The contrasts are clear. Governor-elect Brown is a frugal Democrat with forty years in politics, including as head of the state party. Governor Schwarzenegger is a Republican movie star with expensive tastes who's often had trouble working with the GOP. But they both have reputations for thinking and acting independently. Leo McElroy is a political consultant in Sacramento:
"In terms of their sense of self being as important as their sense of policy or their sense of political duty, I think they're very similar."
Brown and Schwarzenegger are both iconic - though in different circles. They're both charming in a self-deprecating way. Jack Pitney is a Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. He says they both also like to call the shots:
"Both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown are headstrong. They're quirky. I think that's an adjective that could apply to both of them in different contexts. Each follows his own drummer and we're not going to see the typical get-along, go-along governorship."
