Philosophical, Playful Session : Brown Suggests That Party ‘Tangibilitize’

On Day One of Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.’s political rebirth, he introduced a new word: Tangibilitize .

What it means, he explained as groggy Democrats scratched their heads at an early breakfast here Sunday, is making grass-roots political activity tangible by infusing it with the kind of big money usually spent on television ads and high-powered consultants.

“Tangibilitize--it means you have to send us a check if you want this to work,” the former California governor told the party activists a day after they elected him to a four-year term as state chairman.

Relished His Return

Brown was by turns philosophical, self-mocking and playful as he clearly relished his return to the public arena more than six years after his loss in the 1982 U.S. Senate race derailed a seemingly limitless political career.

Asked if the negatives often associated with his erratic political career could hamper the state Democratic Party he now heads, his response was, well, pure Jerry Brown:

“The incremental negative to my already pre-existing bundle of negative material is speculative and slight at best,” Brown replied. “And the incremental positive of an energized Democratic Party . . . way offsets the first part of that equation.”

Anyway, if his plan to register and turn out huge numbers of new Democrats works, Brown predicted, the party’s shrinking base will begin to grow again and allow the Democrats to win back the California governorship and maybe even the presidency.

This approach runs counter to that advocated by some other Democrats, who argue that the party has to focus its efforts not on registering poor people, but on wresting conservative Democrats and middle-class independents away from the Republicans.

“You need to do both,” Brown said during a press conference Sunday, “but I’ll use my efforts to go after our core constituency, which is low income. I’ll leave the other (approach) to our candidates.”

Brown will be aided in the voter registration and turnout cause by work already done by U. S. Sen. Alan Cranston and California labor organizers, who have developed a computerized, volunteer-intensive approach.

Cranston credits this enterprise--which uses precinct workers and voter lists--with giving him the votes he needed to narrowly win reelection in 1986. And others say it had a measurable effect on the 1988 Democratic presidential campaign in California.

As the Democratic convention here drew to a close, everyone had an explanation for Brown’s success in wooing a party organization he used to ridicule.

Sister’s Plans

“This starts a positive cycle of success, rather than the negative cycle of defeat,” said Brown’s sister, Kathleen, who is preparing her own 1990 campaign for state treasurer. “My brother’s vision and energy and personality will move the party forward.”

For Jonathan M. Drucker, a 22-year-old delegate from Santa Ana, the 50-year-old Brown represents the embodiment of modern politics.

“Young people realize the new wave in politics is media. And Jerry Brown gets media,” Drucker said.

For others, like John Crosson, it is the sharp memory of Brown as governor. Crosson, a delegate from Santa Cruz, is paraplegic.

“When he was governor, Jerry Brown did a lot for our issues,” Crosson said. “He appointed the first quadriplegic to the government (former Department of Rehabilitation Director Ed Roberts). He believes in the power of the human spirit for people with disabilities. Hence, I’m here today.”

New Style

But is Brown, one of the avatars of modern media politics, really serious about nuts-and-bolts, grass-roots organizing?

“I’ve given it some thought,” he said Sunday. “People say to me, ‘You don’t like to go to county committee meetings do you?’

“Well, let me tell you: I reeeally like to go to county committee meetings!”

Only a slight smile played at the corners of his mouth as the activists roared with laughter.

But, significantly, while Brown became the new party chairman Sunday, he wasn’t quite ready to take over the gavel for the several hours of final convention proceedings--traditionally the first act of the new chairman.

He let the outgoing chairman, Los Angeles attorney Peter Kelly, perform that chore one last time.

It was a bittersweet finale for Kelly, who has built up a list of 100,000 party donors and helped Cranston build the precinct organizations. But he did it without the kind of attention and adulation that Brown has enjoyed everywhere he appeared here in the last two days.

Routine Business

In wrapping things up Sunday, convention delegates waded through a thick stack of resolutions, the most controversial of which sought to put the party on record supporting a Middle East homeland for Palestinians.

That was defeated after a carefully organized effort in which such party luminaries as Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Los Angeles) worked the floor on behalf of the supporters of Israel, who opposed the resolution.

A potentially divisive fight over abortion rights was avoided when Brown, himself an abortion opponent, forged a compromise with pro-choice advocates. It called for “continued access to a full range of reproductive health services for all women of all ages and income levels.”

Brown also was of a mind to make peace with others who do not always agree with him.

Turning to Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), who had actively opposed him for party chair, Brown in fact thanked him. And in doing so sent a message to Republicans who hope to use him as a bogyman in the 1990 election:

“The more you attack,” Brown said with a devilish grin, “the more I thrive.”