I still have strong reservations about Prop. 30, am opposed to HSR and am disappointed by the pension reform. But Brown knows his stuff and does an excellent job of explaining the political realities of how this specific proposal ended up on the table and the damage that will happen to education K-16 if we don’t raise the revenue Prop. 30 theoretically would raise. He also does a good job of talking about the pension reform and why it didn’t go further.

I’ve been disappointed that Brown hasn’t been able to herd the cats on the Democratic side the way I thought he would. But the guy in this interview is no “Gov. Moonbeam” or party hack. I honestly can’t think of anybody in the state — Republican, Democrat or Independent — who would have done better, or as well.