Brown
SACRAMENTO (Legal Newsline) - A new radio ad this week paid for by California service employee unions and electrical workers shows their support for state Attorney General Jerry Brown as governor.
The ad, set to air this week, opens with a shot at Brown's GOP opponent, the former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, but the bulk of the 60-second spot is focused on the attorney general's record, according to the Los Angeles Times' blog PolitiCal.
The ad says it will "take more than a personal fortune or campaign sound bite to balance the budget and fix the economy."
It then goes on to praise Brown, a Democrat, for creating "1.9 million new jobs as governor."
"He got rid of the governor's jet and limousine and built up the largest budget surplus in state history," the ad continues.
Records reviewed earlier this month by The Associated Press showed Brown sometimes travels in a turboprop airplane operated by his office, despite promoting his use of commercial aircraft and recently saying he would cut back on such "perks." The records show the plane has been used at least nine days over the last year.
David Koenig, a spokesman for Working Californians, the union-funded group that paid for the ad, said it will air in Southern California and the Central Valley.
Koenig would not tell the Times how much was being spent on the ad, only that it was a "significant buy."
Whitman's campaign responded to the radio spot on Tuesday.
"When Jerry Brown left office, the unemployment in California was a then-record 11 percent... and he turned 'the largest budget surplus in state history' into a $1 billion deficit," Whitman spokeswoman Andrea Jones Rivera told the Times.
"For 40 years, Jerry Brown has had his chances and he has failed over and over again," Rivera said.
From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by e-mail at jessica@legalnewsline.com.