SPECIAL REPORT / ELECTION PREVIEW : DECISION ’94 / A Voter’s Guide to State and Local Elections : Governor : A look at the major candidates for governor, their records and excerpts from their stump speeches. On this page: : THE DEMOCRATS : The Candidate: KATHLEEN BROWN

Profile

KATHLEEN BROWN

* Born: Sept. 25, 1945, San Francisco

* Residence: Los Angeles

* Current position: State treasurer

* Education: Bachelor’s degree, Stanford University, 1969; law doctorate, Fordham University, 1985.

* Career highlights: Member, Los Angeles Board of Education, 1975-1980; attorney, 1985-87; member, Los Angeles Board of Public Works, 1987-1989; state treasurer, 1991-present.

* Family: Married to television executive Van Gordon Sauter; children Hilary Armstrong, Sascha Rice, Zeb Rice, Mark Sauter, Jeremy Sauter.

The Record

Kathleen Brown is running on the theme of “America’s Best Treasurer,” which she bases on her record since taking office in 1991. Since then, she says, she has transformed the office from “a sleepy bureaucratic backwater” into a leader in financial management and prudent investment strategies.

Brown cites record bond sales and earnings, but those claims have been contested by critics. In some cases, it is difficult to make comparisons because of lower national interest rates during her tenure and the large number of bond issues approved by voters in recent elections.

Brown also says she has used state funds to leverage investments in home mortgages and small businesses; streamlined the way the state borrows funds to tide it over deficit periods and save on interest payments; allocated business to include firms headed by minorities, women and disabled veterans, and generally encouraged investment of state funds, where possible, in California enterprises. During her 1990 campaign for treasurer, she accused her predecessor of allowing the buildup of a massive amount of unsold bonds, but the backlog remains almost as large.

The Speech: In Her Own Words

Tonight I want to tell you a story. It’s the story of California. It’s the story of opportunity. It’s the story of a state that has lured generation after generation after generation with its extraordinary riches. It is, in short, a story about opportunity.

It is the story of California and it is the story of jobs--jobs that lured my great-grandfather August Schuckman to the hills of Colusa County and jobs that lured my other great-grandfather, Joseph Brown, to the city of San Francisco.

Jobs that kept my grandparents in San Francisco after an 8.3 earthquake that nearly destroyed that city and kept them there in spite of setbacks and disappointments. Jobs that created generation after generation of new opportunity. . . . And they were good jobs, decent-paying jobs.

And I’m here to tell you that that’s what California needs some more of, because jobs have meant the promise for California. They provided the opportunity for us to have good schools, to have and keep safe neighborhoods, and it was those jobs that kept our people coming from Michigan and Mexico and from Pennsylvania and the Philippines. . . . And they had a dream of a better future--not simply for themselves but a dream of a better future for their children.

As your governor, I will make it my mission to create that environment where 1 million new jobs can be created.

As the state treasurer, I have been a builder, selling over $10 billion of voter-approved bonds to build schools and transportation systems, hospitals and water systems. I have done it at the lowest interest rate in decades. And as your state treasurer, I have earned you $4 billion because I am an investor on your behalf.

And I have been an innovator, bringing new programs to the treasurer’s office that have helped small businesses and home buyers, and helping our businesses to clean up the environment. And I have been a fighter, fighting for you on those pension boards against excessive executive pay and against corporate irresponsibility.

I want to be the same kind of governor: a fighter, a builder, an innovator, an investor, because that’s what it’s going to take to create those 1 million new jobs.

Kathleen Brown as governor will offer a new-jobs tax credit to make our state competitive. On Day 1, I will call for California First preferences so that when we spend our tax dollars on those public works projects, we will see that California workers get a chance to be on those jobs. . . .

On my first day as governor, I will call for a $1-billion Rebuild California Fund to help cities and counties rebuild their infrastructure so that they can be the engine of economic growth that we so desperately need.

A Golden State Growth Fund to provide capital and loans to small businesses is the final element in just the beginning of an economic plan to create those 1 million new jobs. Because without jobs, we cannot have the dream. Without jobs, we cannot have the promise of safe neighborhoods. And without jobs, we will never realize the promise again of the best schools in our country.

People ask me, why do I want to be governor? Because I want California to stand for something again. I want it to stand for progress. I want it to stand for prosperity. I want it to stand for enduring values. I want California to stand for, at minimum, 1 million new jobs.

So I ask you to join me. If you believe in 1 million new jobs, join with me. Because together in this campaign for governor, and beyond, we are going to make history.

We’re going to put Californians back to work. We’re going to bring back the California promise. We are going to reinvent the California dream.