Party Chairman Brown Keeps Self Out of Limelight

Three months since his celebrated re-entry into politics and Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. has not done it.

He has not elbowed his way past other Democratic politicians into the media limelight.

He has not blundered horribly or fallen on his face or been called a crackpot or made himself the butt of jokes, and he has not, as they say in politics, wandered off the reservation.

He has not lost his gusto for the political body-and-fender duties of his new post as California’s new Democratic Party chairman.

And, he has not won over all his many determined critics or quieted all his doubters.

“Hey, this is not the presidency here. It’s just the job of a party functionary,” Brown said. “I’m trying to move a battleship a few degrees in the water. It’s going to take some time.”

Brown’s performance came in for discussion Sunday as the Democratic Party’s governing Executive Board met here for the first time since he became chairman in February. Brown spoke to those grass-roots leaders, promising to sound a Democratic “call to arms” for the 1990 elections.

More than 200 party leaders gave Brown a standing ovation as he told them the Democrats could win the state in 1990 if it energized its core of supporters.

“Take crime,” Brown said at one point during the meeting. “If Republicans are so tough on crime and drugs, how come there was no such thing as crack until Republicans held the Presidency and governorship?”

“OK,” he quickly added. “That was a cheap shot. But we’ve got to take our cheap shots.”

A two-term governor of California and twice a Democratic candidate for President, Brown is prepared to claim genuine, groundwork achievements already in his comeback bid. He said he has raised more money more quickly than any chairman before him, some $700,000 so far. He has assembled a staff and infused party headquarters with energy. He has given Democrats fresh reasons to dream--so many reasons, piled rapidly one atop another, even associates say they “are sort of dizzy.”

And whether you count it as an achievement or not, Jerry Brown is hearing the welcome sounds of applause once again after seven years away from politics.

“It’s exhilarating to be back,” he said.

Critics Are Wary

However, critics who opposed his election as chairman, and even some who supported him, fault his early progress and priorities. Some remain wary of his willingness to concentrate and wonder about the appetite of his ego.

An important group of rich and well-connected Democrats, although insisting it is nothing personal, have split off from the party and are pursuing their own rump group, called “Agenda for the 90s,” to raise money and register Democratic voters. Another such group is reportedly forming in San Jose.

“From what I hear, the critics were right,” Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) said recently. He was one of a new breed of moderates who fear that Brown strikes the wrong image for a changing party. Katz said a frequent complaint he hears is that Brown has become too closely identified with liberal Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), chiefly through the appointment of Hayden political organizer Cathy Calfo as the executive director of the party.

Other critics, though, seem to be mellowing.

Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, one of the party’s leading contenders for governor in 1990, was cool when Brown was chosen party chairman. But in a recent telephone interview, Van de Kamp said Brown has “set a tone that is just about right. This is not something that can be built in a day.”

Privately, some Democrats say they are most relieved that the former governor has made an honest stab at the ordinary work of a chairman and largely restrained himself from grandstanding for the press.

No Reporters for Mother Teresa

Who would have guessed, for instance, that Brown would not invite reporters or photographers to party headquarters last week when Mother Teresa dropped by to say hello. For three weeks in 1987, Brown assisted the Nobel Peace Prize-winning missionary at her Calcutta hospice during his absence from politics.

When he does step out in public sometimes it is over the doorsill of controversy.

His recent seven-campus college speaking tour, for instance, generated as much criticism as praise.

“It was a waste for everybody but Jerry Brown. He wanted the applause,” says one Democratic consultant.

Conversely, it could be viewed as a successful effort to get students interested in projects ranging from voter registration to painting homeless shelters. “I hear it was a tremendous success,” said Katz, who is otherwise a critic.

Many of Brown’s first 100 days have been consumed with real estate matters.

He just sold his home of many years in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon and purchased a historic, restored firehouse in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco. He also has just leased a 6,000-square-foot bay-view party office in the up-and-coming renewal area South of Market Street in San Francisco.

Growing Payroll

And then there is the building of a staff. His payroll of 15 is already twice as large as that of the former chairman, and still growing.

So far, Brown has hired an executive director, a computer direct-mail expert, a field director, a fund-raising team and he is looking for a political director. Intentionally missing is a press secretary.

Some Democrats are alarmed at the cost of such an organization. But Brown insists he is moving slowly, and only after proving that he could still be an effective fund-raiser.

“We have built the foundation of an effective political organization,” he said. “It’s big . . . . It’s challenging . . . . There is an opportunity for great leadership skills which I hope to prove I have.”

The real work of the Jerry Brown Democratic Party has only begun, of course. This is building up the party treasury and voter rolls.

Brown announced Sunday that he has commissioned a $100,000-study of past voter registration efforts to find out what really works and what does not.

“There was more money spent on registration last year than ever before. And yet (Democratic) registration went down,” party executive director Calfo said in an interview. At 50.3% of the voters, the Democratic share of registration is at its lowest in California since 1932.

Brown wants to present the results of the study to a “summit” meeting of Democratic elected officials in July. From this, Brown said, he wants to fashion his battle plan for the 1990 statewide elections.

Court Action

The former governor also has assembled a legal team to intervene in a pending federal court suit in Sacramento. Brown is hoping to exempt the Democratic Party from some of the contribution restrictions imposed on candidates. A favorable ruling would increase the power of the party.

As one of the Democratic Party’s original “new ideas” men, Brown flits through a never-ending inventory of other what-ifs.

What if the Democratic Party published a magazine? What if it did a TV show?

Such questions are a long way down the ladder from the rarefied heights of public policy and presidential politics Brown once reached, but he seems beamishly comfortable with his new life.

As Brown walks the streets of San Francisco, a panhandler shouts out: “Hey, I voted for you. Gimme a quarter!” At a bookstore, he talks excitedly about his interest in post-modern philosophy. A nearby shopper overhears and shows him a new publication on the subject, and by the way seeks an autograph.

He obliged with neither the 25 cents nor the autograph. But he grins with relief. He may not be at the top. At 50, he is not out of it, either.

But it is precisely because Brown is a strong personality who evokes strong public passions that some Democrats are steering clear of his comeback.

Against Brown’s wishes, San Francisco financier Walter Shorenstein and Bruce Lee, director of United Auto Workers’ Western Region, have pursued their independent “Agenda for the 90s,” first begun to assist Democrats in the 1988 presidential election. Its goals now are virtually the same as the official state party’s--raise money, register voters and elect Democrats in 1990.

No Disrespect Meant

Lee insists there is no competition intended or any disrespect for Brown meant.

“Jerry is nervous about this,” Lee said recently. “But I’ve tried to persuade him it’s in his best interest. Hell, he should be out there crowing and bragging about everything we do. If I was chairman of the party, I’d be thrilled that someone was out here helping.”

So far, the thrill seems limited to elected officials who feel that competition between the Shorenstein-Lee organization and Brown will mean more money for the 1990 elections. Both Senate Majority Leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown Jr. (D-San Francisco) have encouraged the work of “Agenda for the 90s.”

“Competition does encourage greater effort, that’s true,” Jerry Brown said. “I saw them emerging, and I did work extra hard to nail down some extra contributions.”

In these first months, at least, Democrats do not seem of a mind to deny Brown the thing he needs the most, and that is time.

“I don’t know how to gauge what he’s done at this early stage,” says Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos). “I thought it was a high-risk strategy from the start. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt now.

“But I do have my doubts.”