Wasn’t Redford’s character in the 1972 movie “The Candidate” a thinly-disguised Moonbeam?
That is certainly possible, according to the Huffington Post. Jerry Brown wasn't yet governor when the movie came out, but he already was California's secretary of state, and the screenwriter knew him when they were both on the Eugene McCarthy campaign. Other possible models: John Tunney, John Lindsay, one Kennedy or another.
Shockingly stupid. Even for a leftist.