Jerry Brown, 72, former two-term governor, former mayor of Oakland, current state Attorney General, yesterday, Monday, opened his fall campaign for Governor of California. He has no serious challenger in the Democratic  Primary. He  has spent less than $1 million. The two GOP rivals for the Republican nomination, billionaire Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO, and  multimillionaire Poizner, the current state insurance commissioner, have spent millions, getting their message out, as they battle each other for the right to face Mr. Brown this fall.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Ms. Whitman has spent $64 million of her own money to date, and Mr. Poizner has spent $21 million from his.

Mr. Brown thinks that the money his opponents have spent has been wasted, on a message that shows them to be "the apostles of darkness and ignorance,"  a message which is crammed packed with mudslinging, that is "intellectually embarrassing" to the voters of California.

"They, (Whitman and Poizner), are so banal," the Chronicle reports, Mr. Brown told about 200 students and others at a rally at UC campus at Santa Barbara. "If you know how to write and think, look at those ads, and do the exact opposite." He added: "The apostles of darkness and ignorance are well-heeled, and they have great political consultants."  Mr. Brown told the students, who like students at other University of California campuses are feeling the strain of a 32 percent hike in tuition between last fall and this fall, that the GOP candidates' expensive campaigns raise the question: "What could we have done with $100 million on this campus?"  -- And the two Republicans campaigned  with "no notes" and "no entourage." Mr Brown spoke without notes and was not accompanied by an entourage. He "underscored the contrasts between his low-key campaign and the big-spending efforts of the two GOP candidates."