Gov. Jerry Brown says fiscal prudence ‘won this election tonight’

Reporting from Sacramento —  Gov. Jerry Brown characterized his dominant finish in California’s gubernatorial primary Tuesday as a victory for the fiscal policies of his last three years in office.

“Someone once told me, you win elections the year before,” he said. “What won this election tonight was curing a $27-billion deficit, keeping my promise not to raise taxes unless the people themselves voted for it, and bringing government closer to the people.”

Brown made his remarks on the sidewalk outside the historic Governor’s Mansion, now a state park, where he had invited some two dozen agency heads, advisors and key members of his administration for what staff called a “working dinner.”

The building was once home for his father, Gov. Pat Brown, in the 1960s. It has not been used as the residence of a California governor since Ronald Reagan moved out four months after taking office in 1967.

“Well, I do have some nostalgia” for the building, Jerry Brown said, “but I also think we need a little bit of cleaning and electrical wires need repair. I won’t go into all of the details, but it isn’t quite like we left it in 1966.”

Nevertheless, he said, the Italianate mansion served as a good venue for his administration “to plan what we are going to do for the next 4 1/2 years if the November election mirrors this primary, which I hope it will.”