 There is something very 19th century about the old-fashioned crusades by the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board, which has set its sights on a garish and coruscating new billboard near the Bay Bridge. Now, the editorial campaigns to beat politicians into submission come with e-mail addresses.
Former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, now attorney general, had a dream of bringing the lighted billboard to tens of thousands of commuters traveling in and out of San Francisco. The billboard is now up and glowing with the help of a politically connected company that, incidentally, had received a no-bid contract for another prominent billboard complex near the Oakland Coliseum.
Brown calls the new Bay Bridge billboard "darn good commercial art," for which the city received payment on some rehabilitation projects. That "art" can now be seen at night miles away from the Berkeley/Oakland hillsides. Caltrans wants the billboard toned down, but so far it still shines in the night.
The companion controversy involves legislation that would allow commercial billboards all over the state to convert to electronic versions. And why not--it would save the lives of children by allowing more Jessica's Law alerts. Try opposing that.
S.F. Chronicle.
(Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
In a story today about Attorney General Jerry Brown collecting campaign contributions for his legal defense fund is the name of donor Milan Panic. He's listed in the article as "CEO of MP Biomedicals, which makes chemicals and diagnostic products."
 Panic's political contribution went to fight a pre-election lawsuit accusing Brown of being ineligible for the office because his California bar membership has been put on official "inactive" status. A judge said his status was valid, and Brown was sworn in. Panic (pictured) donated $10,000 to help Brown's legal efforts.
But he's not just a biomedical company CEO. He also served as the prime minister of the former Federal Republican of Yugoslavia for nine months in 1992. And the Yugoslavia-born Panic has been connected to Brown for decades.
A well-known figure in Orange County, Panic founded a company in a Los Angeles garage that became known as ICN Pharmaceuticals. Panic was forced out by shareholders in 2002, after settlements in sexual-harassment cases and accusations the company made misleading statements about a hepatitis C drug. Last year, the company, now named Valeant Pharmaceutical, reached a settlement with Panic to repay $20 million in bonuses he had received before he was ousted.
Brown served on the board of directors of one of Panic's companies, ICN Biomedicals, between 1987 and 1991, resigning before he ran for the Democratic nomination for president. They sat together on a small executive committee of the board.
His relationship with Panic dogged Brown during the 1992 presidential race. The Washington Post reported that Brown had "made his support of AIDS patients a prominent
feature of his bid for the Democratic nomination," but held the $20,000 directorship in a firm whose parent company had been accused of falsely promoting an anti-AIDS drug. ICN Pharmaceuticals paid $400,000 to settle the federal charges but admitted no wrongdoing.
The Post said Brown called Rep. Henry Waxman,
chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and
the environment, asking for Waxman's help in Panic's dispute with
the Food and Drug Administration. Brown said he had been unaware of the AIDS drug controversy. The company had allegedly promoted the respiratory drug Virazole as a treatment for AIDS, even though the FDA had not approved it for that use.
UPDATE: The Recorder legal newspaper has more about their relationship here.
(Photo: Shawn Baldwin/AP;
Lenny Ignelzi/AP)
Attorney General Jerry Brown - lamenting an "institutional conveyor belt" that perpetuates gang crime - told a Central Valley crowd that the prison crisis might be solved by moving California inmates far away from their homes. Very far away. The Fresno Bee:
"We have a paradox in that even the gang members we put in prison can
still be in control of crimes outside by communicating with other gang
members," Brown said. "Maybe some should be sent to Maine instead of
Corcoran, so that they'd be further away from their crime network."
In a move that has angered the state's prison guard union, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order to transfer California inmates to out-of-state facilities. Currently, the state prison system has about 170,000 men and women housed in prisons built for 100,000. But shipping inmates to prisons in Maine might not work either.
According to Maine prison Commissioner Martin Magnusson, the state has its own emergency - overcrowding by a whopping 293 inmates. "The crowding is taking a major toll on staff, who
are working so much overtime that some are sleeping in their cars after
their shifts because they're too tired to drive home, said the
commissioner, who met with 250 corrections staff on Monday to hear
their frustrations," the Morning Sentinel reported.
Anyway, it's the concept that counts.
Attorney General Jerry Brown just gave the Democratic leadership in the Legislature a significant assist in their efforts to alter California's term limits law.
The title and summary of a proposed term limits initiative has just been released by Brown's office, and it emphasizes exactly what Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez wants California voters to hear: that the initiative would "limit" and "reduce" the terms of lawmakers. The first two sentences: "LIMITS ON LEGISLATORS' TERMS IN OFFICE. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Reduces the total amount of time a person may serve in the state legislature from 14 years to 12 years."
