Brown Wants ‘Clean Election’ to Bridge Spending Gap With Taxes

Jerry Brown, running California again for the first time since 1983, spent part of his initial year back trying to coax Republican lawmakers to extend expiring taxes. Lesson learned, Brown now says he’ll go to voters instead.

Brown said he’ll spend much of 2012 campaigning for a ballot initiative to boost income taxes on those earning at least $250,000 and raise levies on sales to 7.75 percent from