The day after he was elected to an unprecedented fourth term in a landslide victory, Governor Jerry Brown sat down with reporters to discuss the next four years.
Sitting at the end of the cedar picnic table in the middle of his Sacramento office, Brown spoke of the future and of the past.
"I don't like to think about my last campaign. I find it a depressing thought," Brown said.
The governor said the next four years would remain "balancing act."
"Certainly I'd like to keep the state on an even fiscal keel," he said. "But I also want to build things — the water, the high speed rail, the reform of criminal law, realignment — these are big things."
The governor said he wants to phase out the income and sales tax hikes from Prop. 30, passed two years ago.
He argued passage of Propositions 1 and 2 — dealing with water storage and a budget reserve — was a sign that unlike Washington, California is not in political gridlock.
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He spoke of the legacy of his family.
Father Pat Brown served two terms as governor and his great-grandfather, August Schuckman, a German born immigrant, who came to California in 1852.
"I take comfort and inspiration from my own forebears, who didn't sit around, waiting, but forged ahead, against great obstacles," he said.
As for this being his last political office, Brown quipped, There are others to run for. Now that we have an incumbent superintendent of instruction, there'll be a vacancy in four years."
