Jerry Brown debates some Republican in the California Governor's race

California Gov. Jerry Brown debated his Republican opponent Neel Kashkari last night. (No, no one else had every heard of Kashkari before he ran for Governor either!)

Jerry stressed experience and accomplishment, and he's as good a debater as I've ever seen. Kashkari comes off like an over-caffeinated penny-stock salesman. I'll bet his wide-eyed stare drives his media handlers crazy.

The California Channel has the full video, 2014 Calif. Gubernatorial debate: gas prices. It doesn't seem to be available for embedding on Blogger, but the link will take you to the video.

The Sacramento Bee has shorter excerpts at their YouTube channel.

2014 Calif. Gubernatorial debate: gas prices:

2014 Calif. Gubernatorial debate: undocumented children:

2014 Calif. Gubernatorial debate: "union boses":

2014 Calif. Gubernatorial debate: plastic bag bill; the display shows that Kashkari stare:

Seema Mehta and Michael Finnegan report for the Los Angeles Times (Brown, Kashkari engage in testy gubernatorial debate 09/05/2014):

Throughout the clash, Brown repeatedly dismissed Kashkari's candidacy and resume, at one point saying his Republican challenger had no chance of winning. Later on, when Kashkari asked Brown if he had read his tax plan, Brown responded, "I have read it, and I was very unimpressed, to tell you the truth."

Brown mocked Kashkari's history as a former Goldman Sachs investment banker who then oversaw the U.S. Treasury Department's bailout of Wall Street banks.

"It's kind of like the arsonist putting out the fire," Brown quipped. "I really appreciate that."

Jerry has no problem blasting Wall Street like a 1936 New Dealer, which is one of many reasons progressive Democrats find him so appealing. And he scored good points doing that last night.

John Wildermuth, Carla Marinucci and Melody Gutierrez report on the debate in Brown, Kashkari get feisty in gubernatorial debate SFGate.com 09/05/2014. As their report shows, Jerry made good use of his experience as Mayor of Oakland:

"Who's going to stand up for the kids of California if the governor of California refuses to fight for them?" Kashkari asked.

In response, Brown raised his resume as the mayor of Oakland, where he started two charter schools - to help inner-city children get better education, he said.

He added that under his leadership, the state has adopted "revolutionary" financial reforms that put more money into urban school district budgets. "Bad teachers ... have no place in the classroom," he said.

Kashkari called the tenure lawsuit "one of the most important civil rights cases" in American history.

"You had a choice" between siding with kids and with "union bosses," Kashkari said. "You should be ashamed of yourself."

But Brown had his own response, pointing out Kashkari's time as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs.

"What a salesman," he said, mockingly. "I guess that's what you learned ... selling that stock that went south."

I haven't found the Sacramento Bee's reporting on Jerry's Administration these last 3 1/2 years to be particularly insightful. But they are the main paper covering the California State Capitol scene. So here is some SacBee coverage of the debate:

David Siders and Christopher Cadelago, Kashkari, Brown clash over economy, education, plastic bags Sacramento Bee 09/04/2011

David Siders, Fact check: The gubernatorial debate Sacramento Bee 09/05/2014

Dan Walters in Kashkari goes on attack but doesn't score breakthrough on Brown 09/04/2014 highlights the experience gap between Jerry and Kashkari:

Political debates are all about expectations, and going into Thursday night’s one-and-only face-off between Gov. Jerry Brown and Republican challenger Neel Kashkari, the expectations gap was as wide as the Carrizo Plain.

Brown has been a vote-seeking politician for nearly a half-century, while political novice Kashkari was still in diapers when Brown was first elected governor in 1974.

His conclusion on rating the debate in the horse-race context is that "because Brown maintained his cool and his message, the debate produced nothing that would resonate and slow his own momentum toward a historic fourth term."

Tags: california politics, jerry brown