Governor of California (1959 - 1967)
California State Water Project
With his administration beginning in 1959, Brown launched a series of actions the magnitude of which was unseen since the governorship of Hiram Johnson. The economic expansion after World War II brought millions of newcomers to the state who, along with the state's cyclical droughts, pushed California's water resources to the limit, especially in dry Southern California. This began the California State Water Project, which aimed to address the fact that half of the state's population lived in a region containing one percent of the state's natural water supply. Most of the existing water in the state was controlled by regional bodies, and the federal government. These federally controlled areas were under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Reclamation, which was considering implementation of a "160-acre principle", a policy contained within the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902, limiting federally subsidized water supplies to parcels equal to the size of a house, which was 160 acres. This sparked strong opposition from the agricultural industry, as such it would require significant chipping of existing plots. To alleviate this threat to the agricultural economy, Brown and other state leaders began the State Water Project, whose master plan includes a vast system of reservoirs, aqueducts, and gas pipelines powered by pumping stations and electric power plants to transport water throughout the state. This included capturing the Sacramento River runoff, redirecting water from the United Sea through the San Joaquin Valley, not only irrigating the arid desert regions, but also providing Southern California, especially Los Angeles County, with the water needed to maintain growth in population and industry. The entire project was projected to be sixty years old, costing $13 billion, almost $104 billion in 2015 dollars.
Opposition to the State Water Project was immediate, especially with Sacramento River Delta users worrying about saltwater intrusion already a concern without regard to redirecting freshwater flow outward. Bay Area and other Northern California residents worried that increased water withdrawal from the South could require the population to grow. While Southern support for the project was clear, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California worried that the project did not guarantee permanent rights to Northern water. This led the legislator to amend the plan, prohibiting downstate water rights from rescission, clearing the remaining reserves of downstate water authorities. Governor Brown was a strong supporter of the plan, energetically opposing critics and seeking solutions. He lobbied Congress to exempt California in the article 160 acres, praising the benefit of jobs and progress to residents of the state's north and south, calling for an end to the north-south rivalry. Brown also reduced his introductory bond issue from $11 billion to $1.75 billion, starting with a television campaign to appeal to residents Governor Brown has insisted on the Burns-Porter Act having sent the bond issue to a referendum; The 1960 vote saw Butte County "Butte County (California)") as the only Northern California county not to vote against the measure. However, population growth will lead Southern California to adopt the plan.
Political reforms
The first year of Brown's administration saw the abolition of the cross-filing system that had allowed candidates to file with multiple political parties while simultaneously running for office. The 1964 Supreme Court decision. Reynolds v Sims declared California's "federal plan" unconstitutional, which had apportioned state senators across county lines, as opposed to districts based on population. Now, while San Francisco County had one state senator, Los Angeles County received thirteen; This massive change in the makeup of the legislature led Brown, along with Assembly Speaker Jesse M. Unruh, to change the way California government operated. In 1962, the Constitutional Revision Commission, which operated until 1974, was established, proposing changes to the 1879 state constitution, decreasing its length and complexity by nearly fifty percent through ballot propositions recommended by the Commission, of which seventy-five percent were approved by voters. Such reforms as eliminating the 120-day limit on legislative sessions, increasing legislators' salaries, and reducing the percentage of signatures needed to place propositions on the ballot. Governor Brown insisted on Unruh reforms that abolished several government agencies, and consolidated others.
Education
As part of the state's response to the launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union, Brown signed the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960. This new system defined the functions of the University of California, California State University, and California Community College systems, each with different goals, objectives, offerings, and student composition. A model was presented for other states to develop their own similar systems. Governor Brown sought free higher education for California students, which the Master Plan provides. His successor, Ronald Reagan, would change this policy, insisting on student enrollment.
