88 Facts About Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown was both the oldest and sixth-youngest governor of California due to the 28-year gap between his second and third terms.

Jerry Brown was elected to serve as the 23rd Secretary of State of California from 1971 to 1975.

At 36, Jerry Brown was elected to his first term as governor in 1974, making him the youngest California Governor in 111 years.

Jerry Brown declined to pursue a third term as governor in 1982, instead making an unsuccessful run for the United States Senate that same year, losing to San Diego Mayor and future Governor Pete Wilson.

Jerry Brown ran for his third and fourth terms as governor in 2010 and 2014, his eligibility to do so having stemmed from California's constitutional grandfather clause.

Jerry Brown was born in San Francisco, California, the only son of four children born to District Attorney of San Francisco and later Governor of California, Edmund Gerald "Pat" Jerry Brown Sr.

Jerry Brown's father was of half Irish and half German descent.

Jerry Brown was a member of the California Cadet Corps at St Ignatius High School, where he graduated in 1955.

In 1955, Jerry Brown entered Santa Clara University for a year and left to attend Sacred Heart Novitiate, a Jesuit novice house in Los Gatos, intent on becoming a Catholic priest.

Jerry Brown resided at the novitiate from August 1956 to January 1960 before enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics in 1961.

In 1969, Jerry Brown ran for the newly created Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, which oversaw community colleges in the city; he placed first in a field of 124 and served until 1971.

Jerry Brown argued before the California Supreme Court and won cases against Standard Oil of California, International Telephone and Telegraph, Gulf Oil, and Mobil for election law violations.

In 1974, Brown ran in a highly contested Democratic primary for Governor of California against Speaker of the California Assembly Bob Moretti, San Francisco Mayor Joseph L Alioto, Representative Jerome R Waldie, and others.

Jerry Brown won the primary with the name recognition of his father, Pat Jerry Brown, whom many people admired for his progressive administration.

Jerry Brown succeeded Republican Governor Ronald Reagan, who retired after two terms.

Rather than riding as a passenger in a chauffeured limousine as previous governors had done, Jerry Brown walked to work and drove in a Plymouth Satellite sedan.

Jerry Brown appointed J Baldwin to work in the newly created California Office of Appropriate Technology, Sim Van der Ryn as State Architect, Stewart Brand as Special Advisor, John Bryson as chairman of the California State Water Board.

Jerry Brown reorganized the California Arts Council, boosting its funding by 1300 percent and appointing artists to the council, and appointed more women and minorities to office than any other previous California governor.

In 1975, Brown obtained the repeal of the "depletion allowance", a tax break for the state's oil industry, despite the efforts of lobbyist Joe Shell, a former intraparty rival to Richard M Nixon.

In 1975, Jerry Brown opposed Vietnamese immigration to California, saying that the state had enough poor people.

Jerry Brown strongly opposed the death penalty and vetoed it as governor, which the legislature overrode in 1977.

Jerry Brown was both in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment and opposed to Proposition 13, the latter of which would decrease property taxes and greatly reduce revenue to cities and counties.

Max Neiman, a professor at the Institute of Governmental Studies at University of California, Berkeley, credited Jerry Brown for "bailing out local government and school districts", but felt it was harmful "because it made it easier for people to believe that Proposition 13 wasn't harmful".

Jerry Brown began his first campaign for the Democratic nomination for president on March 16,1976, late in the primary season and over a year after some candidates had started campaigning.

Jerry Brown missed the deadline in Oregon, but he ran as a write-in candidate and finished in third behind Jimmy Carter and Senator Frank Church of Idaho.

Jerry Brown is often credited with winning the New Jersey and Rhode Island primaries, but in reality, uncommitted slates of delegates that Jerry Brown advocated in those states finished first.

Jerry Brown finished third with roughly 300 delegate votes, narrowly behind Congressman Morris Udall and Carter.

Jerry Brown appointed the first openly gay judge in the United States when he named Stephen Lachs to serve on the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1979.

