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

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.