Jerry Brown appoints wife as 'special counsel,' names two executive secretaries

Sacramento Bee ^ | 1/6/11 | David Siders

[SmithL]

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed wife Anne Gust Brown to be his unpaid "special counsel" and named two executive secretaries as he began Wednesday to shape his new administration.

Brown announced more than 20 appointees, all of them Democrats and many of them people who advised Brown when he was governor before.

Jim Humes, 51, Brown's chief deputy in the attorney general's office, was appointed executive secretary for administration, legal affairs and policy. Nancy McFadden, also 51, a former adviser to Gov. Gray Davis, is executive secretary for legislation, appointments and policy.

Brown is using the title "executive secretary" instead of chief of staff, the title used by recent governors. The appointments suggest some flattening of the administration.

"It's being set up with a number of direct reports to the governor," Brown adviser Steve Glazer said.

Gust Brown, 52, a former Gap Inc. executive, was an unpaid adviser to Brown when he was state attorney general and in his gubernatorial campaign. Gust Brown, around whom there is no reporting structure, has "always been a close adviser, professionally and personally," Glazer said.

[SmithL]

Mrs. Moonbeam:

Anne Gust Brown, wife of Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, speaks the day after the election. Brown says Gust "ran the whole show" that got him elected.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Is this the same wife who called Meg Whitman a “wh—e”?

[Regulator]

Let's just call them King and Queen Moonbeam.

The Corrupticrats are back. Even Ahnold couldn't pull this train.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Here we go again. This is the same guy who appointed Rose Bird Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, the only Chief Justice removed from office by the voters.

He is still Gov. Moonbeam!

[goldstategop]

Its unusual to have a spouse as your chief of staff but I guess he feels comfortable taking advice from his wife. Most men do.

[upcountryhorseman]

Here you go again, Governor Moonbeam!

[sunmars]

strange this is, why appoint her, you’d ask your wifes opinion as matter of fact, why appoint her and state its unpaid...more to it than meets the eye.........

[Lazlo in PA]

What expertise does Linda Ronstadt have in anything like this. Just more patronage and nepotism.

[kevinm13]

The idiots in the state of California that voted for Brown deserve this couple and what Jerry Brown will do to the state. I just hope there is something left to visit when they are done with him.

[goldstategop]

If you’re a power couple, the little woman may be the more influential of the duo. The problem is California voters didn’t elect Anne Gust Brown. So who has the balls in the Brown family? I’m betting its the wife.

[NonValueAdded]

Since she is unpaid, this move is likely to extend legal protection over their pillow talk and makes sense in this day and age of endless litigation.

[DManA]

Hugh Hewitt thinks very highly of her (for what that is worth).

[goldstategop]

In this case, intimate political advice is covered by the marital privilege. Conversations between a husband and wife are sacrosanct.

[Huskrrrr]

Who’s really running the state?

[NonValueAdded]

Edwards also stipulated that if she was the only surviving parent of her minor children Emma Claire and Jack at her time of death, she wanted 28-year-old Cate to be their guardian.

OK, I was being cute with that pillow talk reference. I suspect the spousal privilege does not extent to matters of state as opposed to family. Certainly that would be the challenge that would be raised. It makes sense to add the protection - risk mitigation.

[NonValueAdded]

Sorry ... something else came off the clipboard by mistake.

[popdonnelly]

Let the nepotism begin! Meanwhile, California is broke. And Brown’s addled left-wing thinking is one of the reasons it’s broke.

[bannie]

Just makin’ sure that Mommy can go with him to all of the “big people” meetings.

(AND she can “legitimately” go on all of his trips?)

[pallis]

Keep the corruption close, and Brown’s little whorehouse in Sacramento promises to be as corrupt as they come.

[RadiationRomeo]

Almost 20 posts and no insulting boob-belt style comments? Thanks, because sometimes this place sounds too much like democratic underground. I’m waiting on the people of California to turn on him as he makes some attempts at spending cuts. He is their messiah that will fix things they think, but any fixes will turn off the government money faucet. Picking his wife as special counsel just shows me that he is still the hippy he used to be. This will be interesting.