Editing Jerry Brown (section)

===Second term===
{{main|1978 California gubernatorial election}}
[[File:Governor Jerry Brown speaking before crowd at re-election rally on UCLA campus, 1978.jpg|thumb|Brown speaking at a re-election rally in 1978.]]
Brown won re-election in 1978 against Republican state attorney general [[Evelle J. Younger]]. Brown appointed the first [[openly gay]] judge in the United States when he named [[Stephen Lachs]] to serve on the [[Los Angeles County Superior Court]] in 1979.<ref name=out_for_good>{{Cite book |last1=Clendinen |first1=Dudley |last2=Nagourney |first2=Adam |title=Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America |url=https://archive.org/details/outforgoodstrugg0000clen |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-0-684-81091-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/outforgoodstrugg0000clen/page/411 411]–412|year=1999 }}</ref> In 1981, he also appointed the first openly [[lesbian]] judge in the United States, [[Mary C. Morgan]], to the San Francisco Municipal Court.<ref name=advocate_19940823>Jim Schroeder, ''Twenty-five years of courtroom trauma'' ''[[The Advocate (LGBT magazine)|The Advocate]]'' (August 23, 1994).</ref> Brown completed his second term having appointed a total of five gay judges, including [[Rand Schrader]] and [[Jerold Krieger]].<ref name=latimes_19911125>Tracy Wilkinson, [http://www.aegis.org/news/lt/1991/LT911129.html Municipal Court Judge Faces Challenge of AIDS – Disease] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813042722/http://www.aegis.org/news/lt/1991/LT911129.html |date=August 13, 2011 }}, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' (November 25, 1991).</ref><ref name=latimes_20020220>Myrna Oliver, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-feb-20-me-krieger20-story.html Judge Jerold Krieger, 58; Activist Helped Open Gay-Lesbian Temple], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' (February 20, 2002).</ref> Through his first term as governor, Brown had not appointed any openly gay people to any position, but he cited the failed 1978 [[Briggs Initiative]], which sought to ban homosexuals from working in California's public schools, for his increased support of [[gay rights]].<ref name=out_for_good/> The governor also signed AB 489, The [[Consenting Adult Sex Bill|Consenting Adult Sex Act]], which decriminalized homosexual behavior between adults, adding to this reputation. He did, however, sign AB 607, which barred homosexual couples from receiving civil marriage licenses, in 1977.

[[File:Jerry Brown in 1978 crop.jpg|thumb|left|Brown in 1978.]]
Brown championed the [[Peripheral Canal]] project to transport water from near Sacramento around the [[Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta|Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta]] into the Central Valley Project and export it to southern California. It was submitted to the voters for approval as a ballot proposition in 1982, but was turned down.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gwynn|first=Douglas|date=February 1983|title=The California Peripheral Canal: who backed it, who fought it|url=https://ucanr.edu/repositoryfiles/ca3701p22-70808.pdf|journal=California Agriculture|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604145356/https://ucanr.edu/repositoryfiles/ca3701p22-70808.pdf|archive-date=2016-06-04|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1981, Brown, who had established a reputation as a strong environmentalist, was confronted with a serious [[medfly]] infestation in the [[San Francisco Bay Area]]. The state's agricultural industry advised him, and the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service ([[APHIS]]), to authorize airborne spraying of the region. Initially, in accordance with his environmental protection stance, he chose to authorize ground-level spraying only. Unfortunately, the infestation spread as the medfly reproductive cycle out-paced the spraying. After more than a month, millions of dollars of crops had been destroyed, and billions of dollars more were threatened. Governor Brown then authorized a massive response to the infestation. Fleets of helicopters sprayed [[malathion]] at night, and the [[California National Guard]] set up highway checkpoints and collected many tons of local fruit; in the final stage of the campaign, entomologists released millions of [[sterile insect technique|sterile male medflies]] in an attempt to disrupt the insects' reproductive cycle.

