Brown puts the past behind him
1992 insurgent candidate vouches for his former opponent’s wife
California’s governor, who bitterly battled Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential primary, throws his support to Hillary Clinton.
PHILADELPHIA — The last time Gov. Jerry Brown was onstage at a Democratic convention, he was fighting for a chance to speak despite his presidential primary defeat by then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in 1992.
On Wednesday, he returned as California’s elder statesman, vouching for the steadiness and dedication that Hillary Clinton has pledged to bring to the White House and contrasting it with the inexperience of Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“While Trump talks and talks and talks, Hillary does stuff,” said Brown, 78, who is serving his fourth and final term in office. “She fights for us on the big issues.”
His speech served as an unlikely bookend to his insurgent presidential candidacy a quarter-century ago. But his fiery rivalry with the Clintons has mellowed over the years, culminating in his endorsement of Clinton before the California primary last month.
“I trust the Clintons, given their experience, in ways that I would never trust Trump,” Brown said in an interview in Philadelphia.
And Brown, who has made environmental issues a central part of his legacy, has been pleased by Clinton’s commitment to fighting global warming.
“From her first day in office, President Hillary Clinton will do what’s needed to combat climate change and lead the clean-energy revolution,” he said on the convention stage.
Brown once dreamed of a moment when others would be onstage talking about what a President Jerry Brown would do.
He ran three times, never making it past the primary.
“I definitely like running for president,” Brown said this week in Philadelphia during an event organized by the Washington Post.
The 1976 campaign “was a lot of fun, but that was a little late” because he didn’t start his campaign until March, and 1980 “was kind of nothing.”
The final race, in 1992, Brown said, “was exciting.” During that campaign, Brown and Bill Clinton fought a famously rancorous primary and engaged in a finger-pointing debate at which Brown accused Clinton of funneling state business to his wife’s law firm.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself for jumping on my wife,” Clinton responded. “You’re not worth being on the same platform as my wife.”
In some ways, Brown’s campaign previewed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ underdog candidacy this year, and not just because they campaigned against a Clinton.
Although Sanders notably solicited small contributions online, Brown limited donors to $100 each and raised money with a tollfree phone number. Like Sanders, he supported higher wages and opposed free-trade agreements.
“Bernie’s campaign stands on the shoulders of Jerry’s campaign,” said Jodie Evans, who worked for Brown.
When Evans introduced Brown at the 1992 convention in New York, she painted him in terms used to describe Sanders nearly a quarter-century later.
“He is leading a revolution for the change this country needs, to break the stranglehold of the corporate interests,” she said.
Much as Sanders has said his “political revolution” will continue despite his primary loss, Brown called on his followers to keep fighting for their goals.
He didn’t endorse Clinton.
Although Brown’s political future was far from over — he went on to serve as Oakland mayor and state attorney general before returning to the governor’s office — he wasn’t able to keep his movement going.
During his campaign, Brown circulated an alternative to the official Democratic Party platform called the Platform in Progress, but he wryly conceded this week that it “has been rarely quoted and even more rarely read.”
Brown joked Tuesday that he wished his 1992 campaign had lasted longer. But when he endorsed Hillary Clinton in June, Brown said, “This is no time for Democrats to keep fighting each other.”
Evans, who went on to cofound Code Pink, a liberal protest group, said she cringed at the endorsement.
“To be a politician takes a lot of contortions, I guess,” Evans said.
Brown said Clinton would have to walk a fine line while campaigning in a year when voters have been skeptical of the value of governing experience.
“That’s the question,” he said. “She has to embrace the elements of anti-establishment while providing the dignity and leadership of a presidential candidate.”
It’s unclear whether Brown will campaign for Clinton. He joked that flying from Sacramento to Los Angeles is about the longest trip he can handle these days.
“I will definitely think twice before traveling east,” Brown said.
An aide leaned in to prompt a different answer. “If asked —,” she said. Brown nodded and said he was open to the idea, “if asked.”