Kudos to Jon Fleishman for his commentary on Joe Nunez. I had told him pre-Christmas that I was planning on posting about this appointment, but the holidays and President Ford’s passing away sidetracked me. Jon detailed the curious nature of this appointment. I just want to add a little more on reasons why my caucus needs to unanimously vote against this one.
As Jon reported, Joe Nunez is Chairman of the Alliance for a Better California (ABC), which ran the campaign to defeat the Governor’s initiatives in November 2005. ABC spent $80 million to kill the initiatives.
The LA Times reported (4/14/06): "Few people worked harder than Joe Nunez to sabotage Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political fortunes. A high ranking teacher’s union official, he helped engineer the Governor’s embarrassing defeat in the special election last year"
ABC, under Nunez, also filed a complaint against the Governor’s campaign with the FPPC for campaign reporting violations and asked for $25 million in fines.
To his credit, Nunez hasn’t hid anything – on his application for re-appointment, under the question about if he had done anything to embarrass the administration, he answered: "Chairman, Alliance for a Better California, the union-funded group that led the fight against Schwarzenegger last year."
Here’s a small sampling of quotes from ABC press releases:
– The Alliance for a Better California "today protested the Governor’s reckless and cruel cuts to vital education and health care programs."
– "On behalf of his powerful, corporate and wealthy contributors, the Governor has declared war on California’s workers and families."
– "This is a battle for the people and against special interests…..the special interests who are the Governor’s friends — pharmaceutical companies, insurance and energy companies, Wall Street brokers, car dealers and other corporate backers that have helped him raise more money than any Governor in history"
– "The Governor hosted yet another schmaltzy press conference surrounding himself with unsuspecting small children."
– The Governor’s "reckless special interest agenda that favors special interests and hurts schools."
. . . . . . . and on and on and on.
I don’t know why the Governor made this appointment in the first place. Having served under three governors, I do have some insight how this process usually works. Typically, appointees are someone who personally knows the governor, or has demonstrated loyalty, or is an expert in the area of the appointment. But mostly, the appointee needs to be willing to work with the Governor’s agenda – support his policies. Joe Nunez clearly is not that person.
I’ll leave it to Governor Schwarzenegger’s office to explain it.
Senate Republicans can – and should – prevent his confirmation. The State Board of Education is a prestigious position, and it requires a two-thirds Senate vote. We can stop it only if all Senate Reps hold together and just say NO.
Today was the first step. In the Senate Rules Committee the vote to recommend confirmation of Joe Nunez was split 3 to 2 (Dems voting Yes / Reps voting No).
I’m hopeful this will end next week when its brought to the floor – and I’ll report on how my caucus voted.
Sometimes you just have to say NO. Now is one of those times.