SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Hollywood can have Schwarzenegger. Sacramento has Sutter.
In a company town with little pizzazz but lots of lawmakers squabbling over the state’s financial mess, Gov. Jerry Brown’s 7-year-old Pembroke Welsh corgi has become a bona fide celebrity.
For months, California’s first dog has starred in feverish blog posts and front-page news stories. Legislators and lobbyists fawn over the stocky little brown-and-white canine. He’s become a fixture in budget negotiations – actually sitting at the bargaining table once – and a people magnet on his daily walks.
“Everybody knows him,” Brown boasted last week as he trailed his wife and Sutter in the park that surrounds the Capitol. “He’s a cut above most of the other mutts he encounters.”
From Nixon’s Checkers to Obama’s Bo, political pets have long fascinated the public. Sutter, with some help from the Brown administration, is a tech-age phenomenon, with a sizable social media following and growing chops as a political animal. Even hardened legislators melt when he’s around, if only for the relief he provides from budget talks and the way he softens the sometimes-prickly governor.