Brown claims California needs experience to get back on track
Is know-how enough?
With California currently facing major political and economic problems, now might be the time for an experience hand at the helm. At least that is what Jerry Brown believes.
Attorney General Jerry Brown is the Democratic candidate for California governor, and he is not new to the job. A life-long public servant, (or career politician depending on which way you see it), Brown served as governor for two terms in the 1970s. He has also run for president several times and served as mayor of Oakland.
Brown’s main selling point is his claim that only someone who understands the intricacies of Sacramento will have the skills to put California back on the right path. Brown does have a good track record. According to his website, during Brown’s previous tenure he reduced taxes and California also had a surplus. During the 1970s, Brown proved that he could be fiscally conservative by choosing to live in a modest apartment and drive a Plymouth, instead of using the state official limo. He also won two terms as mayor of Oakland and successfully reversed years of economic stagnation. Brown was credited with bringing $1 billion of investment to Oakland.
Experience is one of Brown’s major strengths according to the Rev. Eric Lee, president/CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles and chairman/president of the California Christian Leadership Conference. “He has been governor before, he understands the California (political) climate,” Lee said.
The downside to Brown, is that since he has been in the political system all of his life, he may not have innovative ideas like Whitman, Lee said.
According to his website, Brown’s three main issues are jobs, education and the budget. The website has detailed plans to overhaul the state’s education system which include addressing issues such as improving funding for state universities and community colleges, overhauling state testing and placing more emphasis on science technology, engineering and math.
Brown also wants to focus on improving high school graduation rates by supporting after-school programs that encourage kids to stay in school and also prevent young people from drifting into crime.
Lee said that California’s high dropout rate is the greatest issue facing the African American community. He pointed out that majority of Black and Brown students fail to graduate and this potentially sets them up for a life in the corrections system. “The schools become a funnel for the Prison Industrial Complex,” Lee said.
Lee, a Democrat, said he is disappointed that Brown, like Whitman, turned down an opportunity to appear at a debate organized by African American community organizations such as the SCLC and the NAACP. He said this level of disinterest shows that neither candidate feels that the Black community, or the plight of Black children, is important.
Another issue that Lee raises is the level of money involved in the political process. Whitman alone has spent more than $140 million of her own fortune to fund her campaign. Brown has spent about $10 million. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, Whitman has outspent Brown 14-1. In spite her spending, Brown is still ahead of Whitman in the polls and has been endorsed by major newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News (Whitman’s hometown paper) and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Lee said the level of money it takes to run a campaign has almost taken democracy out of the hands of ordinary people. He added that a candidate is judged not on how well he can serve the people or how good his ideas are, but by how much money he can raise. “People are buying the election,” Lee said.
On November 2, California voters will go to the polls to determine, if the nation has shifted from the “yes, we can” rhetoric of the Obama campaign to the “no you cannot” bombast of the Tea Party, according to political analysts.
This election is particularly poignant for African Americans, because it will determine the nation’s direction on job creation and significant health care reform, these analysts say. Blacks have higher unemployment rates and less access to health care than many other groups.
First, thank you to Our Weekly and to Stevie Wonder’s KJLH FrontPage. Together, they supported and promoted last weekend’s community gathering to ‘Craft A Black Political Agenda for California,’ held at the Vision Theater in Leimert Park and hosted by the California Black Think Tank.
Last week, President Barack Obama visited Los Angeles in a last ditch attempt to save Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat and to remind “change agents” throughout the state what the change we all voted for two years ago was really about. The president did a luncheon fundraiser for Boxer at USC before speaking to a crowd of about 37,000, who waited in rain and drizzle that came down intermittently throughout the morning. That’s how serious the people are about connecting with the man who is changing American politics.
Like much of the world, I watched with anticipation the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners stranded for 69 days more than 2,000 feet underground. With each extraction, two story lines emerged—the individual and the collective.
Statement by: Ms. Alice Huffman, president National Association for the Advancement of Color People California State Conference
We are here today to share with the public a report prepared and released by the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, which details various associations between Tea Party organizations and acknowledged hate groups in the United States.
