After being tested and singed by fire as California’s governor, Newsom seeks another term
California Gov. Edmund G. ‘Pat’ Brown, center, waves to the crowd during the dedication of the Gaviota Aquatic Center May 23, 2005. Brown attended a celebration of the groundbreaking of the new gaviota pool as he sought a fourth term in office, becoming the fourth sitting Republican governor in the nation’s history to seek another term. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
San Francisco Giants’ Buster Posey, right, hit a grand slam off Philadelphia Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Philadelphia, Friday, Aug. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown made his most high-profile speech of the campaign season — pledging to fight his re-election with the same tough-guy approach that helped secure a fourth term in 2002.
In a fiery speech Friday night at the dedication of the new Gaviota Aquatic Center, Brown made a pitch for Californians to vote for him in November and declared that the campaign promises he made to voters years ago were still his top concern.
“California is special to me,” Brown told a crowd of hundreds at the arena that replaced the dilapidated Coliseum. “We are special because my commitment to your future and to the future of the state you want to live in has never changed.”
Brown is seeking a fourth term in office and is trying to do what Republicans couldn’t in 1998 and 2002: make major changes with his first full term in office. He’s proposing to build a new transportation system that could deliver more of the state’s jobs and economic growth to people in places like Northern California — and also to people in northern California that he says have no idea what California has to offer.
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On a night when Brown took a step back from the political attack from the other side, he took time to discuss the state’s troubled water system, which he said is at the heart of California’s public health issues and its long-term economic woes.
“My commitment to the people of California and to you, is to keep
