You're invited to Jerry Brown's Retirement Party

REMARKS BY SENATOR CHUCK POOCHIGIAN
CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY CONVENTION
AUGUST 18, 2006

Let me be the first to welcome you to Jerry Brown's Retirement Party.

We know that Jerry Brown proved to be the most incompetent and destructive governor in modern times. Highways did not get built. He ran our universities into the ground. He threw agriculture into an unnecessary crisis.

But the most lasting damage he did was to California's criminal justice system. He turned our Supreme Court into a national laughingstock with judges who substituted their own views for the rule of law. He mocked crime victims by vetoing the death penalty and opposing the Victims Bill of Rights.

However, he did support one bill of rights....He signed into law the Inmates Bill of Rights which effectively forced the state to allow rapists and child molesters to have access to pornography.

But as bad as he was as governor, let me say to you he has been an even greater disaster over the last decade - operating on the kooky fringe of policy and politics.

I have spent the last several years in the California Legislature fighting to protect our families from sexual predators, fighting against those who commit identity theft, working to secure more funding for police officers on the street. I've worked hard to pass tougher laws to keep guns out of the hands of felons and have pushed for tougher and longer sentences for repeat offenders.

But while you and I fought for justice for the families of murder victims, Jerry Brown continued his decades-long irrational, emotional and extremist opposition to capital punishment.

Let me introduce you to someone. They called him the "Freeway Killer." His name is William Bonin. Here in southern California he stalked, sodomized, strangled, mutilated and murdered 21 teenage boys. The youngest was just 12 years old.

This monster was finally executed in 1996 -- sixteen years after his arrest.... 16 years of agony and torture for those boys' families.

How did Jerry Brown react? He accused Californians of engaging in a "Nazi-style" execution. He ranted that the law overwhelmingly approved by our voters would transform California into "Hitler's Germany."

Jerry Brown wanted William Bonin to live. Here are his direct and bizarre words. Quote...it's not okay even to kill guilty people...Unquote.

Quote...Banning capital punishment takes us to a higher state of consciousness...Unquote.

And while claiming he would enforce the death penalty, his actual view is: Quote...I don't think bureaucracy should ever be entrusted with that kind of power....Unquote.

My friends, anyone who compares implementing the lawful will of the people against a sadistic killer to the Nazi atrocities of Adolf Hitler doesn't know history....he doesn't know the law.... And, more importantly, he doesn't deserve to be the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of California.

Jerry Brown recently said: "I think outside the box." Well, it's one thing to think outside the box and another thing to think outside the planet.

Can you think of anyone less suited to be attorney general than Jerry Brown?

Some people tell me, "Chuck, all that stuff about Brown is old news." Well, not for the citizens of Oakland.

Since Mayor Brown took office pledging to make Oakland safer than Walnut Creek, homicide is up 57 percent.

A violent crime is committed every two hours.

Shootings are up 100 percent this year alone while the murder rate is almost twice as high as it was at this time last year.

Even that old left winger, Ron Dellums, says that "Oakland is in a panic about crime." It is officially the least safe big city in California.

In the midst of this public safety meltdown, Brown actually claims on his campaign web site that he will "lead the fight against crime as I have done as mayor of Oakland!"

But in reality he has neglected his official duties by campaigning almost full-time for attorney general for the past three years.

Last week a little 3-year old girl was shot in the head, caught in the crossfire in Oakland.

Here's Chuck Poochigian's view: If Jerry Brown spent more time in West Oakland and less time on Southwest Airlines, young victims in that city would have a fighting chance to live.

As your Attorney General, here is my pledge:

I will always put the rights of crime victims above those of criminals.

I will fight to protect our families against gangs, sexual predators and identity thieves.

And I will fight to expedite the death penalty against the most heinous of criminals.

In the next 81 days, I need your help up and down this great state to retire Jerry Brown.

We are going to tell him "no thank you" for the damage he's done to California....

We are going to tell him "no thank you" for the damage he's done to the great city of Oakland....

And we're going to give him his gold watch and tell him to go away and just leave us alone.

On to victory!