Jerry Brown completed his second term having appointed a total of five gay judges, including Rand Schrader and Jerold Krieger.

Jerry Brown signed AB 607, which banned homosexuals from receiving civil marriage licenses, in 1977.

Jerry Brown championed the Peripheral Canal project to transport water from near Sacramento around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the Central Valley Project and export it to southern California.

In 1981, Jerry Brown, who had established a reputation as a strong environmentalist, was confronted with a serious medfly infestation in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Governor Jerry Brown then authorized a massive response to the infestation.

In 1978, San Francisco punk band the Dead Kennedys' first single, "California uber alles", from the album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, was released; it was performed from the perspective of then-governor Jerry Brown painting a picture of a hippie-fascist state, satirizing what they considered his mandating of liberal ideas in a fascist manner, commenting on what lyricist Jello Biafra saw as the corrosive nature of power.

The imaginary Jerry Brown had become President Jerry Brown presiding over secret police and gas chambers.

Jerry Brown chose not to run for a third term in 1982, and instead ran for the United States Senate, but lost to San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson.

Jerry Brown was succeeded as governor by George Deukmejian, then state attorney general, on January 3,1983.

Jerry Brown endorsed the idea of mandatory non-military national service for the nation's youth.

Jerry Brown suggested that the Defense Department cut back on support troops while beefing up the number of combat troops.

Jerry Brown opposed Kennedy's call for universal national health insurance and opposed Carter's call for an employer mandate to provide catastrophic private health insurance labeling it socialist.

Jerry Brown received only 10 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, and he was forced to announce that his decision to remain in the race would depend on a good showing in the Wisconsin primary.

In early 1991, Jerry Brown abruptly resigned his post and announced that he would run for the Senate seat held by the retiring Alan Cranston.

Jerry Brown scored surprising wins in Connecticut and Colorado and seemed poised to overtake Clinton.

Jerry Brown still had a sizable number of delegates, and a big win in his home state of California would deprive Clinton of sufficient support to win the Democratic nomination, possibly bringing about a brokered convention.

Jerry Brown spoke at the convention, and to the national viewing audience, yet without endorsing Clinton, through the device of seconding his own nomination.

Jerry Brown constructed a multi-million dollar work-live complex, serving both as his residence and as a workspace.

Jerry Brown launched a national talk radio show from his Oakland complex, which he would continue to produce until October 1997.

In Oakland, Jerry Brown became involved as an activist in local political matters, including bay-front development and campaign finance reform.

In 1996, Jerry Brown unsuccessfully urged Oakland mayor Elihu Harris to appoint him to a seat on the Oakland Port Commission.

The city was rapidly losing residents and businesses, and Jerry Brown is credited with starting the revitalization of the city using his connections and experience to lessen the economic downturn while attracting $1 billion of investments, including refurbishing the Fox Theatre, the Port of Oakland, and Jack London Square.

The downtown district was losing retailers, restaurateurs and residential developers, and Jerry Brown sought to attract thousands of new residents with disposable income to revitalize the area.

Jerry Brown continued his predecessor Elihu Harris's public policy of supporting downtown housing development in the area defined as the Central Business District in Oakland's 1998 General Plan.

Since Jerry Brown worked toward the stated goal of bringing an additional 10,000 residents to Downtown Oakland, his plan was known as the "10k Plan".

Jerry Brown had campaigned on fixing Oakland's schools, but "bureaucratic battles" dampened his efforts.

Jerry Brown concedes he never had control of the schools, and his reform efforts were "largely a bust".

Jerry Brown focused instead on the creation of two charter schools, the Oakland School for the Arts and the Oakland Military Institute.

Jerry Brown sponsored nearly two dozen crime initiatives to reduce the crime rate, although crime decreased by 13 percent overall, the city still suffered a "57 percent spike in homicides his final year in office, to 148 overall".

In 2004, Jerry Brown expressed interest to be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of California in the 2006 election, and in May 2004, he formally filed to run.

