Jerry Brown ‘nice guy’

Jerry Brown urges unions to 'attack'

March 17, 2010 | 12:12 pm

Faced with the daunting prospect of being significantly outspent by his Republican opponent, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown spoke to a labor group Tuesday and urged them to go on the offensive.

"We're going to attack whenever we can, but I'd rather have you attack," Brown said at a gathering of the California delegation of the Laborers' International Union of North America in Sacramento. "I'd rather be the nice guy in this race. We'll leave [the attacks] to ... the Democratic Party and others."

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for GOP candidate Meg Whitman, said Brown's pitch was unseemly and perhaps even illegal.