Jerry Brown spent the better part of an hour in the noonday sun at a rally of family members of murder victims, organized by California's prison officers' union.

"Governor Brown, I can't tell you enough how much it means to have you here," Mike Jimenez, the Correctional Peace Officers Association president, said in his remarks.

Brown's appearance at the rally Monday was the least of what he has done for the union and for its proxy group, Crime Victims United. In his three-plus months in office, Brown has given the 30,000-member union much of what it has sought, most importantly a new labor contract.

The scene on the west steps of the Capitol was a head-spinner, until you think about what drives much of this town's politics. In many different ways, it comes down to money.

Brown was sharing the stage with Jimenez and Harriet Salarno, the 78-year-old leader of Crime Victims United, a nonprofit corporation that the union helped create and still funds.

There was a time when Salarno was among Brown's most potent enemies. She has been involved in the crime victims' movement since her oldest daughter was murdered in 1979, back when Brown was governor the first time and the crime victims' movement was nascent.

By 1986, Salarno emerged as a leader in the campaign by grieving mothers and fathers of murdered children – organized by political operatives – to vote out Brown's Supreme Court appointees led by Chief Justice Rose Bird. Bird incurred the victims' wrath by regularly voting to overturn death sentences and curb the role of crime victims in the criminal justice system.

In 2006, Salarno opposed Brown when he ran for attorney general, and stood alongside Brown's foe, Charles Poochigian, when he declared that Brown "has consistently fallen on the wrong side of the fence on victims' issues."

That's ancient history. Far more relevant, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association spent $1.8 million to help elect Brown as governor last year. Salarno and Brown since have become cozy.

"With age comes wisdom," Salarno told me, clearly convinced that her fellow septuagenarian has wised up.

At her suggestion, Brown had the good sense to host a fundraiser for Crime Victims United in February, drawing real estate, insurance and many other lobby interests to the Sheraton Grand in downtown Sacramento.

"He has been very cooperative and sent a message to me that his door would be open," Salarno said.

It's all very different from the days of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He snubbed Salarno by never taking the time to show up at the crime victims' rally and clashed repeatedly with her benefactor, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

Having hit an impasse with Schwarzenegger, the union was forced to operate without a contract. That is about to end, assuming the Legislature approves the accord struck by the Brown administration and the union.

The contract doesn't grant the 30,000 union members a direct pay raise initially, though it reduces the amount they pay for health care and grants a 4 percent raise for veteran officers starting in 2013, pushing their base pay to $76,680 a year.

Importantly, the contract reinstates many favorable work rules and bonuses granted by Gov. Gray Davis. For example, veteran officers will be eligible for an extra $130 a month for being physically fit. To qualify, they need merely to undergo a physical exam once a year.

While Brown has done plenty for the union, the union helped Brown by not lobbying against his proposal to save money by housing short-term inmates in county jails, rather than prisons, even though the concept could lead to fewer union members.

The question remains: What more will the union do for Brown?

In his remarks Monday, the governor made a pitch for his budget proposal, urging that crime victims contact Republican legislators to demand that they approve the governor's proposal to continue $11 billion in taxes set to expire at the end of June. The alternative would be deeper budget cuts, and no doubt more borrowing and gimmickry.

The governor might well have been directing that message to Jimenez and Salarno. The union regularly uses the emotional appeal of crime victims to help elect legislators, and to defeat them. There are Republicans who would not be in office without the union's backing.

How the union repays Brown remains to be seen. But the union ought to make one payment by calling in some chits, leaning on a few Republicans and helping to avert the coming budget crisis.

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