Edmund G Sr Pat Brown

Democrat Kathleen Brown, reviving a California political dynasty, won the election for state treasurer, defeating the appointed incumbent, Republican Thomas W. Hayes, unofficial returns showed Wednesday. By winning, the treasurer-elect continued a family saga in public life that began in the 1950s when her father, Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, was elected first as state attorney general and later as governor. Her brother, Edmund G. Brown Jr.

A quarter century after being ousted from office by Ronald Reagan, former Democratic Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown returned to the Capitol on Monday to be praised by another Republican governor as a "great leader" who "helped build California" and wasn't afraid of a fight. "Some politicians pass through office ducking fights and avoiding controversy. That was never Gov. Brown's way," Gov. Pete Wilson told a joint session of the Legislature.

The portrait of power has changed once again in the state Capitol. Nearly a year ago, in one of his first moves, newly installed Republican Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle rearranged the Capitol's portrait gallery and placed a picture of GOP icon Ronald Reagan at the main entrance to the state Assembly chamber.

I rang the bell at 6:15 p.m. just as I had promised. Former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr. opened the door and invited me in. My evening's assignment was to drive the governor and his wife, Bernice, from their Benedict Canyon home to the Athenaeum in Pasadena. We'd been invited to a farewell party there for the governor's onetime press secretary, Jack Burby, who is retiring from his present job as a Times editorial writer.

Disasters are times of peril for politicians. The wrong move or a misspoken word at a crucial moment can damage a career. Just ask former governors Edmund G. (Pat) Brown and his son, Jerry, and, perhaps now, Vice President Dan Quayle. The senior Brown, touring a catastrophic North Coast flood during his second term, proclaimed to the news media that "this is the worst disaster since I was elected governor." Everybody got a good laugh except Brown and his advisers.

It was a time of many crises. Newcomers were pouring in faster than jobs could be created to employ them. The state budget defied balance. Attempts to complete a statewide water system were being undermined by regional bickering and fears that California could no longer afford such an enormous investment in its infrastructure. Businesses were threatening to flee to more industry-friendly states.

Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Sr., an institution in the state's politics for 50 years and the last governor to make massive investments in California's universities, freeways and water delivery systems, has died. He was 90. Brown died Friday night at his Benedict Canyon home of a heart attack, but had been ill for some time, said his granddaughter, Kathleen Kelly. His wife, Bernice, was at his side. Brown was only the second Democrat to be elected governor in this century. His son, Edmund G.

While President Clinton and his Republican rivals loudly proclaimed the end of big government from the frozen precincts of the East in recent weeks, the life of the man who epitomized ambitious postwar liberalism ended quietly in Southern California. A wide range of political allies and adversaries said Saturday that the death of former Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Sr. Friday night marked the passing of an American political era, in both its possibilities and its excesses.

Pat Brown would have wanted it just like it was, his granddaughter Kathleen Kelly assured 900 family members, friends and associates gathered Wednesday for a funeral Mass for the 32nd governor of California. "This is just where Grandpa loved to be: right up front, surrounded by his family, his dear friends, the clergy, distinguished dignitaries, the press and hundreds of voting Democrats," she said. It was a day for remembering Edmund G. Brown Sr.

Pat Brown was the first governor I ever covered and the best. Let's get that personal bias out of the way right at the top. Truth be told, this view does not exactly put me in a class by myself. There are countless Republicans--not just Democrats--for whom the title Governor, in the most positive sense, is synonymous with the name Pat Brown. Graded on accomplishments over the last 40-plus years, Brown had no peer.