And this has been a close adviser to Arnold????
RINO proof if there ever was one.
Posted on 03/27/2008 11:47:23 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the following appointments:
(snip)Bonnie Reiss, 52, of Malibu, has been appointed to the University of California Board of Regents. Since September 2007, she has served as operating advisor to Pegasus Capital Advisors, a private equity firm based in New York. Reiss also currently serves on the board for the Women's Conference, Afterschool All-Stars and the California Dream Team. She previously served as senior advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2003 to 2007, where she advised the Governor on all major policy initiatives including education, the environment and children's issues. From 1994 to 2003, she served as president of the Inner-City Games Foundation, later renamed Afterschool All-Stars. She is a founding director of Arnold's All-Stars, a California non-profit organization providing after-school programs to middle schools. Her experience includes careers as an entertainment lawyer, accountant, producer and writer from 1981 to 1988. In 1988, Reiss founded the Earth Communications Office where she led the effort to increase the entertainment industry's awareness of environmental issues. She served as a member of the State Board of Education from 2004 to 2006. In 2007, she received the William S. White Lifetime Achievement Award from the U.S. Department Education for her advocacy in the area of public education. In 2006, she received the Advocate of the Year Award from the UC Student Association. Reiss holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting and finance from the University of Miami. This position requires Senate confirmation and there is no salary. Reiss is a Democrat.
Campaign advisor Bonnie Reiss has long promoted liberal environmentalism through the entertainment industry.
Another key Arnold Schwarzenegger gubernatorial campaign aide has emerged as a possible embarrassment to the actor as he tries to solidify support within the GOP base.
Long-time Schwarzenegger friend and political co-worker Democrat Bonnie Reiss, who joined his campaign last month, has long been an influential, highly effective leader of Hollywood’s left-wing environmentalists, working with Norman Lear before forming her own organization promoting a broadly anti-market, anti-private property political agenda.
Reiss’s activism may embarrass Schwarzenegger, already at odds with many Republicans over his support of abortion and gun control, just as political insiders are digesting a recent private survey showing Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock within what is described as “striking distance” of Schwarzenegger and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamanate.
Reiss could add to Schwarzenegger’s difficulties if she is seen as another in a string of insiders giving his campaign a liberal pro-tax, anti-market flavor. Earlier, Schwarzenegger advisor Warren Buffett’s criticism of Prop. 13 and the addition to the campaign of Hollywood liberal Rob Lowe caused an uproar among GOP base voters.
Republican state legislative staffer Tom Hudson said he was concerned to hear of Reiss’s background and role in the Schwarzenegger campaign “at a time when businesses are being smothered by excessive environmental regulations, and developers, farmers, and researchers are being attacked outright by fringe animal rights activists.”
Hudson, legislative director for California Senate Natural Resources Committee Vice Chairman Rico Oller, said he is “more than a little concerned over someone with her background being so close to a potential Republican governor, indeed any governor.”
As a long-time player within the Hollywood establishment elite, Reiss could further complicate Schwarzenegger’s efforts to cultivate a “populist” image in sync with the recall’s Prop. 13-style, grass-roots conservative origins.
“This is populism?” asked American Spectator columnist George Neumayr after seeing an August Los Angeles Times headline that read: “Mobilizing the Machine: Schwarzenegger is Harnessing His Talent Agents and Hollywood Contacts to Raise Funds and Rally the Electorate.”
“Normally the scourge of the Republican Party,” Neumayr wrote on an American Spectator website, “the Hollywood elite is warming to the idea of a Schwarzenegger governorship.ÊThey recognize him as a fellow liberal and regard the ‘R’ after his name as a convenient charade. Peter Bart of Daily Variety chuckled to CNN that he is a ‘Schwarzenegger Republican.’ The Times reports that ‘director/producer Bud Yorkin, a liberal Democrat, said he wouldn’t hesitate to vote for Schwarzenegger,’ and Canadian movie director Ivan Reitman is planning to co-host a fundraiser for him next month.”
An accomplished lawyer, accountant, producer, and writer, Ms. Reiss worked for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy’s 1980 presidential campaign before moving to Southern California to specialize in entertainment law.
She is a former member of the Environmental Media Association founded by Norman Lear, a group that worked to insert pro-“Green” messages into mainstream television programs and movies.
In 1989, she founded her own organization, the Earth Communications Office (ECO). Associated Press reported in 1991 that “because of ECO, ‘Designing Women’ created an episode about using cloth diapers, Michael Douglas is producing a movie about toxic waste, ‘L.A. Law’ addressed animal rights, ‘Murphy Brown’ took on recycling, and Barbra Streisand included an environmental message in her latest album.”
