Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo
Former California Governor Jerry Brown poses in his Capitol office in Sacramento, May 2014.
Earlier this fall, I joked that our staff writer Alex Sammon had become a California legislative correspondent, after reporting on bills to make Uber and Lyft drivers and other independent contractors into employees, and to prevent dialysis companies from steering patients into coverage that benefits their bottom line. Indeed, the Prospect has covered a flurry of progressive policy advances this year in the Golden State, like bills to unionize child care workers, cap rent increases, enable public banking, and allow college athletes to earn money on their name, image, and likeness. This is a very partial list.
Just in the past day, Governor Gavin Newsom has signed laws setting a cap on payday lending interest rates and ending forced arbitration in employment contracts. It’s the most productive session in Sacramento in recent memory. And what you have to conclude from it is that Jerry Brown was a bad governor.
Most of these bills have been popular and supported by a majority of California voters and lawmakers for years. Newsom isn’t putting much on the line to sign them. Democrats held a two-thirds majority in the legislature, or close to it, for most of Brown’s tenure. The votes were there, but Brown vetoed several bills that Newsom ended up signing this year, including the child care worker bill. Others just weren’t worth the trouble of passing until Brown left office.
Older media figures were enthralled with Brown’s throwback rhetoric, his ability to conjure up money quotes, and his willingness to punch the left. Hagiographers wrongly position Brown as a savior of a state in fiscal trouble, when it was progressive ballot measures (which Brown initially resisted) that fixed the situation.
Brown saw himself as a traffic cop, reining in the legislature’s impulses. But in practice, that meant that California’s poor were unnecessarily trapped in cycles of high-priced debt. It meant that workers had wages effectively stolen, their ability to organize curtailed, and their right to sue employers over things like sexual harassment signed away. It meant that patients didn’t get the affordable care they needed. In other words, millions suffered due to one man’s vanity and stubbornness.
None of this is to lionize Newsom necessarily; his fate could be sealed by those rolling PG&E blackouts in the Bay Area. All Newsom did is pick low-hanging fruit that tangibly improves the lives of Californians. More than anything, this reveals the moral bankruptcy of Brown’s stewardship. He was always more man than myth, and not a very good man at that.
LINKS TO MY STORIES
Last week I attended SEIU’s Unions for All summit, and found better questioners of presidential candidates among rank-and-file union members than the press.
JPMorgan Chase is purchasing an electric utility in El Paso, Texas, laundered through an allegedly independent investment fund.
The disappearance of a union activist in Mexico undermines the case for passing a renegotiated NAFTA, given the likelihood of no change for Mexican workers.
ALSO AT THE PROSPECT
Eileen Appelbaum on private equity’s incursion into hospital markets.
Skanda Amarnath and Sam Bell on how the next Federal Reserve can help workers.
Brittany Gibson on the biggest rogue states of the climate crisis.
Daniel Boguslaw on Joe Biden’s love affair with the CIA.
Alex Sammon on the tragicomedy of investment giant SoftBank.
Marcia Brown on asylum seekers stuck in Mexico and protesting inhumane conditions.
BOOK CORNER
There’s another week for you to get in on our special “Quid Pro Quo” offer, where a donation of $50 or more to the Prospect will get you a signed, personally inscribed copy of Ryan Grim’s book We’ve Got People. It’s a terrific chronicle of the recent history of the Democratic Party, and we’re excited to bring it to you in exchange for your support.
Also, I should mention that my next book, Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power, is available for pre-order. (It comes out next June.)
YES, I KNOW
Guiliani runs with a bad crowd, go figure!
SHARING THE WEALTH
The U.S. is betraying the Kurds for the eighth time. (The Intercept)
Back-to-back blockbuster magazine pieces on Amazon, from Franklin Foer at The Atlantic and Charles Duhigg at The New Yorker.
Trump’s campaign stiffs cities the same way he’s stiffed contractors for decades. (Politico)
Three policy failures dooming the middle class. (NY magazine)
The dangerous privatization of St. Louis Lambert Airport. (St. Louis magazine)
China dialing down its rhetoric against the NBA, fearing a backlash. (NY Times)
Betsy DeVos threatened with contempt by a federal judge, with good reason, Helaine Olen writes. (Washington Post)
How tech firms privilege data to allies, and degrade objective research. (ProMarket)
Corey Robin reviews a bunch of books from Obama administration officials. (Dissent)
