Dan Walters: Jerry Brown tries inside game at the Capitol to no avail

When Jerry Brown began his first term as governor 37 years ago, his ambition to quickly vacate the office soon became obvious.

Scarcely a year later, Brown launched the first of three unsuccessful presidential campaigns. And in between two presidential forays, Brown ran for re-election to a second term as governor and then, as his governorship expired, lost a U.S. Senate bid.

Or to put it another way, his eight-year reign was a perpetual campaign with interludes of governing that were dominated by symbolic acts to impact his campaign of the moment.

When Brown ran for governor again in 2010, after stints as a radio talker, mayor of Oakland and attorney general, he promised that this time, he would concentrate on the job. Implicitly, he sought a do-over to fix a state budget that became chronically imbalanced during his first governorship, and to deal with other issues he left unresolved, such as water.

Brown claimed that having spent his adult life in politics and already served two terms as governor, he had the experience and knowledge to succeed where others had failed.

Wrong, at least so far.

Although Brown had spent eight years as attorney general prior to seeking the governorship again, he had spent very little time in the Capitol and, therefore, appears to have been shocked that it had become institutionally impotent.

He complains publicly about intransigence of Republicans on taxes, but knows that Democrats are just as rigid in their ideology and political myopia.

He has learned the same lesson that Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger received during his first year as governor – that most lawmakers are what he called "girlie men," beholden to their political patrons and lacking independence of thought or action.

Schwarzenegger believed that as an outsider, he could break the Capitol's gridlock, but he was wrong – just as Brown was wrong in believing that as an insider, he could do it.

Both deserve first year "A" marks for engagement and effort, but "D" or worse for results, or at least for not understanding that dysfunction is more deeply rooted than party or personality and reflects California's social dissonance and structural distortion.

Schwarzenegger finally got it and tried – and failed – to make systemic changes, although he deserves some credit for independent redistricting and a new primary election system that may result in marginal improvements.

Brown is still playing the inside game, seemingly hoping to earn a better profile in the history books.

But he could, and should, be leading a crusade for sweeping reform that the state sorely needs and that would elevate him to the transcendent stature of Hiram Johnson, Earl Warren, Ronald Reagan – or his own father.