Opinion: Mee Yow!

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Is this what the tone of the gubernatorial campaign is going to be?

The senior campaign adviser to Republican Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner who wants to be governor, stuck it to Democrat Jerry Brown with a sardonic ‘congratulatory’40th anniversary press release directed at the state attorney general, who’s interested in being governor again.

‘That’s right,’ the press release ran. Brown ‘began his political career on April 1, 1969.’Brown was elected to the L.A. Community College board when Richard Nixon had become president, it noted, when ‘an Apple was something you ate, and the Apollo Mission had not yet landed on the moon.’

Jerry Brown will be 71 next week; Poizner was 12 years old when Brown was first elected. ‘When it comes to Jerry Brown and Election Day for California voters, it reminds us of the film ‘Groundhog Day.’ Every day is the same,’ the press release went on. ‘Jerry’s always on the ballot.’ Brown has run for the community college seat, secretary of state, governor, Senate, president (more than once), mayor of Oakland and attorney general, winning five of the seven jobs.

The press release also cites Brown’s repeated use of a decades-old photo from a visit to Mother Teresa -- misspelled in the Poizner press release as ‘Theresa.’

Brown’s a wily campaigner. If he and Poizner get through their party primaries and meet in the general election, don’t be surprised if Brown pulls out the quip of another California governor -- a Republican -- to anyone making an issue of his age.

That would be President Ronald Reagan, running for reelection in 1984 and responding to a debate questioner’s point about his age (he was 73). Reagan, clearly primed for this one, said: ‘I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.’ Score that Grecian Formula 1, gel 0.