Opinion: Heads up, Gov. Arnold! Jerry Brown’s pondering a rerun

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California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown spoke at the state Democratic Party convention today and, boy, did he sound an awful lot like a candidate for Golden State governor -– again.

Eerie.

Brown, who served two terms as governor from 1975 to 1983 before term limits took effect, reminded his Democratic audience assembled in San Jose of some of his ‘highlights,’ like getting rid of former Gov. Ronald Reagan’s bulletproof limousine and using a blue Plymouth from the state motor pool.

Brown said he kept the Plymouth for eight years and put 240,000 miles on it, adding: “Now that’s sustainability.”

He acknowledged his reputation for coming up with unconventional ideas as governor. “They didn’t call me Moonbeam for nothing,” said Moonbeam. “I worked hard to get that.”

Even so, Brown said, he accomplished more than his Republican successors. “I tried hard not to build freeways, but we built three times more than [Pete] Wilson and [George] Deukmejian combined,” he said of his Republican successors. “Even without trying we did more than those idiots.”

After blasting the Bush administration for its record on education and the environment, the current state attorney general and former Oakland mayor hinted to his partisan audience that he might run for governor again in 2010.

“I don’t do much these days except sue people,” he said. “But maybe one of these days I’ll get around to doing more than that, and maybe you’ll help me.”

Maybe.

(UPDATE: Sunday’s speakers include San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, speaking on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama, and ex-president Bill Clinton, speaking on behalf of you might be able to guess who.)

-- Richard C. Paddock