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Jerry Brown announces bid for governor, citing his ‘knowledge’ of state government

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Jerry Brown, California’s Democratic attorney general, announced his candidacy for governor this morning in a video on his website, saying he has the experience and ‘the knowledge’ to put the state on track again.

Brown, 71, a former two-term governor of California from 1975 to 1983, attempted to contrast himself with his Republican opponents, particularly Meg Whitman, the former EBay chief who has never held office before.

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‘Our state is in serious trouble and the next governor must have the preparation, and the knowledge and the know-how to get California working again,’ he said in the taped video message. ‘That’s what I offer, and that’s why I’m declaring my candidacy for governor.’

Brown also sought to use voters’ frustration with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who came into office without having been elected before the 2003 recall, to argue against repeating that pattern with Whitman, and to a lesser degree, the other GOP contender, one-term Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.

‘Some people say that if you’ve been around the process, you can’t handle the job, that we need to go out and find an outsider who knows virtually nothing about state government,’ Brown said. ‘Well we tried that, and it doesn’t work. We found out that not knowing is not good.’

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-- Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento

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