buddhism in Japan and visiting Mother Theresa in India.

He returned to politics and lost to Bill Clinton in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary. In 1998, he was elected mayor of Oakland, and six years ago was elected California Attorney General, setting up this repeat run for governor.

If nominated, he’ll likely face either former e-Bay Chief Meg Whitman or State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, both of whom are seeking the Republican nomination for governor.

At a meeting of the California Young Democrats last weekend, Brown made it clear he will not support tax increases to help fill the $20 billion shortfall projected through June 2011.

Sounding at times like the leading GOP contenders, Brown said the state needs to find "efficiencies.''

"There are people who are losing their house, they are worried about their job. They haven't gotten a pay raise in a couple years. We're going to have to win the trust of the people of California. That's what we've got to do first,'' he said.

"We've got to get the state of California understanding what's at stake, and I don't think people at this moment in time are going to be jumping for revenue, at least when they're paying the taxes.''

He railed against lawmakers who spent too freely when times were good, creating ongoing programs the state couldn't afford. Like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, he called for a robust rainy-day fund to help California weather economic hard times, saying that's how the state survived when voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978, sending property tax revenue plummeting.

Yet Democrats have resisted creating a legally mandated rainy day fund, saying the state should wait until the economy rebounds to set money aside. It's one of many disagreements over funding in an increasingly polarized state Legislature.

Brown argues a seasoned politician is the only one who can cut through the political gridlock that has strangled Sacramento.

KPCC Wire Services contributed to this story