California Democratic Convention: Who Wants to Be Governor of California?

On the first full day of the California Democratic Convention, I made my way into the big hall, bright green "INTERNET MEDIA" press pass dangling from my neck, wondering who was going to stop me and tell me that it was off-limits.  I thought as lowlife bloggers, we'd be shuttled into a windowless, cinderblock sideroom where we would watch the action from a portable Zenith black & white television set with rabbit ears.  Instead, I was told to go sit on a platform at the back of the room, with a great view of the stage, above he heads of the delegates in the crowd, right beside the TV news crews from CBS, CNN, and other major networks.  I found a seat in the back row of the blogger ghetto, and opened up my laptop.

As I was sitting there, about a half dozen or more people representing various causes and candidates came by to hand me literature, asking if I would write about their causes.  A guy with a firm handshake with the made-for-politics name of Joe Nation, candidate for State Senate, came by to talk to the bloggers. He said that he bought carbon off-sets to neutralize the entire Bay Area delegation's carbon footprint for the convention.  He seemed like a very nice guy, but one of the bloggers kicked him off the blogger platform and said that the area was for press only.

The speeches started before there were very many people sitting in the seats.  First up was Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party, who gave a fairly lengthy welcome and then introduced each speaker, making a mini-speech between each speaker.   Art is a very engaging speaker, but took it upon himself to shush the crowd several times during each round.

The first speaker of note was Jack O'Connell, Superintendant of Public Instruction.  He opposed Governor Schwartzenegger's 10% cuts across the boards for all state institutions, and especially the impact on the public schools.  I expected him to talk about the $4.8 billion cuts to public education proposed by the Governator, but he went a little broader than just that.  It's rumored that O'Connell is considering a bid for the Governator's job, so maybe that's why he seized the moment to talk about Iraq, healthcare, and global warming. About the November election, he said, "We need a President who cares.  We need a President with a vision.  We need a President with a pulse."

He finally got around to talking about public schools, and said, "Was it our students, our children, who got us into this financial mess?"  That drew a large "NOOOOO" from the crowd, many of whom were teachers and parents.  He noted that the Governor likes to tell people that California has a spending problem,  but he thinks it's a problem with our priorities and values. Children, he noted, should be our #1 priority.  That will win the MOMocrat vote every time.  Sing it, Jack, sing it.

Art Torres got back up, shushed the crowd, and introduced San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who was there to introduce Jerry Brown, who actually needed no introduction, let alone two.  Jerry is a California legend.  Jerry is a California institution.  I mean, seriously, the man dated Linda Ronstadt when she was a hot young thing.  Jerry got the first standing ovation of the day, and he hadn't said a word yet. 

Jerry's speech was very natural and off-the-cuff, sort of like your favorite uncle who has a penchant for guzzling gin and tonics at the family barbecue and then going off on politics.  He started off with, "In my life, I've never seen such a number of screw-ups at a national level, and Sacramento?  What is going on?  When I was Governor, there were 20,000 people in prison, now there are 170,000."

He went from prisons to torture to global warming in about 3 nanoseconds.  I got a little lost, but I loved every minute of it.  He seemed particularly livid about the fact that California passed strict greenhouse gas emission laws, only to have the EPA say they are illegal.  He took particular glee in saying that they are suing the EPA for overturning the will of the people of California and 17 other states that wanted to adopt similar standards.  He asked that the crowd send him some people to sue, because he's got "hundreds of lawyers standing by, waiting for defendants."

Jerry waxed nostalgic about his days as Governor of California, when he sold Reagan's bulletproof limousine and opted to use a state motorpool Plymouth instead.  He chose not to live in the Governor's mansion and lived in an apartment close to the State House so that he could walk to work every day.  He talked about conserving energy and reducing carbon footprints on a very basic level.  He said we need to get serious about global warming, we need to build energy efficient cars, mass transit, look at living closer together. 

Probably his biggest ovation during the speech was when he called for a repeal of No Child Left Behind.  He said, "We should stop giving little kids in third grade tests that are taking tests longer than the bar exam."

Jerry Brown got another standing ovation when he finished.  I was among the people standing up and cheering.  He's an old school liberal, and one after my own heart.

I heard later that "Governor Moonbeam" is angling for another chance at being Governor of California.  I don't know whether he's a serious contender, but I couldn't help but think that we could do worse.  We could certainly do worse.

This must have been the day of would-be governors, because two of the people who followed are also said to be ready to take Ahhnold's seat in the State House in 2009.  Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco, gave an excellent speech about not waiting for Sacramento or Washington to act before acting on a local level.  He's piled up a slew of great accomplishments during his term as Mayor, and made national news when he permitted gay people to legally marry at City Hall.  Gavin secured the MOMocrat vote when he stopped by the blogger section earlier and read our blog.

John Garamendi, Lt. Governor of California, gave a less impressive speech, hitting all the big ticket issues--healthcare, Iraq, the economy, global warming, and education.  He tried hard to take a page from the Barack Obama playbook and coined a phrase, "How are the children?"  which came across as more awkward than inspiring.  It doesn't help that he looks like Mitt Romney.  It did help that he seemed pretty accessible to people, and I saw him all over the convention hall posing for pictures with kids and adults alike.

After Garamendi, there were a series of speeches from other California Democratic luminaries like John Chiang, Judy Chu, Fabian Nunez, Karen Bass, and Dave Sanchez, names probably not well known outside of California.  I was struck by how diverse the speakers were in this portion of the session.  I felt that they really represented what California is about, many of them sons and daughters of immigrants who came here and made good, and in doing so, are giving back through their service.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown gave the most rousing speech of the day, funny and inspiring, and utterly charming.  After hawking his book a couple of times, he called on Democrats to unite behind the presidential candidate, whoever he or she may be, and to focus on getting a Democrat into the White House next year.  The crowd seemed unified and enthusiastic on that point.  I haven't heard whether Willie has gubernatorial aspirations, but at this point, I think the guy cleaning up the Diet Coke spills in the back of the hall was considering running for for Governor of California, so why not?

All-in-all, any of the line-up would probably make a good governor.  That should prove to be an interesting race come 2009.

Glennia blogs at The Silent I, Kimchi Mamas, and other places when she's not pretending to be press at major political conventions.

Comments

[debbie - i obsess]

sweet run-down, G. I feel like I was there.

[cynematic]

Enjoyed that post--excellent summary of the speeches.

[Donna]

I cast my first vote for Jerry Brown for Governor in 1974. He got tacked with that "Governor Moonbeam" moniker because he made lots of New Age-y, science fiction-y, green granola-y predictions... that turned out to be RIGHT.

I would vote for him again.

[GraceD]

I'm with Donna. Jerry Brown fan here all the way. He told us to "lower our expectations" in regards to resources, energy, living. Of course he was jeered by the greedy element of the state. Again, as Sister SoCal Donna said, he was spot on.

Oh, and don't forget he went out with Linda Ronstadt. AND Arianna Huffington. Holla liberal celebs!

[Glennia]

I've got nothing but love for Jerry Brown. Like I said, we could do much, much worse. Oh wait, we have done much, much worse.