Blunt and stingy, Jerry Brown suits California just fine this time around

He dismantled Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cigar-smoking tent that was ensconced on the Capitol grounds. He took the former Hollywood star’s giant “Conan the Barbarian” sword off the wall of the governor’s office, and replaced the polished walnut boardroom table with a pinewood picnic table.

“I want people when they come in my office to know they’re on a hard surface,” he says.

He has stood on a coffee table for news conferences, lives in a former Chevy dealership, walks to work, and not only flies commercial, but coach-class on the state’s least-expensive airline. And without an entourage.

What’s up with all this?

Jerry Brown's California: Five big changes from 1975 to 2011

Political analysts say this is just Jerry Brown being Jerry Brown, but that his being more overt about it since taking office Jan. 3 is pure political genius during California’s giant fiscal crisis.

“This is vintage Jerry Brown; he has always been cheap ... the blue Plymouth instead of the limo and sleeping on a floor mattress in his first term. But in these days of lean times, voters appreciate his thriftiness even more,” says Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. “This is good for Jerry and good for his sales pitch: Everyone needs to sacrifice a little, even him.”

Even though he already won the election over billionaire Meg Whitman, Mr. Brown’s challenging agenda requires that he continues to win over voters.

The new governor – he is in office for the second time after serving two terms from 1975 to 1983 – campaigned on “turning the state’s fiscal problems around” and has twice already in major speeches (inaugural and state-of-the-state) called for “courage and sacrifice” and “loyalty to the community, to what is larger than our individual needs.”

Now he is in a sprint to see if he can avoid the same yearly budget mess that has kept California in national headlines year after year for decades. He has broadly outlined a three-pronged plan to deal with the state’s $26.4 billion deficit: legislative spending cuts followed by a special election to extend certain tax rates, and then compose a final budget for the Legislature to pass. Now he and the Legislature need to nail down the specifics.

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