Ultimately, the infestation was eradicated, but both the governor's delay and the scale of the action have remained controversial ever since. Some people claimed that malathion was toxic to humans, as well as insects. In response to such concerns, Brown's chief of staff, [[B. T. Collins]], staged a news conference during which he publicly drank a glass of malathion. Many people complained that, while the malathion may not have been very toxic to humans, the aerosol spray containing it was corrosive to car paint.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/us/the-battle-over-the-medfly.html|title=The Battle Over the Medfly|last=Haberman|first=Clyde|date=2014-03-16|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-09-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/10/us/california-resumes-air-war-against-invading-fruit-fly-stirring-debate.html|title=California Resumes Air War Against Invading Fruit Fly, Stirring Debate|author=Alexandra Smith|date=1989-12-10|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-09-07}}</ref>

Brown proposed the establishment of a state space academy and the purchasing of a [[satellite]] that would be launched into orbit to provide emergency communications for the state—a proposal similar to one that was indeed eventually adopted. In 1979, an out-of-state columnist, [[Mike Royko]], at the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'', picked up on the nickname from Brown's [[girlfriend]] at the time, [[Linda Ronstadt]], who was quoted in a 1978 ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine interview humorously calling him "Moonbeam".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/zach-friend/california-governors-race_b_611344.html |first=Zach |last=Friend |title=California Governor's Race: Why Moonbeam Will Win |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |date=June 14, 2010 |access-date=November 18, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Our Latest Export: Gov. Moonbeam--er, Brown |first=Mike |last=Royko |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=April 23, 1979 |page=C11 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/158869485 |url-access=subscription |access-date=July 6, 2017 |archive-date=May 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525064826/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/158869485.html |url-status=live |id={{ProQuest|158869485}}}}</ref> A year later, Royko expressed his regret for publicizing the nickname,<ref>{{cite news |title=Gov. Moonbeam Has Landed |first=Mike |last=Royko |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=August 17, 1980 |page=E5 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/162909754 |url-access=subscription |access-date=July 6, 2017 |archive-date=May 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525064829/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/162909754.html |url-status=live |id={{ProQuest|162909754}}}}</ref> and in 1991 Royko disavowed it entirely, proclaiming Brown to be just as serious as any other politician.<ref>{{cite news |last=McKinley |first=Jesse |title=How Jerry Brown Became 'Governor Moonbeam' |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=WK5 |date=March 7, 2010 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/weekinreview/07mckinley.html |access-date=March 8, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Time to eclipse the 'moonbeam' label |first=Mike |last=Royko |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=September 10, 1991 |quote=By now, the label had surely faded away, especially since Brown is obviously a serious man and every bit as normal as the next candidate, if not more so. |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/09/04/time-to-eclipse-moonbeam-label/}}</ref>

Some notable figures were given priority correspondence access to him in either advisory or personal roles. These included [[United Farm Workers of America]] founder [[Cesar Chavez]], [[Hewlett-Packard]] co-founder [[David Packard]], labor leader [[Jack Henning]], and [[Charles Manatt]], then-Chairman of the California State Democratic Party. Mail was routed as [[VIP]] to be delivered directly to the governor. However, it is unclear as to exactly how long this may have occurred.<ref name="California Watch">{{cite news |author=Davis, Chase |url=http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/List-reveals-who-had-Jerry-Brown-s-ear-in-79-3250206.php |title=List reveals who had Jerry Brown's ear in '79 |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|agency=California Watch |date=October 10, 2010 |access-date=November 18, 2017}}</ref>

In 1978, San Francisco [[punk band]] the [[Dead Kennedys]]' first single, "[[California über alles]]", from the album ''[[Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables]]'', was released; it was performed from the perspective of then-governor Brown painting a picture of a [[hippie]]-[[fascist]] state, satirizing what they considered his mandating of liberal ideas in a fascist manner, commenting on what lyricist [[Jello Biafra]] saw as the corrosive nature of power. The imaginary Brown had become President Brown presiding over secret police and gas chambers. Biafra later said in an interview with ''[[Nardwuar]]'' that he now feels differently about Brown; as it turned out, Brown was not as bad as Biafra thought he would be, and subsequent songs have been written about other politicians deemed worse.<ref>{{cite news |first=John |last=Ruskin |url=http://www.nardwuar.com/vs/jello_biafra/jello-2002_page-2.html |title=Nardwuar the Human Serviette vs Jello Biafra |publisher=Nardwuar |year=2002 |access-date=April 21, 2009 |archive-date=September 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911165621/http://www.nardwuar.com/vs/jello_biafra/jello-2002_page-2.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Brown chose not to run for a third term in 1982, and instead [[1982 United States Senate election in California|ran for the United States Senate]], but lost to [[Mayor of San Diego|San Diego mayor]] [[Pete Wilson]]. He was succeeded as governor by [[George Deukmejian]], then state attorney general, on January 3, 1983.