The Governor’s Muse

In Wednesday’s New York Times

“SACRAMENTO — Anyone who spends time with Gov. Jerry Brown is familiar with his penchant for referring to philosophers, Latin or an obscure tome he has recently read, often in the same sentence. A speaker who uses what he deems an imprecise word should be prepared to listen to a soliloquy on its meaning.

Do not expect his wife to do the same.

Anne Gust Brown, petite and polished, speaks with the directness of someone who has little patience for theoretical colloquiums. She is the first person to whom advisers turn if they need to anticipate the long list of questions the governor is likely to pepper them with. After more than 20 years as his partner — and nearly a decade as his top aide — she is one of the few people who can predict his often unpredictable thinking. And she is the one most likely to tell the governor it is time to end the Socratic seminar and make a decision.

“I would say sometimes he’s exhausting,” Ms. Gust Brown said in a courtyard just outside the governor’s office. “Sometimes I have to foist him onto other people and say, you go talk to someone else about that, because he has a sort of insatiable appetite about these things.”

Her role in the past few years has evolved. During budget negotiations in 2011, Ms. Gust Brown often sat in meetings with legislators, bristling when she believed they were not showing her husband enough respect. These days, such meetings are left to other aides.

Still, she has become deeply involved on many of the most vexing issues facing the governor: the state budget gap and the ensuing campaign to raise taxes, as well as the continuing demands from the federal courts to overhaul the state prisons. As the governor sorted through hundreds of bills last month, Ms. Gust Brown was the one helping him to decide whether he would veto some gun control measures (he did), approve an expansion of abortion rights (he did) or allow non-citizens to serve on juries (he did not).”

The Governor, who by many was considered to be a “flake”, has taken legislation and his role as governor a lot more seriously now than he did in his earlier life. Many people around him attribute his “more responsible” behavior to the woman beside him 24/7. As an attorney, she certainly lives a more disciplined life than he ever did, and her more restrained lifestyle appears to have rubbed off on him. He isn’t the cavalier governor now that he was 30 years ago. Instead, he has taken the guidance his wife offers and lives his life accordingly.