If you didn’t know already – former California Governor Jerry Brown (yes, that Jerry Brown) is running for attorney general in California.  In fact, he’s running as the law and order candidate – probably the umpteenth reincarnation politically of Governor Moonbeam over his long and storied career.  His Republican opponent is State Senator Chuck Poochigian. 

Chuck was elected to the California State Assembly in 1994, and to the State Senate in 1998.  He has served in various leadership positions throughout his tenure in the Legislature, and has received numerous awards and recognition for outstanding public service.  

His legislative accomplishments include making permanent the Citizens Option for Public Safety (COPS) program, creating and expanding rural crime prevention programs, authoring laws to improve training at crime laboratories in their use of DNA forensics, and requiring notification of victims upon the release of inmates convicted of a violent felony.  In 2004, he authored landmark legislation to reform California's broken workers' compensation system which has reduced workers' comp costs by $15 billion. 

You know, Jerry Brown’s response to criticisms from the press would be so much more credible if he spent less time blaming the “far right”. 

Fair or not, the lasting impression most Californians have about Brown's criminal justice legacy is appointing death penalty opponent Rose Bird as chief justice of the California Supreme Court. But Brown said that appointment is a small part of a vast record on criminal justice issues.

Read on here – it’s a nice snapshot of what California’s going to look like this year.