Saturday Politics: Gov. Brown (D-CA) Files For Re-Election

Governor Jerry Brown finally announced that he is indeed running for re-election for an unprecedented 4th term as Governor of California, by tweeting this picture of him filling out his re-election paperwork, a mere 9 months before the November 2014 statewide elections (and 4 months before the June primary). Brown, 75, faces no opposition in that primary and should really have no problem getting re-elected considering the amazing turnaround he has managed to preside over, taking charge when the Golden State had a $27 billion deficit and there was open speculation about whether the state was governable to a rare budget surplus and Democratic super-majorities in both houses of the Legislature.

He also posted a formal announcement on his campaign website:

To my fellow citizens of California: 

Four years ago, I asked that you support my candidacy for governor based on my bringing an “insider’s knowledge but an outsider’s mind” to fix the budget breakdown and overcome Sacramento’s poisonous partisanship. Now, four years later, a $27 billion deficit has become a surplus and our credit rating and public confidence are rising. State budgets are not only balanced but they are on time and free of the rancor of past years. 

I said that I would work with both Democrats and Republicans, oil companies and environmentalists, unions and business, and I have.I pledged that there would be no smoke and mirrors in the budget, and there aren’t. 

I promised that there would be no new taxes unless you the people voted for them, and you did. 

I also said that we would return decisions and authority to local government and schools, and we have--through Prison Realignment and the Local Control Spending Formula for schools.

The goal was to get California working again--both its government and its overall economy, and that is happening.

Imagine what a mess we would be in if Meg Whitman had won that election back in 2010 after spending nearly $200 million? Elections have consequences! Friends don't let friends vote for Republicans....