The People’s Lawyer Plays Politics

Volume 1, Number 23

When Jerry Brown was campaigning to become Attorney General, he actively approached business interests with the plea that he was “a new Jerry.” More mature, wiser, more moderate. Many longtime Sacramento politicos remembered Brown from his eight years of quixotic “leadership” as governor, and were wary of a return to power. This was the guy, after all, who refused to reduce property tax collections, which eventually led to the passage of Proposition 13. And the man who shut down California’s extensive highway construction program. And the guy who brought us the California Coastal Commission. But despite this record, Brown convinced his share of business contributors that he was a changed man, and went on to soundly defeat Chuck Poochigian two years ago.

Since the moment Brown was sworn into office, he’s set his sights on a return to the Governor’s office. And he figures the path back to the corner office is decidedly left-leaning. That is the path Brown is pursuing.

A liberal State Controller, or Lt. Governor, or Treasurer or Superintendent of Public Instruction is not such a big deal. After all, what can they really do? But a liberal Attorney General can do a lot of harm with his ability to exercise the power of the state as its lawyer.

Here are a couple of recent examples of how Brown is using his power as the People’s Lawyer.

The tiny town of McCloud, population 1,343, is in remote Siskiyou County, in extreme northern California. Like most of the area on and near California’s north coast, the area was once home to a thriving and proud timber industry. The local Chamber of Commerce features historic photos from the 1800’s showing teams of horses dragging big logs out of the forest to the saw mills that employed generations of local residents. But that has all changed with the demise of the timber industry throughout the north coast. The mill in McCloud closed for good in 2002.

Unlike other devastated former timber towns, McCloud has another resource that holds promise for employing new generations of workers in good paying jobs. The resource is clean, abundant water. Enter the Nestle Waters North America company. Nestle developed a plan to tap into three of the springs that feed the McCloud area and pump 200 million gallons of water to bottle and ship around the world. The company plans to invest millions of dollars on a 350,000 square foot manufacturing facility, and hire a hundred workers to man their operation.

Now you might think this is a wonderful ending to a too-familiar small town faces economic ruin story. Old timber town is saved by high tech manufacturing plant. Unemployed workers hired to fill high-paying, good benefit jobs. Local economy springs to life.  But you aren’t our esteemed Attorney General.

Jerry Brown has notified Siskiyou County that if they dare approve the Nestle permits, he will mount “swift legal action.” Why, you ask? Because Nestle has not said how it will reduce global warming. Huh? Yes, that’s right. Brown says the plant can’t be built until it is determined what it might contribute to global warming through the production of plastic bottles, the operation’s electrical demand and the diesel soot and greenhouse gas emissions produced by trucks traveling to and from the plant. So our Attorney General has determined that a company seeking to benefit the local community in remote Siskiyou County must first have a plan to solve global warming before it invests its millions and hires the unemployed.

The Attorney General has also engaged in rank politics to appeal to the liberal left by attempting to rig the election against Proposition 8, the measure defining marriage as between a man and a woman. One of Brown’s likely opponents for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination is Gavin Newsome, who has championed gay marriage over the years. Not to be outdone, Brown has corrupted his authority to craft an impartial title and summary of Proposition 8 in order to gain the support of gay activists. The law requires the Attorney General to issue a title that impartially describes the subject of the initiative. Last time I checked, subjects are normally described by a noun. When the identical language of Proposition 8 appeared on the ballot in 2000, then-Attorney General Bill Lockyer (himself a liberal Democrat with gubernatorial aspirations) described it as “Limit on Marriage.” This is technically an accurate description, but it differed from how Lockyer titled other initiatives that year (such as “Murder,” “Lotteries,” “Gambling on Tribal Lands” and “Juvenile Crime.”). If Lockyer wasn’t trying to help gay activists, he would have simply titled the measure, “Marriage.”  But Brown has gone Lockyer (and Newsome) one better. He recently rewrote the title of Proposition 8 to read, “Eliminates the Right of Same Sex Couples to Marry.” This is arguably the most blatantly political title ever issued in the history of California’s initiative process. It differs substantively and stylistically with every other initiative title that Brown has written during his tenure as Attorney General. Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters called it “a cynical ploy” to attempt to skew the election.

Whether Brown ultimately gets away with these two instances of abject misuse of power remains to be seen. What can already be plainly seen is that the “new Jerry” isn’t any better than the old Jerry, and very likely is worse.

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Jerry Brown is the odds-on-favorite to win the Democratic nomination for governor in two years. This should serve as a lesson to the GOP that it is imperative they pay attention to the election of the next Attorney General. Jerry Brown could well have been defeated in 2006 had Republican nominee Chuck Poochigian been able to raise a significant war chest. But Republicans were too consumed raising tens of millions to reelect Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger, who didn’t need the money against his hapless opponent, Phil Angelides, won big. (Has there ever been a bigger disappointment than Arnold’s performance in office during his final term?) Down-ballot candidates like Poochigian needed the money, but couldn’t get it and lost. Now the “new Jerry” is rampaging California as the People’s Lawyer.

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I’ve heard from several fans, including the illustrious Jon Fleischman, publisher of the wildly-popular Flash Report website, noting that my Weekly Rant has missed a few weeks. I apologize for the lapse. It’s been a busy time as our firm works tirelessly to pass Proposition 8, the common-sense marriage initiative. If I weren’t so busy battling the People’s Lawyer, I could have written more columns. I’m back on track now.

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Comments

[Wayne]

I've hesitated to describe the Flash Report in print because I just couldn't find the right superlative. The search is over. Henceforth, "wildly popular" it is.