Despite upcoming election, Jerry Brown heads East for Yale Law reunion
With less than two weeks to go before the Nov. 4 election, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown is putting his reelection campaign on hiatus for a few days to attend his 50th class reunion at Yale Law School.
Brown, 76, flew out on a Southwest Airlines flight early Thursday morning and, during his time in New Haven, Conn., will participate in at least two panel discussions at the Ivy League gathering, according to the governor’s spokesman, Evan Westrup. Brown plans to return to California on Sunday.
Brown’s decision to leave the state indicates just how comfortable he feels about his bid for a historic fourth term as California governor. A poll by the Public Policy Institute of California released Wednesday evening shows Brown ahead of little-known Republican challenger Neel Kashkari by a margin of 52% to 36%.
Other notable alumni from the law school’s class of 1964 include: Former Colorado U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart; Robert Rubin, former secretary of the U.S. Treasury during the Clinton administration; and U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-Washington, D.C.).
In July, Hart told the Washington Post that, during the law school reunion, he was going to try to talk Brown into running for president in 2016.
“Don’t rule out my law school classmate,” Hart told the Post. “If you pay attention to his career, you see that he does very unexpected things.”
Brown, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1976, 1980 and 1992, told the Los Angeles Times he has ruled out another run for the White House.
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