Our view: What can Brown do for you, or to you?

So, Jerry Brown, a two-term California governor (1975-83) and the son of a two-term governor (Edmund G. "Pat" Sr., 1959-67), has announced he will seek to be governor again. If elected, he would be both the youngest person (36) and the oldest (72) person to assume the office of governor of the once-Golden State.

The announcement was hardly a surprise, since all the other plausible Democratic candidates had dropped out. Whether Brown's relative lateness in making it official reflects genuine ambivalence or was a shrewd tactic to shorten the campaign cycle may become apparent in the coming weeks.

One could certainly understand reluctance. Indeed, it is possible, given the sorry condition of the state in the wake of a decade of failure to rein in government spending, as well as paralysis in Sacramento, to wonder why any sane person would want to be governor of California.

In his announcement video, Brown spun his age and experience — he has also been California secretary of state and mayor of Oakland and currently is the state attorney general — as an advantage during a time of crisis. The question of the day is: which Jerry Brown will show up?

In the 1970s he acquired the moniker Gov. Moonbeam for his advocacy of sometimes utopian, or just plain eccentric, projects. He had a strong environmental record (as these matters are understood in conventional political terms) and railed against Big Oil. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and 1980. In 1982 he lost a U.S. Senate race to Republican Pete Wilson, who later became governor.

Jerry Brown's experience as mayor of Oakland — a position in which people can see readily whether potholes are being filled or the fire and police departments show up when called — may have tempered his eccentric utopian streak with some fiscal realism. In his announcement he promised no new taxes and a downsizing of state government.

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who at this point seems likely to get the Republican nomination, has a virtually unlimited personal fortune and a demonstrated willingness to go negative on her opponents. There is plenty in Jerry Brown's record to criticize, and he can give as good as he gets; so, get ready for muddy, bloody, hand-to-hand combat in this race to the top.