Jerry Brown has amassed a strong record of winning California elections in a career that’s spanned more than four decades, beginning with a seat on the Los Angeles community college board in 1969.
Brown has been elected governor three times, mayor of Oakland twice and attorney general and secretary of state once each. He sponsored a successful political reform initiative in 1974 and associated himself with another successful spending limit campaign five years later.
Brown’s most conspicuous failure came in 1982, when Pete Wilson beat him badly for a U.S. Senate seat.