Pat Brown

Former Gov. Pat BrownDENVER - He was a governor that is credited with shaping the very face of California.

Tom Brokaw even dubbed him the "Godfather" of modern California.

And while many politicos in the Golden State know well the record and history of former Gov. Pat Brown, a larger audience may soon come to know exactly what kind of monumental impact Brown had thanks to a new documentary whose trailer was premiered Tuesday before the California Democratic Party convention delegation.

California lost a legend last week with the death of Hale Champion, a former Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Chronicle reporter who served as a top advisor to Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown between 1958 and 1966.  He was 85.  Champion was Brown’s press secretary when he ran for Governor in 1958 against Republican Bill Knowland, then the Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate.  He later served as the Governor’s press secretary, executive secretary (aka Chief of Staff), and as the state Finance Director.  He later taught at Harvard, served in the Carter Administration, and worked for Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

Joe Shell was the ultimate political trivia question: who was the only living person to challenge Richard Nixon in a Republican primary in California?  Shell, who passed away last week at the age of 89, was the Minority Leader of the California State Assembly in 1962 when he ran for Governor against Nixon, then the former Vice President of the United States.  Nixon won the primary by 2-1 margin, and went on to lose the general election to incumbent Pat Brown. Nixon’s loss in the 1962 gubernatorial race was his only electoral defeat in California. 

Jerry Brown, one of the most venerable political leaders in California history, celebrates his 70th birthday today. The son of Pat Brown, who served as Governor from 1959 to 1967, he has held public office on and off since 1969, when he finished first in a field of twelve candidates for the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees. He was elected Secretary of State in 1970, at age 32, and was elected Governor in 1974 and re-elected in 1978. He sought the Democratic nomination for President in 1976, 1980 and 1992, and lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1982.