Brown jokes about his political future at Northern California campaign stops

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Jerry Brown rallied hundreds of supporters at a downtown Chico mall Sunday, arguing that investments in renewable energy would help lead California out of recession.

He touted his record as governor, saying the state led the world in wind energy three decades ago and could reclaim its status, arguing that the times had caught up to his embrace of green energy.

‘The key to California is imagination, it’s innovation, it’s creativity. It’s not going backwards,’ he said. ‘All these new ideas are ready to put into place. This idea of solar and wind, before, they laughed at that.’

Brown detailed his plan to build 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy and require the state to receive a third of its energy from renewable sources, which he said would create 500,000 new jobs over the next decade. He said the investments would spur the electric-car industry, citing the NUMI plant in Fremont. ‘We’re talking about thousands of jobs,’ he said of the plant. ‘We could be talking about millions.’

He added: ‘I have a vision of California cars, of electric cars, powered by California sun, California wind, California steam,’ he said.

Brown argued that his experience in government makes him ready to be governor.

‘This is not about plans and promises as much as it is about record and action,’ he said. ‘All of the things I’ve done until this point -- attorney general, mayor, governor -- have prepared me for this very tough task ahead.’

Later, at a rally in Winn Park in Sacramento, he said, ‘I’ve got the scar tissue and I’m ready to do battle.’

At Broadway Heights restaurant in Chico, the 72-year-old Brown joked about his age, saying Californians could be confident he was fit to serve. He said his grandmother was born in 1878 and lived to see him receive the Democratic nomination for governor in 1974.

‘We Browns live a long time,’ he said, to laughter. ‘So I might have a few more offices to run for. For the record, I don’t really think that. I think I’ve got one right here and if I win, it will occpuy my attention fully.’

He lamented the partisanship in Washington and Sacramento and vowed to start forging a compromise on a new budget by meeting with legislators and interest groups within two weeks of the election.

‘Things are screwed up. The budget’s a big gap between spending and revenue and they can’t fix it. They’re all fighting, everybody’s blaming. That’s been part of the politics now,’ Brown said. ‘If you’ve noticed, the Republicans, they just want Obama to look bad, then they can get in power, and if they get in power then we’ll have to do the same thing to them, and they’ll start doing it to us and pretty soon you don’t have much of a country anymore.’

Brown began the day in the Humboldt County town of Samoa with a breakfast rally at the Samoa Cookhouse, joking about the region’s reputation for marijuana cultivation. ‘What a great place to spend the last few hours up here in Eureka,’ Brown said, ‘where the air is pure -- except when you exhale.’

-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

Photo: Brown in Bakersfield Saturday. Associated Press.