There was a time not so long ago when Jerry Brown`s campaign for president was a chaotic and thoroughly charming affair.
Decisions, both on scheduling and on policy, seemed to be made on the fly, as the candidate raced from one event to another, usually arriving late. It was more like a college road trip than a presidential campaign: Man, that was fun. What do you guys want to do next?
Brown`s entourage consisted of three or four reporters, and even fewer aides. He refused Secret Service protection, calling it a waste of taxpayers` money and an impediment to meeting the public.
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He was ferried about by volunteers, many of whom had never even voted, much less met a man running for president. He chatted with airport workers, talked with fellow passengers on commercial flights, went for runs with anyone who wanted to join him.
One day in Detroit, the former California governor was stuck in traffic, in danger of missing a flight to Chicago, as powerless an anyone else would be. He didn`t have a police escort to take him down the shoulder, didn`t have a Secret Service advance team to hold the plane, didn`t have the clout or the arrogance to call Southwest Airlines and tell them to delay the flight.
Instead, he tapped on the dash and kept asking his volunteer driver how far the airport was. Press secretary Ileana Wachtel, meanwhile, fretted about the campaign having to eat the $59 if they missed the flight.
Now, five weeks later-which is a lot longer in politics than it is in the real world-the charm has been beaten out of the Brown campaign, swallowed up by success and by momentum and, in no small way, by New York City.
After the New York primary, the 50-seat plane the campaign had chartered to fly to Washington, D.C., was filled with reporters and campaign workers. Brown and his closest advisers took another flight.
At nearly every stop or rally in New York, the candidate was surrounded by enough handlers, police and reporters to keep even the most determined Average Jane from breaking through to shake Brown`s hand or pass on a message. And the man who once could spend 10 minutes talking with a supporter on the street with few people noticing engaged over the weekend in the usual kind of media-pandering.
Walking through the Upper West Side of Manhattan recently, Brown was asked to say hello to an apartment building doorman who wanted to wish him well. Brown stopped, parted the crowd, shook the man`s hand and started to move on. But told that not all the photographers had captured the touching moment, Brown stepped back toward the man, grabbed his hand again and waited as shutters clicked and tapes rolled.
This is not to suggest that the Brown campaign has been turned over to paid professional consultants or that it can match the well-oiled machinery of rival Bill Clinton. Most of those who work for Brown are volunteers, and their lack of experience often shows.
During the New York primary campaign, for example, Brown advance workers arranged for him to appear at a Harlem rally with a controversial civil rights activist, Rev. Al Sharpton. When senior advisers heard about the plan, they moved quickly to cancel it and set up another event in Harlem, fearing an appearance with Sharpton could hurt Brown among some New York voters.
But it was too late. Sharpton caught up with Brown on a Harlem street, and the campaign got stuck not only with a meeting it didn`t want but also looking like it was trying to run from Sharpton.
The growth of Brown`s campaign hurt him in Harlem. All the cops and the cameras and the aides and the reporters made many residents skeptical. Brown was putting on a show, they said, and they were just extras.
Brown walked among sidewalk stands that sell knock-off jewelry and perfume and purses and video cassettes of movies that have only recently been released to the theaters. He bought a coat and a scarf and shook some hands, but he seemed unable to relate to any of the people he met.
Brown has tapped into the disaffection of American voters, the anger so many share at the political system. But in Harlem, where that disaffection is more of a hostility, the anger more a rage, Brown was out of his league, and his ”Take Back America” signs seemed more ironic than inspirational.
Maybe if Brown had been surrounded by only a few people he could have connected with those citizens, but the media coverage is what he wished for, and it`s what he got.
Given Brown`s poor showing last Tuesday in New York and his loss in Wisconsin, the national media`s interest likely will wane. The New York press will no longer care. And even some campaign workers who jumped on the Brownwagon after he won Connecticut will figure their man has peaked and it`s time to go home.
So maybe the Brown campaign, which showed the political world that much can be done without big money, will revert to form, regain its charm and continue to speak to a minority of the population who in the cold world of politics is deemed insignificant.
The grass-roots nature of the campaign will become evident again, perhaps, and the volunteers who often have showed more heart than acumen still will be there, doing what they can.
That`s how this campaign ran for its first five months-on the efforts of a bunch of regular people who took time out of their lives to help out a man they felt close to.
For all the experienced advisers who showed up at Brown`s side last week in New York, there are many more people like the supporter who showed up to lend a hand in Saginaw, Mich.
Concerned about the hoarseness in Brown`s voice, the young man gave the candidate some New Age cures: a box of medicinal teas and cough drops from a local health food store.
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