Democrat Jerry Brown to Launch 1st TV Ads

Sacramento - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown released his first TV commercial of the general election campaign Monday, making good on his promise to use Labor Day weekend as his starting point for the fall contest against Republican opponent Meg Whitman.

The state attorney general released the ad on his website at the same time he was participating in a union-sponsored Labor Day breakfast at the downtown Catholic cathedral in Los Angeles with the rest of the Democratic ticket. Before about 650 union supporters, he dismissed what he called a tightly scripted Whitman campaign that is marked by constant television ads and high-priced political consultants.

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Jane Barnett, the chairwoman of the Republican Party in LA County and Eric Bauman, the chairman of the Democratic Party in LA County and vice-chairman of the statewide party, joined us live on Monday to talk about the "Brown vs. Whitman" campaign. Watch the video in the media player.
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"I'm not an advertisement," Brown told the cheering crowd.

"I'm a real person who has lived in this state all my life." The contours of the gubernatorial campaign have been coming into focus for months -- Whitman promoting her business experience and painting Brown as a political insider who doesn't need a third term as governor, and Brown touting his decades of experience as just what California needs to mend its broken budgeting system and a dysfunctional political environment in Sacramento.

His ad plays up those themes. Brown describes what he views as his accomplishments from his previous time in the governor's office, from 1975-83, including balanced budgets and 1.9 million jobs being created. He then goes on to promote some of the same themes Whitman has campaigned on -- that California is in need of major change and, at a time of persistent budget deficits and 12 percent unemployment, must live within its means.

Taxes, he says, should not be raised "without voter approval."

Whitman said Californians should expect higher taxes if Brown is elected and has criticized his handling of the economy and state budget during his previous tenure. Her campaign responded to Brown's TV ad by attacking his record as governor, saying he left the state with higher spending, a budget deficit and an unemployment of 11.1 percent.

"Jerry Brown is the last person we can trust for 'major change' in Sacramento," said a Whitman campaign spokesman, Andrea Jones Rivera.

Brown's ad will begin airing Tuesday in all major media markets throughout California, said his campaign manager, Steve Glazer.

Brown has kept a light campaign schedule over the summer, making some Democrats nervous that he was not doing enough to compete effectively with Whitman, a billionaire who began her general election TV and radio advertising immediately after the June primary.

The former eBay chief executive has spent $104 million of her own money so far and has said she plans to spend at least $150 million in her first campaign for public office. Glazer said Whitman TV ads have aired 45,000 times in California since the primary, with two-thirds of them attacking Brown.

He said the Brown campaign made a strategic decision to wait until the end of summer before advertising, rather than try to respond earlier to Whitman's.

"We've held our fire and let her ads run to the point of oversaturation -- and we do believe that is exactly what has happened," Glazer said.

The Brown campaign will not come close to Whitman in overall spending but will have enough to get its message out in the final months heading toward the Nov. 2 election, he said.

"We feel we're going to be very competitive all the way through the election," he said.

Brown had $23 million cash on hand as of June 30, the end of the last reporting period, while Whitman has an almost unlimited ability to tap her personal fortune. A midsummer Field Poll showed the two in a statistical tie.

While he had no advertising of his own over the summer, Brown benefited from a coalition of labor groups that spent about $7 million on television ads and $1 million on Internet ads. Their spots highlighted Whitman's spotty voting record and criticized her record as the former chief executive of eBay.

Whitman has criticized Brown's relationship with public employee unions, saying he will owe them favors if elected.

Brown had three Northern California campaign stops planned Monday after Los Angeles, with stops in Solano County, Sacramento and Alameda. He also had campaign events Saturday and Sunday.

Whitman had just one public event over the weekend, talking to supporters at Columbia State Historic Park in the Sierra foothills on Saturday.