Letters: Jerry Brown’s leadership

Re “Brown faces tough calls,” Sept. 2

I have to laugh at Republican Party strategist Rob Stutzman’s comment that Gov. Jerry Brown is “encumbered from being able to show leadership. He’s being consumed by the Sacramento political system instead of redefining it.”

Don’t worry about Brown’s leadership; he charts his own course. He stood up to Democrats last year in his veto of their gimmick-ridden state budget proposal. He was not afraid to veto the card-check farm labor bill (he worked out a compromise later), rejected the big-box store bill and has brought us a pension reform plan that wipes out the lucrative benefits Gray Davis gave the unions in 1999.

Brown also pressured lawmakers to pass a bill revamping the state’s workers’ compensation system by bringing together both the union and business communities in support of this important bill.

Mark C. Salvaggio

Bakersfield

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