1962 election
Governor Brown's first term was very successful, but failures on issues important to him came at a cost. Agriculture and special interests defeated their best efforts to pass a $1.25 per hour minimum wage, and Brown's opposition to the death penalty was overridden by the welfare practice with statewide support. While a supporter of Senator John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, Brown's California delegation to the Democratic National Convention fell short in its support of Kennedy, which nearly cost Kennedy his nomination. Brown's opponent in 1962 was former Vice President, Richard Nixon. Having narrowly missed the presidency to John F. Kennedy in 1960, Nixon was not interested in the governorship of his home state so much as it being a path to the White House. Unfamiliar With politics and California's problems, Nixon resorted to accusing Brown of softness against communism, which was not a successful platform. In the November 1962 election, Brown was re-elected governor, with a four-point margin of victory, where Nixon famously held his last press conference, even though he could go on to become president in 1969.
On August 11, 1965, the Watts Riots broke out in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, lasting about 6 days. In the afternoon of that same day, Marquette Frye was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence: he was subjected to a breathalyzer test after which he was detained, while the police officer requested the confiscation of his vehicle. When his mother Rena Price arrived at the scene, a fight broke out that drew a large crowd. Tensions increased until riots broke out. By August 13, the third day of unrest, Governor Brown ordered 2,300 National Guard members to Watts, a number that increased to 3,900 by late night. By the end of the conflict, $40 million dollars in damage had been caused, and 1,000 buildings destroyed. This incident sparked massive protests and new riots across the state which, along with the developments of the Vietnam War, began the decline of Brown's popularity.
During his two terms in office, Brown commuted 23 death sentences, signing the first commutation on his second day in office. One of his most notable commutations was the death sentence of Erwin "Machine Gun" Walker, whose execution in the gas chamber for first-degree murder had been postponed due to a suicide attempt a few hours before it was scheduled to take place. After Walker recovered, his execution was postponed while he was being restored to mental capacity. After Walker was declared sane in 1961, Brown commuted Walker's death sentence to life without parole. Walker was later released on parole after the California Supreme Court held that Governor Brown could not legally deny a prisoner the right to parole in a death sentence commutation. Another inmate whose death sentence was commuted by Brown committed at least one murder after being released on parole.
While governor, Brown's attitude toward the death penalty was often ambivalent, if not arbitrary. An ardent supporter of gun control, he was more inclined to let prisoners go to the gas chamber if they had killed with firearms than with other weapons. He later admitted that he had denied clemency in a death penalty case, primarily because the legislator who represented the district in which the murder occurred held a decisive vote on farmworker legislation with Brown's support, and had told Brown that his district would "go up in smoke" if the governor commuted the man's sentence.
Campaign for Third Term
Brown's decision to seek a third term as governor in violation of an earlier promise not to do so hurt popularity. His sagging popularity was evidenced by a tough battle in the Democratic primary, normally not a concern for an incumbent. Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty") received almost forty percent of the primary votes while Brown only received fifty-two, a very low number for an incumbent in a primary election.
Republicans capitalized on Brown's growing unpopularity by nominating well-known and charismatic independent politician, actor, and union leader Ronald Reagan. With Richard Nixon and William Knowland working tirelessly behind the scenes and Reagan trumpeting his law-and-order campaign message, Reagan received nearly two-thirds of the primary vote over George Christopher, the moderate former Republican mayor of San Francisco, his push toward the big push general election. At first, Brown ran a low-profile campaign stating that running the state was his top priority, but he later began campaigning on the record for his eight years as governor. As an example of Reagan at the polls increased, Brown began to panic and made a gaffe when he told a group of schoolchildren that an actor, John Wilkes Booth, had killed Abraham Lincoln, alluding to Reagan being an actor. The comparison of Reagan to Booth did not sit well, furthering the decline of Brown's campaign.
On Election Day, Reagan was ahead in the polls and the favorite to win a relatively close election. Brown lost the 1966 election to Ronald Reagan in his second consecutive race against a future Republican president. Reagan won in a landslide; His almost 1 million plurality votes surprised even his most loyal supporters. Reagan's victory was a dramatic upset for an incumbent, whose fifty-eight percent majority nearly equaled that of Brown's own victory in 1958, and Reagan gained some 990,000 new votes from the largest electorate.