Brown: Test By Rorschach

Andy Warhol once predicted that "in the future everybody will be world famous for at least 15 minutes." That McLuhanesque pronouncement comes uncannily close to what is happening to the Democratic candidates in this political season. After shuffling through a dozen presidential contenders in the first 18 primaries, the party focused much of its attention last week on California Governor Jerry Brown. He singlemindedly pushed for maximum exposure in Maryland for three weeks, stirred enormous excitement among voters and gave Jimmy Carter his worst licking since the New York primary.

Though Brown, 38, regards himself as the exemplar of a new generation in politics, his strategy had old-fashioned aspects. He eagerly embraced every stop-Carter machine politician who offered help, notably Governor Marvin Mandel and Baltimore County Executive Ted Venetoulis. Observing that Carter also welcomed organization support, Brown quipped, "You've heard the old biblical expression, In my father's house there are many machines.' "

Emotional Reactions. His style is certainly fresh. He declines Secret Service protection, rides in a rented van and brusquely turns down little gifts, even a necktie painted with a presidential seal that was proffered by an executive of a garment factory. He evokes an emotional, visceral reaction from many voters. At a Western Electric plant outside Baltimore, he created pandemonium: men pressed forward to shake his hand, women squealed and virtually swooned. For many women his appeal was frankly sexual. Gushed one: "He's got the greatest eyebrows I've ever seen." Comparisons with the Kennedy brothers are obvious yet only add to the enigma of the bachelor who rarely dates, lives in a sparsely furnished apartment and seems most comfortable talking about philosophy. So what has turned on voters?

Reports TIME Correspondent Bonnie Angelo: "He is brushed with star quality--it is almost tangible as he races through a factory or strides down a street. In appearance, there is about this taut, intense, self-sufficient man an anthracite hardness. His nose is bony and defined with a hook that is faintly fierce. His mouth, unlike Jimmy Carter's, does not rest in a smile. Relaxed, it is the mouth of a tennis player who is psyched up and poised, waiting for the serve. He speaks in lean sentences, quoting Aristotle, the Bible, and Dylan Thomas. He tosses erudite quips over the heads of his listeners and so appreciates precision of language that he once signed a well-written petition for Soviet Jews, 'as much for the syntax as the substance.'

"On the campaign trail, he is a political Rorschach test. People see in him what they want to see. In Maryland, zealous Campaign Worker Ellen McCarthy views him as the candidate most like her father Eugene McCarthy. But Brown's Rhode Island vice chairman, State Senator Guide Camilla, who describes himself as a 'hardcore conservative,' sees Brown as someone whom conservatives could rally round."

Hard Work. Brown's vagueness on the issues--he has spelled out far fewer specifics than Carter--appeals to people who are suspicious of politicians' promises. He proclaims, "All I guarantee is a lot of hard work and to tell you what is working and what is not." Still, he has given a general indication of some of his views. He would support stricter conservation laws because "we need a more benign relationship with the planet." He vows to end unemployment ("a paycheck in every pocket"), both through public employment and by stimulating private employment; he would loosen the money supply in hopes of helping housing and other industries.

Promises such as these conflict with Brown's preachments of frugality and the limits of Government, raising questions in some people's minds about whether his liberal-conservative mixture of ideas is a sophisticated attempt to find a new synthesis, a ploy to win votes--or just plain confusion. Brown insists that there is really no contradiction (see box following page). Thus, without skipping a beat, he says he would be tight-fisted as President, boasting that as Governor of California he has opposed tax increases and held the line on the number of state employees and the state budget. Says he: "I'm not conservative--I'm just cheap."

He regards the controversy over the Panama Canal as "the big macho symbol of the '70s." He rails against the "Faustian bargain" by which the U.S. sells arms overseas to offset the costs of oil imports. In dealing with the Soviets, he says, "I will be a tough bargainer. I would certainly use wheat, technology, everything to get the Russians to limit this mad rush to destruction." But he refuses to take specific stands on defense spending.

Brown is more specific on what he perceives to be his differences with Carter. He insists that his 17 months as a Governor and four years as secretary of state in California--"bigger than many countries"--give him better qualifications than Carter's single term as Governor of Georgia. In making that claim, Brown ignores the mixed reviews he has received as Governor (TIME, April 26) and the criticism of some Californians that he has recently spent too little time on state business. But Brown claims a further advantage over Carter: the fact that as a child he absorbed politics by observing his father Pat Brown, who served two terms as Governor.

Not Cold. Despite that boast, Brown has not used his father as a close counselor in this campaign. Pat Brown told TIME Correspondent Leo Janos, "We confer by phone, I offer advice, but Jerry never indicates whether he's going to take it or not." Then, a bit poignantly, he added, "Well, you know, those seminary years change a person. Hell, I remember so well, I was the Governor of California, and I could visit with my son only two hours a week, on Sunday afternoons. The seminary experience has to make you more introspective than other people. They say Jerry is a cold personality. That's nonsense. He's warm and really cares about people, but he is introspective."

Jerry Brown claims he is following no campaign master plan, but he does have a strategy for the next few weeks. He is expanding his efforts to raise funds, which so far total about $600,000. Last weekend he attended a $25-a-ticket fund-raising party at Hugh Hefner's fortress-like mansion in Los Angeles. This week he was campaigning in Nevada and mounting an aggressive write-in campaign in Oregon. But to block Carter he must surge in California on June 8.

Brown is also urging votes for uncommitted delegates who are running under his banner in Rhode Island next week and New Jersey on June 8. His staff has hopes of picking up delegates from Delaware, North Dakota, Utah and Colorado in the coming weeks. A realistic expectation is that he will arrive at the convention with something over 200 delegates--and then, who knows? He insists that he has a chance of beating back Carter some time after the first ballot at the convention. Says Brown: "If I do, I see no reason why I shouldn't be the nominee. So I just work back from that and run it through. That's my Jesuit thinking and Talmudic logic." In the eyes of most Democrats, it is also an impossible dream this year --but wait till 1980 or 1984.

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