GOP Candidate: Brown Oversaw Middle Class Downfall

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari is blaming Gov. Jerry Brown for what he sees as California's decline over the last three decades.

In some of his most aggressive remarks to date about the Democratic incumbent, Kashkari on Thursday said Brown's political legacy is "the destruction of the middle class of California."

The former U.S. Treasury official who oversaw the bank bailout says the state's poverty and unemployment rates have climbed precipitously since 1980, when Brown was last governor.

California had Republican governors for much of that time, but Kashkari says the comparison is fair because Brown is seeking re-election based on his 40-year political career.

Brown's political spokesman, Dan Newman, says California was in a deep fiscal hole before Brown took office again in 2011, eliminating a $27 billion deficit.

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