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Gov. Jerry Brown has finally broken his silence about the midterm elections next week, appearing at a Bay Area rally on Friday opposing Proposition 6. Proposition 6 aims to repeal the California gas tax, a measure that the governor had pushed for in 2017, in order to raise money for road and transit repairs.
“I hadn’t seen his face on TV or anything up until now,” Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior in public policy at the University of Southern California said.
Gov. Brown is now featured in 'No on Prop 6' television ads, as well as robocalls. He is also said to have solicited donations, helping the opposition raise $46 million dollars. With less than a week until election day, the gas tax repeal is falling short of passing, according to recent state polls.
“The governor has raised tens of millions of dollars to defeat Proposition 6,” Brown's spokesman Evan Westrup said. “And his war chest will certainly be needed for the battles to come.”
Even though Gov. Brown's term is about to end, he said he will attempt to keep his relevance in the state, with almost $15 million in his campaign account.
In July, Brown told the New York Times, "you want me to spend it and have no more money and nobody is going to call anymore? That's really dumb."
Read the full story on the San Francisco Chronicle.