A native of San Francisco, Jerry Brown studied for the Catholic priesthood, and received degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and Yale Law School. In 1970 he was elected Secretary of State of California, and served as Governor of California from 1974 to 1982, where he was in the forefront of labor, environmental, and race and gender equity issues. After leaving electoral politics in 1984, he traveled to Japan, Mexico and India, where he worked with Mother Teresa, then returned to California to serve as Chair of the state Democratic Party. Disillusioned by the increasing influence of money on politics, he resigned and sought the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1992. In this historic campaign, Brown refused all donations larger than $100, won six state primary elections, and was the only candidate other than Bill Clinton to gain enough voter support to continue until the Democratic convention.
In 1994, Brown began broadcast of his radio program, "We The People with Jerry Brown," which aired in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Washington D.C. He suspended broadcasts of this program in December 1997 to run for Mayor of Oakland, California. He won the mayoral election in June, 1998, and will take office in January, 1999.
Brown's commentary on the contemporary political scene has appeared recently in George magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, Newsday, the Washington Monthly, the Chicago Tribune, the Houston Chronicle, the Seattle Times and USA Today.
He appears frequently on television, most recently on such programs as: Larry King Live, Politics with Chris Matthews, CNN Inforum, Fox In-Depth, C-Span, MSNBC, the Charles Grodin Show, the Tom Snyder Show, Crossfire, Inside Politics, Firing Line, and Equal Time.
He has lectured at UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia University, Northwestern University, Yale University, Pennsylvania State, the University of Texas, and many other prestigious universities.