The title and summary does not mention that Nunez and Senate leader Don Perata would see their terms extended under the initiative, which is expected to be on the Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot. Both leaders are scheduled to leave the Legislature next year, unless voters approve the alteration of the 1990 law and allow them to stay in their current houses. The initiative campaign is being run by Nunez's political advisor, Gale Kaufman.
To be sure, voters make their decisions in the ballot box for many reasons. But the title and summary, which is produced by attorneys in Brown's office, often provides a critical guide to voters who make up their minds at the last minute. As one Democratic operative emailed Political Muscle today, the title and summary released today is "as good as it gets."
Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown this afternoon ordered new rules for public records inside his office, after an Associated Press investigation found "information on scores of Justice Dept. contracts, many of them no-bid, was erroneously labeled 'confidential' and omitted from computerized state records, cloaking it from public sight."
 Now, Brown's office sets some "precise standards" for when a document may be declared confidential.
It requires employees to provide a written explanation of why any information on contracts should be withheld from state computer data, and the recommendation must be approved by a supervisor, with advice from lawyers when needed, the AP reports. Exemptions will be made for the purchase of wiretapping equipment, advice from experts during ongoing trials, and any information that could threaten the security of agents.
Although the public records were kept hidden by the previous Justice Dept. administration under Bill Lockyer, Brown himself has been stung by missing public records in Oakland, where he was mayor for eight years. A report by the Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times showed some documents are missing or destroyed. The editorial writers at the CCT weighed in today: "Never mind that the lawyers for the city say that there was never any approval given to get rid of the records. Also never mind that it is against state law to remove, tamper with or destroy government records. But, really, everything is OK because one of the other people who destroyed the records tells us that many of the things that were thrown away were probably backed up electronically, you know, somewhere."
(Photo: Ray Chavez / The Oakland Tribune via AP)
 It was not the best moment for the California Attorney General's office yesterday. The high-profile case against former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia C. Dunn ended with a whimper, the Times reports today.
The charges against Dunn and three others involved spying on reporters and wiretapping, and led to a congressional hearing and a new state law on privacy. But Dunn was cleared of all charges Wednesday, and her three co-defendants each pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanor count of illegal wiretapping.
Both Attorney General Jerry Brown and former A.G. Bill Lockyer get some blame today, on different counts.
 The Wall Street Journal excoriates Lockyer, now the state treasurer, for bringing the case in the first place: "Lockyer saw a way to grab a share of the case's publicity frenzy during an election year and threw felony raps at Ms. Dunn and three co-defendants. Mr. Lockyer betrayed the state of his own wisdom by going on national TV and saying 'crimes have been committed' even before any charges were filed. Yesterday's result should embarrass Mr. Lockyer, if he is capable of embarrassment."
 Ouch.
Brown (pictured with his wife and senior advisor, Anne Gust) is praised for whittling the case down, but he made a definitive mistake yesterday. His office issued a press release Wednesday morning saying Dunn would plead guilty to a misdemeanor. Not true. Her case was simply dropped. HP issued a statement saying the "attorney general and the court have fashioned a most appropriate resolution of this case." But as LegalNewsline writes: "Only one of them, it seems, knew what it was beforehand."
(Photos: Paul Sakuma / AP; Steve Yeater / AP )
"Mitt Romney is a completely fresh face. I think some of his more
fundamentalist affiliations would make it difficult. But he's certainly
- if you're going to Central Casting, Mitt Romney would be the guy
that you would pick." - California Attorney General Jerry Brown, speaking yesterday on CNN's Situation Room.
For more on Romney and the GOP lineup, California version, see post below. Full transcript of Brown's interview after the jump.
Read on »
Attorney General Jerry Brown is free to continue working in his new job, even though he was technically an "inactive" member of the state Bar during the five-year period before he was elected, a judge ruled today.
State law requires California attorneys general to be active members of the Bar for the five consecutive years before an election. (It's best if they know the law before enforcing it.)
A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled this afternoon that Brown was still a Bar member when elected in November - he has been since 1965 - and simply chose to pay less dues for the category of "inactive member" during a few of those years. If the Legislature wanted to ban such "inactive" active Bar members from office, it would have written that into the law, Judge Gail Ohanesian said.
Finally, disregarding the votes of several million people to protect a minor and relatively ambiguous point of law would be unfair. The judge wrote: "The right to hold public office is a fundamental right of citizenship, and the statute must be construed in a manner that favors eligibility."
The lawsuit against Brown was filed by Republican activists, including Contra Costa County GOP chairman Thomas Del Beccaro, during the final weeks of 2006 election. (Del Beccaro is running for GOP state vice chairman at the party convention this weekend.) Brown's campaign dismissed the lawsuit as a political stunt.
(Photo: Paul Sakuma / AP)
 I still totally heart Jerry Brown's Myspace page. Our new Attorney General hasn't updated in awhile, but he can be forgiven on account of he's running a 5,000-person department with vast and dangerous powers over other people's lives. Nevertheless, it's cool that California's chief law enforcement officer (sorry, Arnold!) plays "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs, and he's got a rockin' group of friends.
There is "Meatrack," standing next to his tractor in a white jumpsuit ready to push the dead bodies into the food processor. And "Devin," who totally looks like this party sucks and wants to bail, along with "Nehemiah Saint-Danger" and someone named "John Garamendi" and "alfie numeric, aka dollface malone aka joy atari."
The "real st. danger" posted a cool photo of Jerry on a jet with Linda Ronstadt. Sweet. And it's so Jerry to start a "blog" on the site and then only post one item. He gets so distracted!
Let's hope Jerry keeps this page going post-campaign. In true Jerry style, he's setting up shop in a shoebox government office near his house in Oakland. (Makes his carbon footprint smaller, natch.) It's about 90 miles from where his huge staff actually does the work of attorneys generalling. But maybe he can use the Myspace page to check on legal briefs, approve settlements and monitor sensitive investigations. And quell the internal complaints that have already started about running the Attorney General's office by Blackberry, telephone and fax. Peace out.
The death of former President Gerald R. Ford has brought back some pointed memories for Vietnamese refugees who fled after the war. Welcomed by Ford, some 130,000 settled in the United States. Ford said "to do less would have added moral shame to humiliation." Ford visited refugee camps, and within months all the refugees had been resettled around the country.
But in California, there was a roadblock: Gov. Jerry Brown, now the state's newly elected attorney general. In an essay widely reprinted this week, Marine pilot and businessman Quang X. Pham, who was born in Saigon, quotes Julia Vadala Taft, head of a refugee task force at the time: "The new governor of California, Jerry Brown, was very concerned about refugees settling in his state. Brown even attempted to prevent planes carrying refugees from landing at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento. ... The secretary of health and welfare, Mario Obledo, felt that this addition of a large minority group would be unwelcome in California. And he said that they already had a large population of Hispanics, Filipinos, blacks and other minorities."
 Obledo, a fierce advocate for Latino immigrants, is better known as co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Quoted in another essay, Taft noted that Obledo "really attacked our program. He wanted no Vietnamese resettlement in California! Obledo then sent a telegram to John Eisenhower, chairman of President Ford's advisory committee on refugees, complaining that the sponsorship program for the Vietnamese would result in 'a majority of refugees receiving welfare assistance.' "
In the end, the Jerry Brown administration backed down. It's no small irony that Brown later was elected mayor of Oakland, one of the most diverse cities in the nation. His new job as California's top law enforcement officer takes him back to Sacramento - home of one of the largest Southeast Asian immigrant populations in the country.
(Note about the photo: It's taken by Nick Ut, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic image of the naked girl fleeing a napalm attack during the Vietnam War. He now works out of Los Angeles and often takes photographs of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other California political figures.)
"The 12th rule is to let him in all things seek his greater mortification and continuing abnegation."
—Jerry Brown, California attorney general-elect, in an interview with the New York Times' Deborah Solomon, which also includes this exchange:
Solomon: "Over the years, you have moved from being a fabled liberal to a centrist position."
Brown: "I don’t know. I don’t use that spatial metaphor."
Solomon: "Then how would you describe yourself politically?"
Brown: "I’m very independent. There’s a great line from Friedrich Nietzsche: A thinking man can never be a party man."
(Photo: Paul Sakuma / AP)
The lawsuit filed against Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, now the Democratic candidate for attorney general, contends the former governor is ineligible for the top legal job because he maintained an inactive status with the California Bar for several years.
 To the Republican Party and Brown's opponent, state Sen. Chuck Poochigian, this is not some minor paperwork error, but a violation of the law. Here is what Government Code Section 12503 says:
"No person shall be eligible to the office of Attorney General unless he shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the state for a period of at least five years immediately preceding his election or appointment to such office."
Brown became an "active" member of the Bar in May 2003 - therefore, the GOP contends, he was not a real lawyer admitted to practice before the Supreme Court for at least five years. But to Brown's campaign, the operative word in the law is "admitted." They say that Brown was admitted to the Bar in 1965 - and never de-admitted, so to speak. He was simply inactive. Legal scholars tended to support Brown in news stories printed today. From the San Diego Union-Tribune: "Erwin Chemerinsky, a Duke University law professor who spent 21 years at the University of Southern California, said the most important factor is that Brown passed the bar and was admitted to practice. "I don't think his being on 'inactive status' should matter," Chemerinsky wrote in an e-mail. "He could easily have changed that just by paying his dues."
Stephen R. Barnett, an emeritus law professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall, told Eric Bailey of the LAT: "This dog won't hunt."
 But the GOP points to a state Supreme Court decision from 1937 interpreting nearly identical language as Gov. Code 12503 concerning the qualifications of state judges. That decision, from Johnson vs. State Bar of California, says:
"Certainly an attorney who has been suspended from practice of law during this period cannot successfully claim to be eligible. It is self-evident, we think, that said provision requires as a fundamental qualification for the office of superior judge, that the candidate for such position be qualified as an attorney actually entitled to practice in the state courts."
So was Brown "actually entitled" to practice in the state courts for the past five years? He wasn't "suspended" from the Bar. An inactive member cannot appear before a court. The Brown campaign, however, uncovered a footnote in a 1980 legal opinion by former Atty. Gen. George Deukmejian, who wrote, "inactive members are members of the Bar."
You be the judge.
UPDATE: Rick Hasen -- Loyola Law School professor and election law expert -- emails and blogs to say reporters are "missing an important point about the suit: timing. The right time to sue would have been before Brown was put on the ballot. This suit likely comes too late. (In legal terminology the suit is likely barred by 'laches'). This doctrine is meant to prevent parties from having an 'option' in election law. If Brown does well, sue. If he is doing poorly, don't raise the legal issue. For this reason, I think a court would likely say this comes too late."
Photos: Ben Margot / AP; Rich Pedroncelli / AP)
 When your publisher is forced to resign, the best thing to do is get out of town. Rather than wait for the morbid e-mails about the state of The Times, I went to San Francisco today for a debate between Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and state Sen. Chuck Poochigian, candidates for attorney general.
I could have watched it on a KPIX webcast, but that would have meant no $30.99 expense account lunch at MacArthur Park near the Embarcadero, with two business executives sitting next to me at the bar telling raunchy Rep. Mark Foley jokes.
I drove 90 miles to watch the debate on a big-screen TV in a KPIX studio, with the vague promise of face-to-face interviews afterward. The format was cable-access awkward — both candidates sitting at a conference table across from the very serious S.F. Chronicle editorial board. There was a potted plant and a beige wall behind the candidates.
The scene was so boring, you actually had to listen to their words.
Upstairs, four reporters covering the debate were placed in an empty TV studio along with eight Brown and Poochigian political consultants. A plasma screen stood before a large sign that read, "The Last Honest Sports Show."
 This is how most reporters cover debates — removed from the candidates but surrounded by their spinners. I don't mind much, since you see things the same way voters are seeing the debate — on the tube. You can ignore the spinners, mostly.
"Hey ... just in case we missed it, any more homicides?" Ken Khachigian, a longtime Republican political consultant, asked a reporter before the debate. It was clear Poochigian would be lashing out at Oakland's murder rate. (The reporter wisely did not answer the question.)
During the debate, it took only 14 minutes for Brown to retrieve a .50-caliber bullet from his suit pocket and dramatically place it on the KPIX conference table. The camera zeroed in. Brown lashed out against Poochigian for voting against legislation to outlaw .50-caliber weapons.
"Knew it," a Poochigian staff member muttered after Brown placed the bullet upright on the table.
 Poochigian fought back: "The cap on my pen is larger than the bullets that have killed over 700 victims in the city of Oakland while this man has been mayor."
Reporters rushed downstairs after the debate. Brown was standing in front of an elevator with his wife, looking ready to leave. Poochigian rushed through the gathering crowd and confronted Brown just inches from his face. Poochigian asked Brown how he could assert during the debate that Poochigian had attended an "anti-stem cell" meeting.
Brown looked him in the eye and said, "I'll send you the information," then twisted his body to leave.
A KPIX reporter grabbed Brown for an interview, and Poochigian turned to talk to print reporters. Brown finished and headed into an elevator with an S.F. Chronicle reporter following him. Poochigian remained upstairs to answer questions from anyone who wanted to ask.
It was time to head back home and prepare for the Angelides-Schwarzenegger smackdown Saturday. In Sacramento. Without an expense account lunch.
UPDATE: L.A. Times scribe Eric Bailey has a nice overview of the actual news at the debate.
(Photos: Robert Salladay / LAT)
The race between Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Chuck Poochigian for attorney general is becoming nastier and nastier.
Yippee! It brings me back to the good ol' days when Steve Westly tried to whack Fredo at the Tahoe compound. Or maybe it was Phil Angelides. Either way, it was bloody.
 Today, Poochigian unearthed an old skeleton in Brown's closet — Jacques Barzaghi, the former governor's friend and factotum. (See photo.) Actually, Poochigian appears to have used his Nexis account to uncover every available article written about Barzaghi and allegations that he sexually harassed women. From a Poochigian press release today:
"The City of Oakland paid out $50,000 in taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim filed against Barzaghi, Brown's confidant and senior aide of more than 30 years, by Nereyda Lopez-Bowden, a married 32-year-old mother of three school-age children. The City Manager suspended Barzaghi for three weeks without pay, but Brown refused to fire his 'closest adviser' from his six-figure salary. It wasn't until almost three and a half years later when the attorney general candidate was forced to fire the 66-year-old Barzaghi."
Brown campaign consultant Ace Smith said bringing up Barzaghi, the tattooed former French commando who was fired by Brown in 2004 and now lives overseas, is a "hail Mary pass." Polls show Poochigian 15 to 17 percentage points behind Brown. "This is totally unrelated to anything and they are trying to smear Jerry with something that he handled very professionally.... This is a sign of a campaign sinking rapidly."
Meanwhile, Brown's campaign is promoting a YouTube "documentary" by environmentalists called "Poochigian's Toxic Legacy." Bill Magavern of the Sierra Club says in the video that Poochigian has gone against even his own party by opposing "many of very same environmental protection bills that Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has signed or otherwise supported."
View the video here. Be warned, it's basically a long line of talking heads.
My colleague Dan Morain has noticed that Jerry Brown, candidate for California attorney general, has received an unusually large amount of contributions from rare coin dealers. Turns out, the former governor and rare coin dealers are two sides of the same ... coin.
The Oakland mayor owns a rare 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent — known as "the coin that Lincoln collectors dream about when they go to bed at night." Coin dealers have donated $24,950 to Brown's campaign, according to Morain's newest "Spilt Milk."
My brother the astrophysicist forwards NASA pix of the day — the California Nebula. I hear Jerry Brown is still governor there.
UPDATE: Speaking of the Oakland mayor, George Skelton has an interview with the former Gov. Moonbeam, who offers this explanation for why he would not run for U.S. president or governor if he wins the Attorney General race this November.
"No, no. I'm 68½ here. I have a wonderful wife who I think wants me to pay more attention to her."
(Photo: NASA)
 Way behind in the polls, Republican Chuck Poochigian's campaign for attorney general is using ambush video to get under Democrat Jerry Brown's skin. The law-and-order Republican sent a staff member to confront Brown outside a Sacramento restaurant.
It seems Brown, currently the mayor of Oakland, didn't understand what was going on.
In the video, Brown appears to be entering a fundraiser (I'll take Poochigian's word for it) at a popular Capitol watering hole called Spataro. The Poochigian campaign confronted Brown about his "iron-clad" principle to never take more than $100 from any one contributor. Brown once was so committed to the C-note limit that he skipped his own sister's fundraiser for her (losing) campaign for governor in 1994. These days, he's not so strict.
Watch the video here.
 Meanwhile, Brown's campaign just unveiled a TV ad that goes for Pooch's jugular. It was produced by Joe Trippi, who was Howard Dean's campaign manager. The ad uses courtroom animation to illustrate the power of a .50-caliber rifle — a reminder of Poochigian's 2004 vote against banning the weapon.
As for the Poochigian ambush video, Brown campaign consultant Ace Smith said: "I can’t tell whether they are running a campaign or replays of the Hardy Boys.”
Watch Brown's ad here.
UPDATE: For people who get their political news by actually reading instead of watching YouTube, the Times' Eric Bailey gets the inside dope on the new Brown ads.
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There is something very 19th century about the old-fashioned crusades by the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board, which has set its sights on a garish and coruscating new billboard near the Bay Bridge. Now, the editorial campaigns to beat politicians into submission come with e-mail addresses.
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