Brown is old, and does not seem to be concerned about be popular...He knows coming into a disaster and making it worse will put his legacy up there with public pay phones...
On the flip side, turning an epic government sponsored disaster around, would play well for him.
The only way he can avoid the impending disaster in California is to piss off almost every special interest group that elected him.
That might play well for him outside the state. But inside the state, he would be toast.