Governor’s race: Jerry Brown campaigns for Gavin Newsom as John Cox stumps for votes in Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Jerry Brown made a rare foray onto the midterm campaign trail on the night before Election Day, calling gubernatorial hopeful Gavin Newsom a “visionary” and a necessary check on President Trump.

The emphatic but brief endorsement came as Newsom and his Republican rival John Cox wrapped up their respective statewide campaign swings in the Bay Area on Monday. Their events illustrated the two candidates’ divergent approaches over the course of the campaign, with Newsom bashing Trump at a San Francisco rally alongside Brown and Sen. Kamala Harris, and Cox keeping a laser-like focus on the state’s affordability crisis as he stumped for votes at a Berkeley auto body shop.

Newsom’s rally, at a standing-room-only nightclub in the Mission District, marked what’s likely to be Brown’s final campaign appearance as governor after 16 years in office.

“We’re really fortunate to have a governor who’s so excited about so many ideas and so many possibilities, because if you look at our national politics it’s all about negativity and fear,” Brown said of Newsom, his lieutenant governor, as if he had already been declared the winner.

Brown has been an elusive presence on the campaign trail this election season, appearing only at a single rally to oppose Proposition 6, the measure repealing the gas tax hike he championed, and at a Democratic unity event following the June primary.

He and Newsom haven’t always seen eye to eye during the eight years they’ve shared the state Capitol. Newsom has known Brown since he was a kid — Brown appointed his father to a judgeship — and he told the New Yorker in a story published this weekend that Brown “literally didn’t say a word to me” during his first term.

On Monday night, Brown joked to the crowd that “I’ll be watching from the ranch. … but I’m only an hour from Sacramento, so Gavin, do not screw up.”

Newsom lauded Brown’s work resisting Trump on issues like the Paris climate accords, vowing to “build on Governor Brown’s extraordinary legacy” while fighting the income inequality and homelessness that still bedevils the state.

And Harris, who served alongside Newsom as San Francisco district attorney when he led the city and then succeeded Brown as attorney general, told the several hundred attendees that “we need our strongest soldiers on the field.”

The biggest cheers of the night came when Brown alluded to the two ambitious San Francisco pols’ shot at higher office. He said he hoped Newsom got eight years in the governor’s mansion “unless he runs for president — but I guess Kamala’s going to take care of that.” Newsom has insisted he won’t run for president in 2020, but Harris is actively considering a bid for the White House.

Cox, a businessman from San Diego County, had a more subdued appearance in Berkeley Monday morning, meeting with a half-dozen employees of a small auto body shop to talk about how they’re impacted by California’s sky-high housing prices. Surrounded by half-deconstructed vehicles and stacks of bumpers and car parts, Cox shook his head over some of the workers’ multi-hour commutes from the relatively affordable Central Valley to their jobs in the East Bay.

“Are you listening to books on tape?” he asked Juan Rojas, 31, who described his daily 78-mile journey from Modesto, where he lives with his family in order to keep down expenses. Cox said he’d call a special session of the legislature to streamline housing regulations and approvals and get more affordable units built.

Unlike Newsom, Cox avoided addressing Trump or national issues, staying focused on the state’s housing crisis. And he argued that Newsom wouldn’t provide the same kind of “check” on the heavily Democratic legislature that Brown had over his last eight years.

Both candidates will be in Southern California for election night returns on Tuesday, with Newsom holding his campaign party at the same downtown Los Angeles nightclub that Harris held hers at two years ago and Cox heading home to the San Diego County Republican Party’s gathering.

More than 4.2 million Californians had already returned their ballots as of midday Monday, according to data collected by the nonpartisan firm Political Data, Inc. Every reputable poll of the race has shown Newsom with a substantial lead heading into Tuesday, but Cox shrugged off his long odds.

“People in California have a very good way of rejecting the conventional wisdom and deciding for themselves that they want change,” he said.

Both candidates found receptive audiences Monday. Newsom and his allies’ theme of resisting the president fired up their Democratic crowd.

“Governor Brown stood up to Trump, and I think Gavin will follow suit,” said Pat Smith, 67, a native San Franciscan. “He’ll be the backbone California needs.”

But Eugene Young, the owner of the shop Cox toured, said he preferred the Republican candidate’s focus on bread-and-butter issues, especially affordability.

“Even though I own a business, my family is living paycheck to paycheck,” Young said after Cox jumped back on his campaign bus. “We make a lot of sacrifices to live here.”