Liberal radio diatribes in 1990s could haunt Jerry Brown in 2010 California governor's race

More than a decade before Jerry Brown's current incarnation as undeclared gubernatorial front-runner, he hit the airwaves of liberal Berkeley radio station KPFA five days a week to speak his mind.

What he said then, as he interviewed poets, activists and the likes of leftist icon Noam Chomsky, promises to resurface this coming year as the 71-year-old former governor ponders running for a historic third gubernatorial term.

During his three years on the air, Brown repeatedly blamed corporate malfeasance and political corruption for undermining American democracy and even causing deaths, according to edited excerpts of the radio broadcasts.

Brown regularly attacked President Bill Clinton as a lackey for business interests and in one excerpt stated, "I don't believe Clinton is different from Richard Nixon."

He called capital punishment "state murder" and said U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, had "sold out" U.S. truck drivers by letting their Mexican counterparts drive uninspected vehicles into the United States.

In one of the most controversial excerpts, Brown called the prison system a racket that pumped profits out of the poor's misfortunes and into the pockets of prison guards.

"The big lockup is about drugs," Brown stated in an excerpt from late 1995. "Here's the real scam. The drug war is one of the games to get more convictions and prisoners. There's a lot of chemicals out there and when certain ones are made illegal, they become a huge profit opportunity and bring violence, crime and more people to imprison."

The excerpts, since removed, were posted on Brown's We the People Web site. The Bee recovered them through a Web cache of the old site.

Mainstream politicians usually avoid not only such candor but the kind of anti-corporate, far-left rhetoric Brown espoused for hundreds of on-air hours.

Garry South, a top strategist for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, said the KPFA (94.1 FM) broadcasts would make Brown vulnerable if he reaches the general election.

Brown opened an exploratory committee for a gubernatorial run last month but has not officially announced his candidacy.

"California Democrats need to ponder very seriously the prospect of putting up a candidate for governor who comes with reams of radio-show rantings and ravings like Brown," South wrote in an e-mail.

"The Republicans will put tens of millions of dollars behind making him look like a conspiracy-spouting fringe lunatic to the average voter."

Others, however, said Californians already know Brown, for better or for worse, and his supporters likely will overlook the on-air statements, however provocative.

"When he ran for attorney general, people said he wouldn't win because his past would come back to haunt him," said Ethan Rarick, director of UC Berkeley's Center on Politics and biographer of Brown's father, former Gov. Pat Brown. "It hasn't seemed to hurt him."

Asked to comment on several of the statements, Brown responded in writing, "In understanding the relevance of brief excerpts from my 1990s talk show, keep in mind that the goal was to provoke debate and lively discussion, not craft legislation."

Currently leading in polls for next year's gubernatorial election, Brown avoids mentioning the radio broadcasts both in his campaign materials and speeches.

For example, a 1,052-word biography on Brown's current Web site skips over both the radio show and the "We the People" yoga, tai chi and political action center he established in a warehouse commune near Oakland's Jack London Square.

On top of that, the cached material disappeared last week just hours after the Bee sent Brown senior adviser Steven Glazer links to it. Glazer said Brown's team did not remove the material.

The excerpts have become especially useful since Brown regularly declines comment on key issues such as prison reform, saying his current responsibilities as attorney general require him to stay out of political disputes.

On some issues, the excerpts are Brown's most detailed musings since he left the governorship in 1982.