Former California Governor Jerry Brown, the current Attorney General in the state, has made it official and will run for Governor in the beleaguered Golden State. He announced via a YouTube video in which he outlines his campaign strategy - an insider with outsider mind - and an overview of his proposals which surprisingly includes a pledge not to raise taxes unless approved by the voters.

In the video, the former two-time Governor Jerry Brown acknowledges the scope and severity of California's crisis and argues what the state needs is experienced, knowledgeable leadership, not an anti-government outsider who’s new to politics.

“We tried that and it doesn’t work. We found out that not knowing is not good,” Brown said in a not so veiled swipe at both Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and probable Republican nominee Meg Whitman, a former eBay CEO with no political experience who has rarely even voted. The nuanced no tax pledge also undermines Whitman's likely strategy to peg Brown as a tax-and-spend liberal.

“It’s no secret that Sacramento isn’t working today,” he said. “The partisanship is poisonous. Political posturing has replaced leadership. And the budget is always late. It’s always in the red. And it’s always wrong.”

You can learn more at Jerry Brown 2010.