SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari on Thursday blamed Gov. Jerry Brown for what he sees as California’s decline over the past three decades, saying poverty and unemployment have climbed during the time that Brown was a member of the state’s political elite.

In some of his most aggressive remarks to date about the Democratic incumbent, Kashkari said Brown’s political legacy is “the destruction of the middle class of California.”