If Attorney General Jerry Brown, who formally announced his candidacy for governor of California on Tuesday, is to succeed in his efforts to return to the job he held for eight years, he will have to convince an angry electorate that a career politician is the right choice at a time when voters here -- and nationwide -- seem to have little patience for that particular breed. The Field Poll of voters in the state, for instance, shows that the Legislature has a meager 16 percent approval rating and that nearly half feel that California is on the wrong track. And while Brown says he agrees, in his Web video announcing his encore campaign he repeatedly mentioned his experience, which besides the governorship includes a term as California's secretary of state, two terms as mayor of Oakland and his current attorney general post. 'Some people say that if you've been around the process you can't handle the job, that we need to go out and find an outsider who knows virtually nothing about state government,' said Brown, a Democrat whose resume also includes three failed bids for the Democratic presidential nomination. 'Well, we tried that, and it doesn't work.' Those remarks were intended as a jab at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a movie actor turned Republican politician whose popularity is also low, as well as at Brown's most likely opponent, Meg Whitman, the Republican front-runner and former chief executive of eBay, who is a political novice. On Tuesday, Whitman said that was her biggest strength. 'I've spent my career in the private sector creating jobs,' she said, characterizing Brown's 40-year political career as 'a trail of failed experiments, big government spending and higher taxes.' 'The definition of insanity,' she added, 'is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.' Whitman's competition for the Republican nomination -- to be decided in a June primary -- is Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, who also said the election should be 'about the future of California, not the past.' 'The last person they are going to turn to is a person like Jerry, the consummate career politician,' Poizner said in an interview last week. Brown has been a nearly constant presence in California politics since the late 1960s, when he followed his father, former Gov. Pat Brown, into what amounts to the family business. And as months of speculation about his candidacy wore on and Whitman spent millions trying to raise her public profile, Brown seemed to be banking on his name recognition. His fame will also be called upon to bridge a likely fundraising gap: Both Whitman and Poizner have large personal fortunes and have donated heavily to their own campaigns. Brown has about $12.1 million on hand, according to his campaign. Brown turns 72 in April and would be the state's oldest governor. In his Web video, he described himself as 'someone with insider's knowledge but an outsider's mind.' And sure enough, Brown has proven to be something of political chameleon. At various times, he has been seen as an eccentric chief executive (his Governor Moonbeam days, during his first time in office); a tough-on-crime lawman (as Oakland's mayor); and a populist attorney general (his current incarnation, during which he has filed civil actions against banks and staked out socially liberal positions like support for same-sex marriage). Jack Citrin, the director of Institute for Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said Brown was unlikely to dwell on the details of his previous governorship, from 1975 to 1983, which saw the passage of Proposition 13 -- an anti-tax measure blamed by some for the state's current fiscal problems -- and a second-term recession. 'As far as he'll mention it, it will be, 'Look, I've got experience, I've been in government, I've run a city, I've been attorney general, dealing with crime and punishment, which people think is critical, and then here you have this woman is parachuting in from another world,' Citrin said, referring to a potential attack on Whitman. In a head-to-head contest, Brown narrowly leads Whitman, with Brown getting strong support among Democrats, said Mark Baldassare, president and chief executive officer of the Public Policy Institute of California, which polls voter sentiment. Independents, who make up more than 20 percent of the California electorate, 'are pretty undecided,' Baldassare said. Independents have played major roles in dealing the Democrats losses in the recent in Massachusetts Senate race and in governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey. But Brown says that the problems facing California -- including a $20 billion deficit and an unemployment rate of more than 12 percent, are so profound that they need someone who has taken the reins before. 'Our state is in serious trouble, and the next governor must have the preparation, and the knowledge and the know-how to get California working again,' he said in his Web video. 'That's what I offer.' 