Former governor Jerry Brown aims to replace Schwarzenegger

SAN FRANCISCO - California’s former governor Jerry Brown has announced that he wants his old job back when Arnold Schwarzegger steps down at the end of his term in November.

Brown, 71, is currently California attorney general and is not expected to face a serious opposition to become the Democratic candidate to take the top job in the most populous and most economically important state in the US.

Brown previously served two terms as governor, succeeding Ronald Reagan from 1975-83, as well as running for the presidency three times.

Schwarzenegger is due to step down after seven years in office, leaving the state he pledged to repair financially with a $20-billion deficit, a paralyzed political system and 12-percent unemployment.

“Our state is in serious trouble, and the next governor must have the preparation and the know-how and the knowledge to get the state working again,” Brown said Tuesday in a web video announcing his candidacy. “That’s what I offer.”

Brown took a dig at Schwarzenegger, saying that the state had a bad experience with a political outsider in the top job: “We tried that and it doesn’t work.”

The two leading Republican hopefuls, technology millionaires Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, both mocked Brown’s track record.

“Californians are looking for a leader who can deliver the results,” Whitman’s campaign said in a statement, “not just continue to make promises decade after decade”.

“This election will be about the future of California,” the Poizner campaign said, “not the past”.