Brown Proves Competitive Against 2nd-Tier Democrats

Former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., calling himself the “voice of the voiceless,” said his showing in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary Tuesday “demonstrates that the people themselves are going to make up their own mind” about the presidential race, no matter what the Washington Establishment, political fund-raisers or the media might want.

Brown was running stronger than virtually any member of his party’s Establishment had expected. Although finishing well behind the winner, former Sen. Paul E. Tsongas of Massachusetts, and the runner-up, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, Brown was competitive with the other major contenders in the Democratic race, Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.

For the last nine weeks, most polls had ranked the 53-year-old Brown a distant fifth. He trudged across New Hampshire with a handful of aides and supporters, without the hordes of reporters and camera crews who shadowed his better-financed competitors. He spent about $50,000 on advertising, roughly 10% the amount spent by most of his rivals. The other candidates ignored Brown in their ads attacking each other.

“I happen to have a message, and the message is that this system is corrupt,” Brown said Tuesday night as the returns were coming in. “It is not serving the American people. They sit back there, in Washington . . . and they don’t worry about the unemployed except in their TV commercials, which are paid for by people in Wall Street, multimillionaires giving thousand-dollar checks.”

Mike Bourbeau, Brown’s New Hampshire coordinator, said the campaign would move on to Maine, where caucuses are to meet Sunday, and South Dakota, which has a primary two days later. Brown planned to campaign in Maine today and Thursday.