Jerry Brown has $14 million in bank for governor’s race

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So far this year, Jerry Brown has raised a little more than $2 million toward his run for governor and continues to save his money, giving him more than $14 million on hand, a campaign finance report filed Monday shows.

That amount is still far from what Brown, a Democrat who is the state attorney general, will likely need to combat either of his potential Republican opponents, Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, who have the ability to fund their own campaigns with personal wealth. Both Whitman and Poizner have been spending on television ads in advance of a June 8 primary. Neither has filed the campaign statement due Monday, but Whitman had $30 million on hand as of early February, while Poizner had about $19 million.

Brown does not face a major primary opponent, and so has kept his campaign in relative low gear since declaring himself in the race earlier this month. He spent about $142,000 since Jan. 1 on a small staff, focus groups, consultants, transportation and office space, according to disclosure statements he filed for his fundraising account for the governor’s race and for an older campaign committee relating to the attorney general’s office.

On March 10, Brown transferred nearly $7.7 million from his attorney general’s account into his fund for the governor’s race.

He received a total of $51,800 this month from husband-and-wife musicians Herb and Lani Alpert of Los Angeles, the maximum the couple can give in the primary. Brown, who has practiced yoga and advocated for other politicians to do the same, got $25,900 from Bikram’s Yoga College of India, headquartered in Los Angeles.

Brown, who recently was videotaped asking union members to ‘attack’ his opponents on his behalf, also received the primary campaign maximum of $25,900 from a number of different unions representing carpenters, steamfitters, plumbers and pipe-fitters, sheet metal works and other trades.

-- Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento