In California, Governor Brown Redux

SACRAMENTO — Jerry Brown began his return engagement as governor of California on Monday, using his inaugural address to call for an end to partisan battling that he said was paralyzing the state and to promise, in what is presumably the last chapter of his public life, to lead California out of one of the toughest budget crises of its history.

“Choices have to be made, and difficult decisions,” Mr. Brown declared to an audience that included two former governors and hundreds of state legislators. “At this stage of my life, I did not come here to embrace delay and denial.”

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Jerry Brown, with his wife, Anne Gust Brown, was sworn in as California’s governor on Monday.

At times jocular, at times earnest, Mr. Brown noted — indeed celebrated — his longevity in California politics, a depth of experience that in no small part accounted for his victory in November at a time when voters in so much of the rest of the country were turning to outsiders. At age 72, Mr. Brown is returning for a third term as governor, a position that was also held by his father, thereby offering a West Coast echo of what took place in Albany on Sunday with the swearing in of Andrew M. Cuomo as governor of New York. Continue ►