“We have only ten years left to do something,” warned Reiss at ECO’s founding, according to AP.
The July 1, 2003, issue of Sierra, in a supportive article titled “Green Glitterati: celebrities give props to the environment,” described ECO as “ ... another Hollywood green group ... founded in 1989 by entertainment attorney Bonnie Reiss, who discovered that many of the biggest stars were willing to bring some high gloss to the realm of the tree- hugger.”
According to Sierra, ECO’s member roster includes “[James] Cromwell, Pierce Brosnan, and Kevin Bacon.” The group “made its mark with emotional public-service announcements shown before the main features in movie theaters all over the globe. Footage of pristine waters, roiling clouds, leaping dolphins, and time-lapsed sunsets with Willie Nelson singing ‘What a Wonderful World’ as soundtrack encouraged viewers to ‘reduce, reuse, and recycle.’”
Environmentalist critic Ron Arnold described Reiss in his book Trashing the Economy: How Runaway Environmentalism is Wrecking America as “the Aimee Semple McPherson eco-evangelist to the stars.”
Employing a soft-sell approach, ECO promotes “questioning” of American “consumption patterns,” “consumer habits,” and “social values.” A Curriculum and Resource Guide accompanying an ECO-recommended book for young readers (called Stuff) suggests as a classroom activity that “students form a commission on reducing our environmental impact by changing our consumption patterns. Have the class brainstorm different ways that change can be promoted (e.g. education, economics, lifestyle, laws, technology, infrastructure, etc.) ....”
Ms. Reiss’s Schwarzenegger connection runs deep. Reuters quoted her saying she has been a Schwarzenegger family friend for 24 years and has worked with Mr. Schwarzennegger for 10 years. Ms. Reiss worked with Mr. Schwarzenegger’s wife Maria Shriver producing a 1994 Shriver-moderated event billed as the “First Annual Los Angeles Briefing on Major Women’s Health Issues.”
More recently, Ms. Reiss served as CEO of Mr. Schwarzenegger’s Inner-City Games Foundation, making her his original public policy advisor, predating the arrival of the actor’s present campaign team of political and policy consultants.
Ms. Reiss was also founding director of Mr. Schwarzenegger’s After School All Stars, an organization providing after school programs to middle schools.
Ms. Reiss seems poised to play an influential role in policy formulation for Mr. Schwarzenegger who has rebuffed questions about his specific proposals for California by promising to surround himself with capable advisors. Asked specifically about environmental issues, Mr. Schwarzenegger has said, “I have always been environmentally friendly ... Nothing to worry about.”
But his Party’s conservative base seems already worried.
“The more I learn about Arnold’s history supporting groups like ECO,” legislative staffer Tom Hudson said, “and his willingness to host awards ceremonies for Norman Lear’s Environmental Media Association, the more concerned I become .... Bonnie Reiss makes it that much worse.
“I have to fight against wacko environmental ideas on an almost daily basis. The last thing we need is that kind of stuff coming from a Republican governor’s office.”
Pingaroo!
God help us.
Welcome to the McCain wing of the Republican party
And this has been a close adviser to Arnold????
RINO proof if there ever was one.
When parties get bamboozled and shanghaied, there is no telling where they will end up .. Slummin’ with the Kennedys has been such a hugh success,, no surprise, he rewards loyalty.
The University is governed by The Regents, which under Article IX, Section 9 of the California Constitution has "full powers of organization and governance" subject only to very specific areas of legislative control. The article states that "the university shall be entirely independent of all political and sectarian influence and kept free therefrom in the appointment of its Regents and in the administration of its affairs."
Board Membership
Article IX, Section 9 was drafted in 1878 after a decade of political conflict demonstrated the importance of sheltering the university from shifting political winds. The board consists of 26 members:The other Schwarzenegger appointees to the UC Regents:• 18 regents are appointed by the governor for 12-year terms ...
William De La Peña, M.D.: Appointed August 18, 2006 to a term expiring March 1, 2018 (by Schwarzenegger); Ophthalmologist and medical director of the De La Pena Eye Clinic; B.S., American School Foundation; M.D., Autonomous University of Guadalajara.Russell Gould: Appointed September 13, 2005 to a term expiring March 1, 2017 (by Schwarzenegger); B.A., University of California, Berkeley; Senior Vice President for Wachovia Bank. Mr. Gould is Vice Chairman of The Regents.
