Experts Expound

“The scandals in the city of Bell are spreading into the governor’s race: As attorney general, Brown is investigating and Whitman is sniping at him. How does this play out?”

The more Brown investigates and calls attention to the salary and pensions of public employees, the more he brings the backlash to his own door.  It won’t play well for him.
It’s hard to determine for whom the Bell tolls, but it is pretty impossible to “out frugal” Jerry Brown. My bet is it rings out loudest in favor of Jerry.

Gamed well, Bell can become a symbol of all that is wrong with government and a vivid reminder that California is headed in the wrong direction. If voters are reminded of that repeatedly during the campaign, it can fuel the “fed up factor” and be yet another motive for voting against any incumbent and in favor of candidates untainted by “experience in government.” That works for Whitman.

It’s a midsummer story that will have very little impact in November.

Not sure it is a lasting issue, but it has two potential blow-backs for Brown. First, his own city manager he hired in Oakland was fired by his successor for incompetence, nepotism and corruption. Second, in a time when outrageous public employee salaries and pensions are pissing people off, Brown is the candidate of the public-employee unions. There’s far more downside in this for Brown than for Whitman.

Brown will be hurt; this is about abuse of perks by public employees.  Brown’s entire campaign is run by public-employee unions, and he is an incumbent; Whitman is not.
As attorney general, Brown is doing his job aggressively. He’s even collaborating with the L.A. district attorney. This is how it’s supposed to work. Good for Jerry, and shame on Whitman for turning this into an attack on him.

Jerry Brown never met a scandal he didn’t like, and now he’s got a hot one. He’ll ride this baby all the way to November.

Public employee support will hurt Brown. His investigations won’t shift the focus from his union backing.

Whitman’s attack was weak, but gets her in the story. Other than being cited in the pension debate, we won’t be hearing much more about this thankfully.

It reinforces the “throw the rascals out” mentality, but, with term limits, many of the rascals are already on their way out…..

Unless Brown is implicated in misdeeds, the Bell scandal probably hurts only Democrats in general because it reinforces the perception that public employees abuse the system. More significantly, the entire Bell mess means pension reform this session is inevitable. (Heck, the system was indefensible before the LA Times broke the story.)

Jerry’s grandstanding on this for publicity will make Spencer Pratt jealous, but have the same result – people rolling their eyes at the lack of credibility.

The more Brown investigates and calls attention to the salary and pensions of public employees, the more he brings the backlash to his own door.  It won’t play well for him.

Probably not too significantly. Still, these crooks from Bell have probably worsened the unfairly negative view some people wrongly hold of all government workers. And Whitman will certainly try to build on and exploit that sentiment. Brown was smart to pounce on it with an investigation.

Brown has the upper hand. People want law enforcement involved, and he’s going to deliver. Carping is all Whitman can bring, and anybody can do that.

Andrew Acosta, A.G. Block, Mark Bogetich, Barry Brokaw, Morgan Crinklaw, J Dale Debber, Peter DeMarco, Mike Donovan, Jim Evans, Kathy Fairbanks, Jeff Fuller, Rex Frazier, Ken Gibson, Evan Goldberg, Deborah Gonzalez, Sandy Harrison, Bob Hertzberg, Jason Kinney, Greg Lucas, Mike Madrid, Nicole Mahrt, Steve Maviglio,  Adam Mendelsohn, Barbara O’Connor, Bill Packer, Kassy Perry, Jack Pitney, Adam Probolsky, Tony Quinn, Matt Rexroad, Matt Ross, Roger Salazar, Dan Schnur, Will Shuck, Ralph Simoni, Sam Sorich, Ray Sotero, Garry South,