THE GUV

Known to everyone as Jerry, Brown went on the 1970 California ballot as "Edmund G. Brown Jr."

Many voters did not care about the "Jr.", and Brown took the race for secretary of state even as Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan swept to a decisive re-election victory.

Ironically, Brown's ambitions then led him away from Pat Brown's old style politics.

Running for governor in 1974, he cast himself in the role of the outsider, rejecting state lobbyists and special interest that were essential to his father's administration.

Only 36 when he was elected, Brown quickly charmed Californians, cultivating a reputation as an energetic but easygoing leader--with a record 87 percent approval rating.

But behind the scenes, Brown was anything but easygoing. His style of micromanagement put Jimmy Carter to shame.

The long hours that Brown required of his staffers also took their toll. Carl Werthman, a special assistant to Brown, had a heart attack. Tom Hickey, who had been Pat Brown's travel secretary for two years, developed pneumonia and hepatitis after less than six months as an aide to the younger Brown. David Jensen, a press aide, developed an ulcer.

All three men, according to Robert Pack's biography of Brown, were in their 30s and in good health before they went to work for the governor.

Brown was firm in his public position on corruption. Like any politician he said he opposed it. But unlike most, he took dramatic steps.

Brown's office would not accept gifts. And, foreshadowing the populist impulse that defines Brown in 1992, he refused to live in the governor's mansion built by Reagan, instead opting to sleep on a mattress on the floor of a state-owned apartment.

"We find a dramatic difference in that living in the apartment costs $22,000 a year," Brown said in 1976. "Living in the new mansion will cost $391,000 a year--for a grand total of $1,476,000, which will save enough money to build a new mansion if the next governor would care to have two off them."

With this virtually unblemished reputation, Brown decided to take his flexible persona to the big show. Against the advice of friends and advisers, he made a bid for the presidency in 1976.

The 1976 Democratic race was not unlike the 1992 version. Jimmy Carter, a southern governor with only lukewarm support in the North, was winning votes but not much loyalty.

Eschewing his gubernatorial record and instead running on a platform of environmentalism and space exploration (hence the nickname "Moonbeam"), Brown presented himself as the alternative to Carter and won five late primaries--Maryland, New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island and California.