Free Republic

Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, who served as both Democratic foil and dealmaker with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has joined the high-powered public relations firm whose California office is currently occupied by Schwarzenegger's former campaign manager and communications director. Núñez, a Los Angeles Democrat, will be the newest partner and co-chair of Mercury Public Affairs, LLC, a political firm with offices in seven cities across the country, according to a letter he has sent to supporters. Steve Schmidt, who was the architect of Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign, and Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's former communications director and deputy chief of staff, are the...

Núñez proposal follows similar move by Perata to expand coverage. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez on Thursday outlined a proposal to provide health insurance to all children in the state and to ask employers and employees to pay their "fair share" of coverage."We're going to enact the children's coverage and the reforms of the shared employee-employer responsibility by 2008," Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said at a news conference at UC Davis Medical Center. "That is a clear-cut objective of this proposal."Núñez's broad plan to insure all Californians comes on the heels of a similar proposal from Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a bipartisan delegation of legislative leaders flew around the state yesterday to promote the $37.3 billion public works bond package approved last week for the November ballot. “When I ran for governor, people always said it would be impossible to bring Democrats and Republicans together,” the Republican governor told an airport news conference in San Diego. “But we've proven again that we can come together.” Schwarzenegger highlighted school construction money that would go to San Diego if the education component of the package is approved in the November election. “For San Diego, this means that for...

What a difference a year makes. The budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled last week represents a radical departure from his proposal a year earlier. Out: slights to the state's public employees and the shelving of transportation projects. In: a warm embrace of the Democratic legislative agenda. The governor's shift reflects a keen grasp of the obvious: Last year's political agenda was rejected in total by the voters in November's costly and combative special election. That the governor gets this is a good thing. --snip-- The new "Kumbaya" spirit in Sacramento has led some to speculate that the governor's lurch back...

Assembly Speaker and one-time Pomona immigrant advocate Fabian Núñez is heading into a defining year in his young political career, saying he is prepared to get things done. But critics say the Los Angeles Democrat is only prepared to be an "obstructionist." In a legislative session that was overshadowed by partisan bickering surrounding November's special election, the perception that Núñez can't or won't negotiate was reinforced by his outspoken criticism of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after election day. Unlike the speaker's Senate counterpart, state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, who was more conciliatory, Núñez had said, "It can't be just one of...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is seldom upstaged, but it could happen Thursday when one of his chief legislative rivals flies south of the border to hold private meetings with Mexican President Vicente Fox. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said he plans to make the trip -- and miss one of the few legislative sessions remaining this year -- in an attempt to repair relations with California's largest trading partner. Schwarzenegger has been sharply criticized by Mexican media and politicians for supporting private border patrols to curb illegal immigration. ``The tension between the governor and the Mexican government began to boil after his...

We all know about Aesop's allegorical race between the tortoise and the hare. This week we're seeing a state Legislature as dilatory as the former and as alacritous as the latter. The Assembly is dragging its feet on a measure that would repeal some very questionable -- and very expensive -- pension benefit increases granted to 3,200 state workers by former Gov. Gray Davis. "All of this was the result of buying Gray Davis," Sam McCall, who in 2002 was an attorney for the California Union of Safety Employees, told The Sacramento Bee. "We would not have got this done...

<p>Logan Heights and La Jolla are only a few miles apart, but economically the San Diego County communities are at polar ends of the planet.</p> <p>It's a lesson Fabian Núñez -- who will be sworn in Monday as Assembly speaker only a year after taking office -- learned as a child and that shaped his life and politics.</p>