Brown Makes Winning Look Easy in California, a Rare Bright Spot for Democrats -- LOS ANGELES — Gov. Jerry Brown did not even make a campaign stop until nine days before the election. He did not air any commercials for his own candidacy, even as he amassed more than $20 million in campaign funds. And yet, on a night when so many Democratic incumbents came to woe, he easily defeated his Republican opponent, a businessman named Neel Kashkari, and glided into an unprecedented fourth term as governor. -- California, which has not elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006, remained a rare bright spot for Democrats on Tuesday, with the party maintaining an overwhelming majority in the State Legislature and retaining all the statewide posts. Voters also approved two ballot initiatives strongly backed by the governor: one that called for a $7.5 billion bond for water projects in the drought-parched state, and another that would bolster the so-called rainy-day fund for unanticipated expenses. -- Now, 40 years after he was first elected governor of California, Mr. Brown, 76, will begin what will almost certainly be his last term in public office, and the question will be what he intends to do with his power. He offered few clues in the months leading up to the election. In an interview Wednesday, he emphasized the importance of fiscal restraint, which has long been one of his biggest points of pride: After years in which California lurched from one budget crisis to another, Mr. Brown and the Legislature have managed to pass a succession of on-time balanced budgets. -- “Living within our means is a heroic continuing battle here,” Mr. Brown said by phone. “We have pressure in every sector to spend more. I’m riding the tiger out here. Everyone says: Why don’t you add five more programs? What else can you think up? Medicaid spending alone is about $90 billion — that’s bigger than the economy of some states.” -- Mr. Brown said he would continue to press to build a high-speed train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as for more initiatives to battle climate change. But he appears most focused on maintaining his reputation as a fiscal hawk, even as he faces pressures from those within his own party to expand state programs. -- Indeed, trying to hold back his fellow Democrats from spending more freely could be one of the key challenges of Mr. Brown’s fourth term. Then again, some of those Democrats share his view that fiscal restraint may be crucial to maintaining their party’s overwhelming majority in the Legislature. -- Although the Democrats dominate here, there were signs of renewed Republican energy. While Republicans have seen registration numbers fall to record lows, Democratic incumbents lost to Republican candidates in a handful of races for Congress and the Legislature. Some races in the State Assembly were still undecided on Wednesday,//WHAT ABOUT THURSDAY?// though it was clear that Democrats had lost their two-thirds supermajority in the State Senate. -- “We basically had been a party in decline for 30 years, but last night we beat incumbents in the Legislature, something that had not happened since 1994,” Mr. Brulte said. “The notion that the Republican wave stops at our border was simply not the case.” -- Budgets and legislation require only a simple majority vote in the Legislature, but two-thirds approval is necessary to raise taxes, something the governor does not appear eager to do. -- Still, Mr. Brown could once again turn to voters to ask for a tax increase or some sort of overhaul of state taxes, which rely heavily on capital gains receipts. He has suggested he could use some of the millions left over in his re-election war chest to promote ballot initiatives. -- “There is a sense of getting things done here, and we have a consensus around that,” Mr. Brown said. “California was viewed by everybody as a failed state just five years ago; there was a specter of the state floundering. But now we’re back on an even keel, and that gives a more positive mood in the electorate here.” -- Mr. Brown has long relished holding up California — and himself — as an example to Democrats across the country, rarely more so than after this election. -- “We’re not caught up in the backbiting of Washington,” Mr. Brown said. “We’re more remote from internecine warfare from the parties.” -- Voters also approved a ballot measure that will dramatically change the way crimes are punished, turning several lower-level nonviolent felonies into misdemeanors that require brief stays in jail, not state prison time. Under the new law, possession of several illicit drugs, including heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines, will be considered a misdemeanor. -- Voters rejected a proposal that would have raised the limit of medical malpractice payments and require drug testing for doctors. They also turned aside a measure that would have allowed the state insurance commissioner to stop health insurance rate increases deemed excessive. -- In the battle for the state schools superintendent, the tightest and most expensive race for statewide office, the incumbent backed by the teachers’ unions, Tom Torlakson, held off a challenge from Marshall Tuck, who had attracted support from around the country among people who support charter schools and seek fewer restrictions on the ways teachers are hired and fired. -- In Berkeley, voters approved a measure to tax sugary drinks, but a similar measure was defeated in San Francisco, where it needed two-thirds support to pass. While the soft-drink industry had worked hard to thwart both measures, public health officials argued in favor of the tax, which is meant to dampen consumption. --- “We’re back to where we were in the mid-2000s, when the rest of country is veering to the right,” said Bruce Cain, a professor of political science at Stanford University. “We’re going to forge our own path and not worry very much about whether it’s consistent with what Washington is doing.” -- Californians, Mr. Cain said, are “very comfortable with the outcast role we’re probably headed to.” -- And even as Mr. Brown enters what most people expect will be the twilight of his career, he has so far refused to acknowledge anything of the sort. -- “It would be depressing to think in those terms,” he said. “My grandmother lived to be 96. I see a wide field up ahead.” - More, JENNIFER MEDINA, NYTimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/us/brown-makes-winning-look-easy-in-california-a-rare-bright-spot-for-democrats-.html?_r=0