The Race in California

Two weeks into the California gubernatorial race the two key candidates, who couldn’t be more dissimilar, are fighting for the center. As one Times columnist wrote in her piece “The Golden (State) Mean,”

“Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown will both try to convince Californians—who for many years have elected as governor the candidate, regardless of party, best able to portray himself as a pragmatic centrist—that they are the real deal.”

If this is indeed the goal the candidates are certainly going about it in different ways. For one, Whitman (Rep.) has forked over almost $100 million on her own campaign whereas Brown (Dem.) is famed for his frugality.

Though Brown has many supporters some Democratic strategists are getting worried that he hasn’t fully prepared himself for the realities and rigors of the twenty-first century campaign trail. Whether you like him or not Brown deserves the label of “authentic,” which he has sometimes been called. The question is if he and his advisors will navigate a way for him to express himself in a sophisticated, modern manner in this race. It will certainly be an interesting election to watch.

In 1992 Tricycle interviewed Jerry Brown (who once studied Zen Buddhism in Japan) about politics and prayer. Read the interview here.

You can read more about the race here.