California Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown spoke to a labor group Tuesday, suggesting they go on the attack. “We’re going to attack whenever we can, but I’d rather have you attack.”
Brown made his remarks at a gathering of the California delegation of Laborer’s International Union of North America in Sacramento, “I’d rather be the nice guy in this race. We’ll leave [the attacks] to… the Democratic Party and others.”
Brown has been a well known politician in California since he was the governor of the golden state (1975-1983), but he may find himself in need of all the financial help he can get this fall if Republican billionaire Meg Whitman turns out to be his opponent in the general election. The latest polls suggest that as the most likely scenario.
Meg Whitman released a statement calling Brown’s comments to union members, “a troubling example of the cynical style of politics that helped create the terrible crisis California now faces. In his announcement for governor, Jerry Brown promised us an ‘insider’s knowledge but an outsider’s mind’. Clearly, the insider and the labor unions are in full control.”
Brown Campaign spokesman Sterling Clifford says Brown was talking about the Democratic Party, not unions and added, “Meg Whitman’s hypocritical attack on Jerry Brown is just more evidence that Whitman will say anything in her attempt to crown herself the Republican nominee and buy the general election.”
Whitman, formerly the CEO of EBay, has already put $39 million of her own money into her campaign and is leading her gubernatorial GOP primary opponent Steve Poizner by over 30 percentage points according to a real clear politics average of polls.
Real Clear Politics also has Whitman very competetive with Brown, trailing by less than two points.
Click here to see the video of Brown talking to the labor group in Sacramento on Tuesday.