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Gov. Jerry Brown, who retires at the end of the year, is sitting on a campaign war chest of $14.9 million — contributions raised for past races that he never needed to spend.

In his final months in office, Mr. Brown has pledged to wage an all-out fight to defeat an initiative put on the ballot by Republicans to repeal a 12-cent gas tax passed by the Legislature last year to fund $5 billion in annual road reconstruction.

Given that Mr. Brown isn’t running for anything again (presumably), one would think that he would turn over those unspent funds to this final campaign.

No.

Mr. Brown has been in politics for a long time, and is well aware of what happens to elected officials upon leaving office. He may be retiring after 50 years in public life, but he doesn’t want to be forgotten. That $14.9 million is a good way to make certain he is not, allowing him to play kingmaker in future initiative fights or political campaigns.