Governor Moonbeam

by Dennis Green

What do you get when a moonbeam matures? A ray of light. Hah! Just got my “Jerry Brown/Governor/2010” T-shirt, lawn sign and collectible button. I’m an official volunteer for the campaign, and they have used some of the language I’ve sent them as Jerry speaks to nurses’ unions and other simpatico groups. And, unlike Nutmeg’s people, we’re not Brown Shirts. Mine is black.

We’ve all watched here in California as Whitman does her best to buy the office, but chances are the voters are too smart for that. A Huffington tried that a generation ago and failed, and only his ex-wife remains in any spotlight. We American voters will not be bought.

Jerry Brown did something when he was Governor of California in the Seventies that has put our state ahead of all others in the Green Movement. He put into effect building standards that make all buildings in California put up since 1979 80% more efficient in heating and cooling than they ever were before. And building energy use is 40% of all U.S. energy consumption, compared to automobiles at 30% of the total.

And our automobiles, thanks to initiatives taken by Brown, are constantly ahead of the rest of the country in mileage standards and pollution control — so much so that everyone from Chevron to Chevrolet continually attempts to have them declared illegal. President Obama’s new energy plan would make both our automobile and building energy conservation standards nationwide.

I have a personal interest in all this. In 1996 I met him in a meeting we undertook on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce in an attempt to mediate the dispute between the City of Alameda and the Port of Oakland over noise control standards applying to the Oakland Airport. That meeting was arranged by then-publisher Chip Brown. Anticipating that Brown would be elected, we asked him to be “A kindly, more gentle neighbor to Alameda.”

Jerry and I hit it off at that meeting, in a small office in his gigantic loft building headquarters in Oakland, and he impressed me so much that I walked across the big loft floor with him and asked him how I could help with his first campaign for Mayor of that fair city. I spent most of that summer writing pitches, stuffing envelopes and answering phone banks in that loft building, until my heart attack and failing stents made it impossible.

During that time, I had enough contact and observation of the man, his friends and his dedicated co-workers that I was greatly impressed. And his two terms as Mayor of Oakland saw more progress than in the previous 30 years or all the years under Ron Dellums since. He brought 2,000 more federal office workers and the buildings housing them to downtown Oakland, financed the resurrection of Telegraph Avenue and Grand Avenue, the demolition of Pioneer Square and the consolidation of businesses in Jack London Square, and a vast expansion of the Port of Oakland shipping crane facilities along with a good-neighbor policy by the Airport.

I saw the Alameda Chamber as a powerful political force, and with the help of Paul Fossum made it so, something it has not been since our involvement there. And in the course of that effort, I made many new friends and allies, and Governor Moonbeam was one of those, one of the very best!

So I wear my Jerry Brown for Governor T-shirt, and sport the lawn sign, with not only great pride, but with some of my best memories from my many political campaigns and adventures. Just say no to Nutmeg, and vote for Jerry!

©2010 Dennis Green