Jerry Brown moved to resume capital punishment in 2010 with the execution of Albert Greenwood Jerry Brown after the lifting of a statewide moratorium by a California court.

Prosecutor Rod Pacheco, who supported Republican opponent Meg Whitman, said that it would be unfair to accuse Jerry Brown of using the execution for political gain as they never discussed the case.

In June 2008, Jerry Brown filed a fraud lawsuit claiming mortgage lender Countrywide Financial engaged in "unfair and deceptive" practices to get homeowners to apply for risky mortgages far beyond their means.

Jerry Brown accused the lender of breaking the state's laws against false advertising and unfair business practices.

The state appeals court declined to order the governor or Attorney-General Jerry Brown to defend the proposition.

Jerry Brown announced his candidacy for governor on March 2,2010.

Jerry Brown was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, The Sacramento Bee, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Service Employees International Union.

Jerry Brown was sworn in for his third term as governor on January 3,2011, succeeding Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger who had been term-limited.

Jerry Brown was working on a budget that would shift many government programs from the state to the local level, a reversal of trends from his first tenure as governor.

On June 28,2012, Jerry Brown signed a budget that made deep cuts to social services with the assumption that voters would pass $8 billion in tax increases in November 2012 to close California's $15.7-billion budget deficit.

In September 2012, Jerry Brown signed legislation sponsored by California State Senator Ted Lieu that prohibits protesters at funerals within 300 feet, with convicted violators punishable with fines and jail time; the legislation was in response to protests conducted by the Westboro Baptist Church.

In 2013, Jerry Brown proposed a large, $25 billion Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build two large, four-story tall, 30 miles long tunnels to carry fresh water from the Sacramento River under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta toward the intake stations for the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project.

In July 2014, Jerry Brown traveled to Mexico to hold meetings with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and other Central American leaders about the ongoing children's immigration crisis.

Jerry Brown announced his bid for re-election on February 27,2014.

Jerry Brown's leading example was the Tesla Motors factory investment, creating 6,500 manufacturing jobs, going to Nevada rather than California.

Jerry Brown responded that the cash payment upfront required by the investment would have been unfair to California taxpayers.

Jerry Brown said that if he were elected to a fourth and final term, he would continue transferring power to local authorities, particularly over education and criminal justice policy, and would resist fellow Democrats' "gold rush for new programs and spending".

Jerry Brown's stated goals for his unprecedented fourth term in office were to construct the California High-Speed Rail, to create tunnels to shore up the state's water system and to curb carbon dioxide emissions.

Jerry Brown still had $20 million in campaign funds to advance his ballot measures in case the legislature didn't support his plans.

In October 2015, Jerry Brown signed off the California End of Life Option Act allowing residents of California who fulfilled strict criteria to exercise the right to die by accessing medical aid in dying.

On December 18,2015, Jerry Brown moved into the Historic Governor's Mansion, now part of Governor's Mansion State Historic Park.

Jerry Brown has opposed the Proposition 6 ballot measure to repeal the Road Repair and Accountability Act, and endorsed Gavin Newsom to succeed him.

Jerry Brown has been criticized for his links to the oil and gas industry, notably for contributions from, and his family ties to, Sempra Energy.

Jerry Brown commuted more than 82 sentences, the highest number since at least the 1940s.

In March 2005, Jerry Brown announced his engagement to his girlfriend since 1990, Anne Gust, former chief administrative officer for The Gap.

The official gubernatorial portrait of Jerry Brown, commemorating his first period as Governor of California, was painted by Don Bachardy and unveiled in 1984.

Jerry Brown has a long-term friendship with his aide Jacques Barzaghi, whom he met in the early 1970s and put on his payroll.

In December 2012, media outlets reported that Jerry Brown was being treated for early stage localized prostate cancer with a very good prognosis.

In 2019, Jerry Brown was appointed to be a visiting professor at Berkeley.

Jerry Brown's accent has been described as reminiscent of the "Mission Brogue", particularly with his non-rhoticity.