One is an extravagant, Austrian-born movie star turned political insurgent who parachuted in to become governor of California. His successor is an indefatigable career politician, a man famous for his frugality and unprecedented decision to run for California's hardest job when most men his age are thinking about little more strenuous than managing their TV's remote control.
The contrast was on full display Thursday when California's outgoing Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, met his successor, Jerry Brown, whose Governor Moonbeam nickname reflects his free-spirited nature.
The Republican Schwar-zenegger, a massive mountain of muscle, towered over the wiry Democrat Brown, who became famous in his first two terms for ditching the governor's mansion and limousine in favour of a modest flat and second-hand car.
"The truth is that I don't like to spend money. Not my own and not the taxpayers," he said on the campaign trail. Despite the differences in physical size, both men have large and powerful personalities. And both are confronted with the same basic challenge: how to deal with the structural crises that make the Golden State a poster child for the dysfunctional state of America's political system and its economy.
They may share the same fate, too. Schwarzenegger rode into the governor's mansion promising to fix the state's chronic budget deficit, hoping to use his popularity to force the Democratic-controlled legislature to accept unwelcome changes. He leaves office with an approval rating of 20 per cent and hands Brown a budget shortfall of 19 billion dollars or more.
Brown's personal history is just as interesting as that of the Austrian body builder turned Hollywood movie star. He was born in 1938 in San Francisco, 21 years before his father, Edmund Pat Brown, became a two-term California governor. He originally wanted to be a Jesuit priest but switched from the seminary to law school and made his political name as an activist California secretary of state who took corporations and corrupt politicians to task. He was elected governor in 1974, succeeding Ronald Reagan, and quickly gained a reputation as a fiscal conservative who put his predecessor to shame.
He was a social progressive, however, as he pioneered environmental legislation and appointed the first openly gay judge in the United States. Brown also became a regular item in the gossip columns, thanks to his relationship with singer Linda Ronstadt. He twice ran for the Democratic nomination for president but was defeated both times by Jimmy Carter. Brown summed up his philosophy with his 1980 slogan: "Protect the Earth, serve the people, explore the universe." He lost two senate races in the 1980s, after which he went to Japan to study Buddhism and worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. He narrowly lost to Bill Clinton in his party's 1992 presidential primaries, a defeat that many believed would end Brown's political career. But he had other ideas.
He returned to politics in 1999 as an independent candidate for mayor of the blighted city of Oakland, easily winning the election and implementing pragmatic policies to revitalize the city and spur its redevelopment. Following two terms as mayor, he was elected California attorney general in 2007, marking his return to statewide office, 25 years after his previous stint. Brown insists he has the energy, skills, experience and contacts to restore California to its preeminence, and he knows how to issue the right sound bites. "I'm going to try to pare down as much as I possibly can," Brown said in his first press conference as governor-elect.
He had sobering words for Democrats who control both houses of the state legislature: "My message is: get ready for hard surfaces and benches, as you sit in the kind of austere environment of a very carefully put together state government and budget." Yet he also recognized that the depth of the problems he faces could overwhelm him. "Politicians come, and politicians go, and the people are looking for things to be better," Brown said.
"And if you can't deliver, they get somebody else to try. "I've been up, and I've been down. I'm going to do my darnedest to stay up."