John Hotchkis: Appointed March 10, 2008 to a term expiring March 1, 2009 (by Schwarzenegger);Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Ramajal; B.A., University of California, Berkeley; MBA, University of California, Los Angeles.
Eddie Island: Appointed June 6, 2005 to a term expiring March 1, 2017 (by Schwarzenegger); retired attorney and executive; J.D., Harvard Law School.
Frederick Ruiz: Appointed July 2, 2004 to a term expiring March 1, 2016 (by Schwarzenegger); Co-founder and Chairman, Ruiz Foods.
Leslie Tang Schilling: Appointed September 13, 2005 to a term expiring March 1, 2013 (by Schwarzenegger); B.A., University of California, Berkeley; M.A, American Graduate School of International Management; Director of Union Square Investments, Inc.
Bruce D. Varner: Appointed August 18, 2006 to a term expiring March 1, 2018 (by Schwarzenegger); Partner in the law firm Varner & Brandt; B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara; J.D., Hastings Law School.
Paul Wachter: Appointed July 2, 2004 (by Schwarzenegger) to a term expiring March 1, 2016; Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; J.D., Columbia School of Law; Founder, President and CEO, Main Street Advisors.
Lies! All lies! No way, NO WAY a Republican could be as bad or worse than a Democrat. /s
I seriously bet this eco-whore has a very large carbon footprint and live a lifestyle way above the rest of us. The only way to stop these people is to expose them for the hypocrites they are. P.S. What are Arh-nold’s chances for re-election?
Wachter,, his blind trust manager? huh?
and the top guy,, the Autonomous University of Guadalajara?
what the hell is this ?
good God.
He's termed out in 2010 but the our California GOP "leaders" (who want a "purple party") are already working to recruit a bunch more trojan horses. Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman have both been mentioned--both of whom are creating their political legacy by running around with McCain and chairing the RNC convention. Otherwise, you'd look back and only find their donations to democrats. The takeover is pretty much complete.
Throw in a few guys from Berkeley and the communist wing at Harvard Law School, and ya got a pretty great bunch, huh?
McCain--nationalizing the Schwarneggerization of the GOP.
P.S. What are Arh-nold’s chances for re-election?
Hey...its Califorknee-a. They will come up with another way to screw this country up.
If you sleep with the pigs long enough, you start to smell like them.
http://www6.miami.edu/miami-magazine/spring05/classnotes.html
Bonnie Reiss Has Got Arnold’s Back
You might not think that “Conan the Barbarian,” California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, needs someone to watch his back. But that’s just the task Bonnie Reiss, B.B.A. ’76, has set for herself.
Reiss, a Democrat and longtime activist for women’s and environmental causes, had worked on Schwarzenegger’s campaign team. She never doubted he’d win—“he’s a winning machine”—but imagined her work would end when he triumphed. Then she got the call to serve as his senior advisor.
“I didn’t hesitate. It’s like family; that’s how we feel about each other,” she said, speaking poolside from her California home. “Arnold didn’t come from politics. He needed someone who has political sense, knows how he likes to work, knows his heart and mind, and can watch his back.”
The seed of their friendship was sown in 1980 in Washington. Reiss had taken a year off from Antioch Law School to work on the presidential campaign of Senator Edward Kennedy. She became friendly with many of the Kennedys who frequented the office, but “Maria [Shriver] and I had a special connection and friendship.” Shriver was dating Schwarzenegger, who at the time had acted in just one film and had earned the titles Mr. Universe, Mr. Olympia, and Mr. World.
“He was extremely smart and funny with a thirst and zest for knowledge and life. Most importantly I saw how he was to Maria,” she remembers.
Born and raised in Queens, New York, Reiss is the youngest of three children. At the University of Miami, her published column and radio show advocated student involvement on campus. She has since enjoyed a successful career in entertainment law and completed a stint as CEO of a nonprofit foundation. Most recently she has helped facilitate youth programs, such as “Arnold’s All-Stars,” and in 2004 she was selected to a two-year term on the California Board of Education.
Now with some urging for an amendment change that would allow foreign-born citizens to run for president (Arnold in 2008?), who knows for how much longer she’ll be watching Conan’s back?
-Michael R. Malone
I guess Ward Connerly is long gone.
A haunting... hollow echo of the Wilsonnegger abortion of the CAGOP!!!
She's even worse than Wilson's Dougie Wheeler!!! Who was just as bad as Clinton's Brucie Babbitt!!! (barf till you're blind, alert!)
I think we should begin a period of grieving for the death of commonsense in the CAGOP...
Just what we need at this $8B shortfall point, another eco-wacko to help the Austrian preach Globaloney...
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