Jerry Brown’s $1.8 Million House Suggests He’s Not As Thrifty As Voters Think

by Steven Jessop | 3:59 pm, June 23rd, 2010

» 4 comments

Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown‘s Republican competition in the California gubernatorial race, does not hide the fact that she’s rolling in eBay money and willing to use it for her campaign. Brown, on the other hand, presents himself as a humble bargain shopper in hopes of stealing the non-billionaire vote from Whitman. There’s just one problem: Brown isn’t telling the whole truth about being a spendthrift.

AP reports that Brown has a $1.8 million home in one of the Bay Area’s fanciest ‘hoods that he keeps hush-hush about when campaigning in order to maintain his platform of frugality. When he and his wife bought the home it was listed at $2.68 million – a far cry from the loft in downtown Oakland he reportedly lived in when he was mayor of the city, but not all that cheaper than Whitman’s current $3 million Silicon Valley estate.

The article goes into embarrassing detail about the house, calling it “a Zen-inspired, five-level architectural gem” complete with a sauna, wetbar, and “roll-up family room windows that let the sea breeze wash in.”

The issue is not that he owns the home, nor that he is wealthy enough to do so. However, he hides the house behind claims of “taking advantage of the senior citizens discount, buying suits in three-for-one sales and flying Southwest Airlines,” misleading the voting population into thinking he’s the anti-Whitman walking around in a rented Men’s Warehouse ensemble.

A spokesman for Brown claims that the former governor doesn’t mention the home in campaign speeches “because it’s not central to the point,” but the fact that he touts himself as such a penny pincher in contrast to Whitman makes the house seem like a pretty relevant missing piece in what he’s telling voters.

California gubernatorial race, Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman

Thomas G Williams

I thought a $1,800,000 house in California was LOW INCOME HOUSING, seriously I have been there (the state not his house) and that little place of his would have been bought years ago for a much lower price than its appraisal today.

Heck I had an aunt and uncle out there who had a place they bought just east of Oakland in 1972 for $40,000 sell three years ago for just over $1.5 mil
felixw

I rarely go out of my way to compliment Democrats, but you ought to give Jerry Brown a break here. I know houses in California that are advertised as fixer-uppers that sell for more than $2 million. And during his early stint as governor, he live a pretty frugal lifestyle by any reasonable standards.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Celia-Harrison/100000143015438 Celia Harrison

1.8 million for a house in the major metropolitan areas of California is a small bungelo.
Snidely

Was the 1.8M figure from before or after the housing bust? Governor Brown isn’t my favorite guy, but the Left could have put up many worse candidates. Speaker Pelosi, for instance.