The choice confronting California voters in November’s gubernatorial election was between Jarvis hip and Jarvis square. Both unconventional Jerry Brown and bland Evelle Younger, the Republican challenger, ran a campaign of cutbacks each proclaiming his commitment to a constitutional “spending limitation,” attacking his opponent for “overspending,” preaching the gospel of cheaper is better, less is more. Each even had his own Howard Jarvis commercial endorsement, and by election day, the injudicious or merely unlucky television viewer was likely to have seen Jarvis commending both Younger (“who brilliantly defended Proposition 13 before the State Supreme Court”) and Brown (“Sure, I wrote Proposition 13, but it took a dedicated governor to make it work”). Few political dialogues have so closely approached a monologue, few have offered so little hope to ...