From: pinky@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Burbank)
Subject: Jerry Brown biography
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Reply-To: pinky@u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 21:19:56 GMT

BROWN FOR PRESIDENT

EDMUND G. BROWN JR. BIOGRAPHY

Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. was born in San Francisco on April 7, 1938. He 
graduated from St. Ignatius High School in that city, studied for the Catholic 
priesthood at the Sacred Heart Novitiate, a Jesuit seminary, and received his 
B. A. degree in the classics from the University of California at Berkeley in 
1961. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1964, clerked for a justice of 
the California Supreme Court and practiced law with the Los Angeles firm of 
Tuttle and Taylor. 

Jerry Brown, the son of former California Governor Edmund G.(Pat) Brown, 
got his first active taste for politics -- apart from his father's
campaigns -- in U. S. Senator Eugene McCarthy's 1968 anti-war campaign
for President in California.

The next year Brown was elected to a seat on the Los Angeles Community 
College District Board of Trustees, and in 1970 he was elected Secretary of 
State of California, the only Democrat to win a statewide office as Ronald 
Reagan won reelection and swept all other statewide Republicans into 
office. 

As Secretary of State, Brown drastically tightened, over the opposition of the 
Democratically controlled legislature, campaign disclosure laws. When the 
state legislature refused to adopt more stringent reforms, Brown authored 
Proposition 9, a ballot measure that limited the amount lobbyists could 
spend entertaining politicians, established a Fair Political Practices 
Commission to police campaign practices in California, and limited the 
amount of money candidates for statewide office could spend. The spending 
limit was later struck down by the Supreme Court.

Brown ran for Governor of California in 1974, in a race where San Francisco 
Mayor Joseph Alioto, Assembly Speaker Bob Moretti and State Senate 
Majority Leader George Moscone were considered putative front-runners. 
After winning the Democratic Primary, Brown went on to defeat Republican 
Houston Flournoy in November. 

As governor, Brown emphasized environmental protection, development of 
innovative technology, and educational reform. During his tenure in office, 
California became the world leader in developing solar, wind and co-
generation technologies. He dramatically expanded the role of women and 
minorities in state government, created the highly-successful California 
Conservation Corps, which has trained and provided 50,000 jobs for young 
men and women, and established an office of Appropriate Technology for 
the state. Decades after Steinbeck wrote about the horrible condition of farm 
workers, Brown pushed through the legislature the nation's first Agriculture 
Labor Relations Act, which gave farmworkers the right of collective 
bargaining. Brown expanded the role of state government yet reduced taxes 
and vetoed billions of dollars in proposed spending. 

Brown was reelected in 1978 by the largest margin in California history. He 
received 1.3 million votes more than his Republican opponent, state 
Attorney General Evelle Younger. 

Twice while serving as governor of California -- in 1976 and in 1980 -- 
Brown entered presidential primaries. In 1976 he won several primaries, but 
entered the contest too late to obtain enough delegates to win the 
nomination. His 1980 effort, against incumbent President Jimmy Carter, was 
also unsuccessful. 

Brown decided not to seek a third term as governor in 1982, and instead ran 
for the U. S. Senate, losing to Republican Pete Wilson, now California's 
governor. Following his defeat Brown traveled widely in Mexico and Asia, 
including living six months in Japan, and visited political leaders in both 
China and the Soviet Union. While in India, he worked as a volunteer with 
Mother Teresa at the Home for the Dying and Destitute. Later, he briefly 
practiced law and in 1989 was elected chairman of the California 
Democratic Party, a post he resigned in March 1991 to pursue a possible 
campaign for the U. S. Senate. During the summer Brown announced that 
he was abandoning the Senate race, even though polls showed him the 
front-runner, to explore a possible campaign for President. 


2121 Cloverfield Blvd., Suite #120, Santa Monica, CA 90404

Phone: (213) 449-1992  FAX: (213) 449-1903


Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive