Focus shifts to Brown’s attorney general role

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There’s no evidence that Jerry Brown has done anything wrong as he’s attempted to balance his official duties as California’s attorney general with his gubernatorial bid, but that hasn’t kept his Republican opponent Meg Whitman from trying to stir controversy on the topic.

After an L.A. Times story this week about Brown’s dual roles, Whitman’s campaign said it had sent an open records request to the Department of Justice to determine if Brown is “using any taxpayer-paid staff or services to advance his gubernatorial campaign.”

The Brown campaign said the candidate has gone to great lengths to keep his two roles separate, but Whitman again dangled the possibility of foul play during a talk radio appearance Thursday, telling Eric Hogue of “The Capitol Hour” on KTKZ-AM (1380) that California voters “deserve to know” that Brown’s campaign finances and those of the attorney general’s office are separate.

“I just think it’s important for every public official to make sure that when they’re running for office they’re not commingling funds,” Whitman said. “In other words, the people of California have the right to understand that his attorney general staff should not be helping him on his campaign.”

The candidate’s statements gave Brown’s spokesman Sterling Clifford an opening to needle Whitman about her own lack of disclosure, arguing that — given her interest in transparency — it is “strange that she still refuses to release her tax returns or say how much of her money comes from investments in Goldman Sachs.”

Clifford accused Whitman of trying to deflect attention from her own “dishonesty” about Brown’s record and said the accusation was “classic Meg Whitman — leveling a charge before you have any evidence of everything.”

“Jerry is very adamant that his duties as attorney general are his duties as attorney general, and that he campaigns on other time,” Clifford said, noting that when Brown held official and campaign appearances on the same day in Los Angeles recently, the campaign paid for his travel. Official staff attended the official event, while campaign staff attended the campaign event, he said.

In his own talk radio appearance Thursday, Brown was more than happy to talk about his recent work as attorney general, touting an agreement this week with the city of Pleasanton that required more housing to be built near employees’ workplaces. Brown had intervened in a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit after Pleasanton passed a limit on housing units in the city.

Brown said the agreement his office forged would ensure that “Pleasanton builds enough housing so when they create jobs, people can live close to where they work, maybe they can even walk,” Brown said. “It saves energy, it makes for cleaner air.”

Brown also said he wasn’t bothered by his recent ranking as one of the nation’s worst attorneys general by the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute.

“It’s a right-wing operation; in fact, I think it’s pushed by the same people — oil, tobacco kind of interests — that don’t like reasonable regulation,” Brown told his hosts on KGO-AM (810). “Certainly I’ve strived to achieve a balance between vigorous enforcement but refraining from excessive intervention in pushing our regulatory framework so it becomes suppressive.

“What these people want is a dismantling of the basic protections of our society, particularly in terms of the environment.” Brown added. “When they say libertarian, they mean free them from any kind of restraint or reasonable regulatory framework.”

Brown’s spokesman added that the groups’ list seemed to find the most fault with Democrats. ‘It’s a nonsense report,” he said.

-- Maeve Reston in Los Angeles