Jerry Brown launches first campaign ad

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In his first ad of the 2010 gubernatorial race, Jerry Brown takes umbrage at the tone of the Republican primary and the amount of money spent by Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner.

The new 30-second spot features a white-noise audio montage of barbs between Whitman and Poizner, noting “$110 million in campaign spending” and “100,000 negative ads” between the two. As Brown’s voice-over begins, the screen text implores “enough already.”

(Brown’s campaign manager, Steve Glazer, says that by their campaign’s tally, through May 26, there have been more than 150,000 ads from Poizner and Whitman thus far and more than two-thirds of those ads have been negative. According to Glazer’s numbers, Whitman has run more than 102,000 ads in this campaign through May 26, to Poizner’s 48,000.)

“It’s no secret that Sacramento isn’t working today,” Brown says. “Partisanship is poisonous. We need to work together as Californians first.”

Calls to two television stations in Sacramento indicate the Brown campaign has not yet booked time to run the ad. Glazer would not say when or if the ad will appear on television. “All we’re announcing today is the ad,” he said.

But the ad provides a clue as to Brown’s campaign strategy -- an attempt to rise above the fray and position himself as an experienced political hand who is above petty partisan politics.

Glazer said the ad “is really meant to encapsulate what has transpired and the value of it to Californians.”

[Updated 2:07 p.m.]As if on cue, Whitman and Poizner’s campaigns responded with, well, some pretty negative comments about the ad.

“We got a kick out of Jerry’s latest stunt, which will never actually run on TV,” said Whitman spokesman Tucker Bounds. “It’s just too funny to see a 40-year Sacramento insider complain about the political climate he’s helped create. Jerry’s new blue sweater can’t cover up his record of fighting to defend the status quo in Sacramento.”

Poizner spokesman Matt Hirsch said, “Just like Jerry Brown’s failed tenure as governor, this ad looks like it was produced in the late 1970’s. Steve Poizner has been offering specific plans to fix California for the past year, while Jerry Brown has sat on the sidelines coddling the unions that are bankrupting California.”

You can watch the ad below.

-- Anthony York in Sacramento