Attorney Jerry Brown has finally announced his campaign for governor with a YouTube video. He argues that Sacramento is broken, and only someone with political experience can fix the problem. Namely, former Governor Moonbeam.
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman's campaign countered in an email with quotes from Brown in 1974 where he argued his relative political inexperience was a virtue.
"Jerry Brown has had a 40-year career in politics which has resulted in a trail of failed experiments, undelivered promises, big government spending and higher taxes," Whitman wrote in a campaign email.
Whitman's campaign took a break from attacking the other candidates to pick up an endorsement from former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, because the Bush adminstration's foreign policy is so terribly popular right now.
Not dropping out of the race at all, but also formally declaring for the gubernatorial primary, is Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. He also kicked off an advertising campaign where he promises to cut taxes and save money by denying state services to immigrants and toughen up border patrol. The campaigns are now accusing each other of being crypto-liberals.
Which, frankly, sounds a lot like Slate writer Mickey Kaus, who filed the necessary paperwork to run against Senator Barbara Boxer in the Democratic primary for the senate. His intent is to run to the right of Boxer, and "argue, as a Democrat, against the party's dogma on several major issues."
State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who's also running to the right of Barbara Boxer -- and everyone else -- in the senate race is apparently counting on Tea Party donations from around the country to finance his campaign, according to a New York Times article that calls Boxer "vulnerable."
Jackson West wonders why candidates for both parties in otherwise liberal California seem to have gone right-wing.
