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Opinion: California is lucky to have the unusual, unstoppable Jerry Brown

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I’ll have what he’s having.

Jerry Brown, that is.

Even as he cakewalks his way to an unprecedented fourth term as governor of California — a pretty big deal, even for a political scion — Brown doesn’t appear to be slowing down or, for that matter, thinking about the possibility of slowing down.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Times’ Seema Mehta and Michael Finnegan, the frenetic septuagenarian governor argues, I would say credibly, that he “govern[s] from a base of enormous experience” that’s “very helpful.”

Experience seems to be something that the governor wants to gain more of. Not as president of the United States — he has already ruled that out — but possibly returning to his old gig in a hardscrabble port city that is, depending on your point of view, either turning hip or getting gentrified into oblivion.

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“I wouldn’t mind being mayor of Oakland,” Brown said. “But I don’t know, when I’m 80½, whether I’ll have the same appetite. I’m very excited doing this job.”

Here we must take note, and marvel.

How many adults, much less people who actually remember Pearl Harbor, keep track of their age in halves? I’m not positive when I graduated from fractions of a year to integers, but I’m pretty sure it was somewhere in my tweens. Certainly by the time I was 15 or 16 years old, I wasn’t telling anyone that I was 15½. Look, it’s not like it’s against the law or anything, but it says something about your state of mind when you parse time out like that. Young at heart? Counting every moment? It’s definitely unusual, and I want to get it on record.

Not that we didn’t know that Brown was an unusual character.

Here, after all, was a guy who chased what most politicians — even retired politicians — would have considered a humiliating demotion, running for mayor after having served as governor. Not only that, the city hall he coveted in 1999 had a lot of problems. The city was broke, crime was rampant, and he went in at the head of a weak mayor political structure. Why did he want the job? Turned out it was a wonderful springboard to attorney general, and his triumphant 2011 return to Sacramento.

But, by his own admission, he left some unattended business in the East Bay — a lousy school system and now, partly as a result of his business-friendly policies, widening income inequality. Thus his interest in going back to Oakland?

Although I have had my concerns about Brown, including his inexcusable firing of a dutiful state regulator, apparently as a result of pressure from energy companies, I have to admit that on balance, California has been lucky to have such a dedicated, visionary public servant — and a gifted administrator to boot. And if his musings about his possible political future are to be believed, we are going to have him around for years to come.

Follow Ted Rall on Twitter @tedrall

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