That other father-son dynasty
“Browns of California” explores family who shaped their state
Informed by his faith and his canny political instincts, the father rises to become governor of one of the nation’s most-populous states. His son, gifted with the older man’s drive but with his own unique and sometimes sharp-elbowed persona, follows in his footsteps.
Mario and Andrew Cuomo of New York? Sure — but also Pat and Jerry Brown, whose braided political careers are chronicled in the new book “The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty That Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation” (Bloomsbury, $35).
Author Miriam Pawel, who appears Wednesday at the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, begins the story with the arrival of the family’s 19th-century pioneer ancestors before following Pat Brown’s rise in the state’s nascent Democratic party. His two terms (1959-1966) included a flirtation with higher office but ended with his defeat by Ronald Reagan. Eight years later, Reagan relinquished the office to Jerry Brown, a onetime Jesuit seminarian and activist who represented a new generation of post-watergate liberal mavericks.
Jerry Brown’s eventual fall from power, and his unprecedented comeback for a
second eight-year stint as governor bring the story into the present day.
Pawel began her career on the East Coast — more specifically, as a Colonie correspondent for the Times Union in the late 1970s. After covering Mario Cuomo as a reporter and editor for Newsday,
she switched coasts and worked for the Los Angeles Times. “The Browns of California” follows her two previous books on the life and inf luence of the labor leader Cesar Chavez.
Here’s an edited Q&A with Pawel:
Q: The generation gap between Pat and Jerry is so stark: the father shaped by the Depression, the son by the ‘60s. But they seem to be pretty simpatico through most of their lives.
A: I think that’s true. They shared these sort of core values — some of which are very Californian and have to do with this place, and some of which are very basic moral values and Catholic values. But Jerry gets his start in the anti-war movement as a delegate for Gene Mccarthy in 1968, and Pat is a (Lyndon) Johnson man and then a (Hubert) Humphrey supporter. And one of the reasons the left abandons Pat Brown in
’66 and contributes to his loss to Reagan is because of his steadfast support for the president and the war. You see it also in Jerry’s first term as governor in the 1970s: He very much starts out to shake up the status quo, whereas that was really his father’s generation — a very establishment, white-maledominated government. And he’s really the face of a different generation.
Q: One of the most fascinating threads in the book is Pat’s role in building California into what we think of as a blue state. But considering the number of prominent Republicans who have come out of California — including Richard Nixon and Reagan — maybe that’s illusory.
A: I think there’s somewhat of a misconception in the outside world, including the East Coast, that California has always been this dark-blue state, and it feeds into this image of wacky Californians. But there have been only four Democratic governors in modern times, and two of them were Browns. And the third, Gray Davis, was recalled and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger. If Gavin Newsom is elected in November — as everyone assumes — it will be the first Democrat-to-democrat transition since the 1800s.
Q: Do you think of Jerry as a kind of forerunner of the brand of social-justice progressives who are making a lot of noise in the Democratic party in recent election cycles — as a sort of protobernie Sanders?
A: Yes. I think if you look in particular at his 1992 presidential campaign, a lot of the things that he was doing are very parallel to things that Sanders was doing in 2016, and that other candidates — including Democratic socialists — are doing right now: having a 1-800 number; only raising money in small amounts; using what was then state-of-the-art technology like cable TV. He was always an early adaptor of technology. And a lot of the positions that he took on things like campaign finance reform are certainly things that we’re seeing a lot of today.
Q: What are the key differences between Jerry’s first two terms as governor and his more recent ascent from serving as mayor of Oakland back to the statehouse? A: The basic difference is that he’s literally twice as old the second time — he was 36 the first time he was governor, 72 the second. So his horizons were different about his political future: He wasn’t running for president. But the two things that everybody will say when you ask about the differences between Jerry 1 and Jerry 2: Anne and Oakland. Anne being his wife, Anne Gust Brown; they were married in 2005, and she has been absolutely his intellectual equal and partner in everything he does, and she keeps him focused in ways he was not as much the first time around. And his experiences as mayor of Oakland — being involved in government at that level — really changed his mind on a lot of things, including criminal justice, development and education.
Q: Do you think he’s America’s leading liberal politician who has been shaped by his faith?
A: I definitely think that is accurate. As someone who used to cover Mario Cuomo and used to hear about Teilhard de Chardin a lot, it’s amusing to be covering another politician who was influenced by a Jesuit philosopher. But he clearly was very shaped by his Jesuit education and experience. I think they’re kind of fundamental to understanding his philosophy and actions.