“Teresa, I didn’t know you were still alive,” Governor Jerry Brown said with his characteristic candor to the first supporter to greet him Tuesday afternoon at 66th Assembly District candidate Al Muratsuchi’s Gardena office.
The supporter was Torrance resident Teresa Bird, the 76-year-old governor’s Los Angeles office manager during his first term, in the mid 1970s.
Brown then took the stage as approximately 100 Democratic party volunteers chanted, “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry.”
“Don’t chant for me,” he told the crowd, “Chant for Maratootsie, because without Maratootsie, we aren’t going to get it done.
“Okay. Muratsuchi. But Brown’s a lot easier to say,” the governor quipped after he was corrected for mispronouncing the assembly candidate’s name.
Brown’s visit to Muratsuchi’s office underscored the Democratic Party’s concern over Republican challenger David Hadley, a first time political candidate and investment banker from Manhattan Beach.
Muratsuchi is a former deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice and a former Torrance school board member. He was elected to represent the beach cities, Palos Verdes, Torrance and Gardena by a comfortable 10 point margin in 2012. But Hadley beat Muratsuchi in the March primary by 557 votes, a margin of one percent.
Brown urged independents to vote for Muratsuchi because “Republican’s see more clearly when they are in the minority.”
The governor ended his brief visit by observing, “I like to keep it short and simple. I’ve already said more than in my entire campaign.
“Save water. Save money. Save California. And vote yes on Propositions 1 and 2,” he said.
Proposition 1 would authorize issuance of a $7 billion bond to improve the state’s water supply infrastructure. Proposition 2 would create a state rainy day fund for use during state emergencies or when there is a state budget deficit. ER
