When he was governor three decades ago, Jerry Brown explained his political philosophy this way: “You paddle a little bit on the left, then you paddle a little bit on the right and you keep going straight down the middle.” As John Wildermuth pointed out here on Fox and Hounds,
Brown is not the first politician to try this system. Bill Clinton and friends called it triangulation. But, Brown’s description is more appealing and it makes it easier to examine what he has been up to lately.
Brown has been paddling hard on the right side of the canoe.
On Wednesday, Brown told LegalNewsline.com that over-regulation and too many laws were hurting California business.
"The whole framework of law is crucial for the operations of business enterprises," Brown said in the interview. "But when over prescriptive, it creates a huge and growing amount of overhead and it does seem that we’re reaching the point of counter-productivity." Brown indicated too many laws make it too easy to sue in California.
Not too long ago, Martin Wisckol of the Orange County Register reported on a Brown speech at UC Irvine. Brown supported the two-thirds vote for tax increases and backed the three strikes law and the initiative process.
In the secretly recorded tapes between Brown and a number of different reporters recently made public, Brown defended Proposition 13 when Beth Fouhy of the Associated Press asked him if it was time for Prop 13 to go away. Brown pointed out that property taxes have gone up “dramatically” since Prop 13, something that most Democrats ignore in attacking the measure. Brown did say that Prop 13 centralized power in Sacramento and that issue should be looked at.
Some might say that Brown is paddling on the right to keep a middle course because he no longer has a threat on his left now that Gavin Newsom has dropped out of the governor’s race.
However, Brown has seen the middle as fertile ground for some time now. In March, I reported about his position on tax issues in contrast to Newsom’s. In that piece, I referred to a Carla Marinucci interview with Brown in the San Francisco Chronicle in which he said he would not advocate tax increases and drive jobs away from California.
All these positions allow Brown to take the center ground which is a good fit for the general election.
Which leaves us with the scary question—when does he plan to start paddling on the left again? The day after he is inaugurated governor?