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Posted on 08/23/2005 6:09:08 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez leaves for a three-day trip to Mexico this week to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox and other officials, a visit he says is needed to repair frayed relations between California and its largest trading partner.
Nunez said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent comments on border security, including his praise of the volunteer Minuteman patrols, offended some Mexican officials.
"I didn't realize the attitude in Mexico toward Gov. Schwarzenegger is bad, very bad," Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said during a Tuesday news conference. "When I talk to people from Mexico, high-ranking officials from Mexico, it is pretty clear that they feel put off by Gov. Schwarzenegger."
Republicans reacted swiftly, saying Nunez is looking to score political points against the governor as the two sides battle over initiatives on the November special election ballot. Administration officials deny that there are problems in the relationship between Schwarzenegger and Mexican leaders.
"We have a very positive relationship," Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said. "Just last month, there was a very productive meeting with the border governors where they discussed and shared challenges on both sides of the border."
Thompson said that meeting allowed Schwarzenegger to elaborate on the Minuteman Project to Mexican governors. He said he did not think the volunteers should be armed and envisioned them much like a neighborhood watch group to assist authorities in monitoring border activities.
Earlier this year, Schwarzenegger called for greater security along the U.S.-Mexican border and criticized billboards that identified a Los Angeles television station's market as "Los Angeles, Mexico."
The Nunez trip, beginning Thursday, comes at a busy time in the Capitol, when hundreds of bills are pending in the Legislature awaiting action before the scheduled end to the session on Sept. 9. The speaker said he will miss only Thursday's Assembly meeting and return Saturday night ready to resume his role next week.
He said he has no intention of using the meetings to upstage the governor, but some Republicans question the timing of the mission as well as his motivation.
"Everything that Nunez does between now and November should be put into the perspective of turning out votes in the special election," said Karen Hanretty, spokeswoman for the California Republican Party.
She said the trip will be heavily covered by Spanish-language television in California - reaching voters that Nunez wants to turn out in big numbers to oppose Schwarzenegger's ballot measures. Those initiatives include a proposal to limit state spending and another to take responsibility for drawing legislative districts away from lawmakers and give it instead to a panel of retired judges.
Nunez is well-positioned to try to bridge any perceived gap between California and Mexico, said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California.
He was born in San Diego to an immigrant gardener and a maid but lived in Tijuana until the age of 7, when he returned to Southern California.
"Why shouldn't the speaker of the Assembly go down there? Mexico is one of our leading trade partners," he said. "The governor has gone to Japan. Why shouldn't Nunez go to Mexico?"
Nunez also is scheduled to meet with the mayor of Mexico City, congressional members and business leaders.
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On the Net
Gov.'s home page: http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov-homepage.jsp
Assembly Speaker: http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a46/mainpage.htm
Calipornia huh, hummmm...
Mexico is Calif's largest trading partner?
How about some stats to back that up? Unless you want to count the amount of illegals going up and cash going back, there's no way.
He's plotting secession to Mexico.
I predict that his next move will be to run for Governor of CA.
Sec. Rice should tell the state assemblyman that he does not have the credentials to conduct business of any sort with the President of Mexico.
Sounds like he's more interested in representing Mexicans than Californians.
Bingo!
"When I talk to people from Mexico, high-ranking officials from Mexico, it is pretty clear that they feel put off by Gov. Schwarzenegger."
Who cares? Unless Nunez thinks Mexicans ARE Californians or at least he hopes so, because he knows illegal voters vote DEMOCRAT.
Mr. Nunez is not the President of the U.S., and needs to leave international relations to Mr. Bush
by the way was this trip paid for with taxpayers dollars???
Mexican officials can't very well be offended by an American Governor who believes in following the immigration laws -- can they?
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