Free Republic

Signaling that the "post-partisanship" called for by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be difficult to achieve, the governor's fellow Republicans in the state Senate on Thursday rejected one of his appointees to the State Board of Education. The Senate voted 25-11 on the confirmation of teachers' union activist Joe Nuñez, but with minority Republicans opposed, fell two votes short of the required two-thirds majority. Schwarzenegger reappointed Nuñez, a Democrat and official with the California Teachers Association, to the board in March, despite the fact that Nunez had helped lead a campaign against Schwarzenegger's ballot measures in the 2005 special election.

SACRAMENTO — Few people have worked harder than Joe Nuñez to sabotage Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political fortunes. A high-ranking teachers union official, he helped engineer the governor's embarrassing defeat in the special election last year. So to Republicans, it was nothing short of infuriating and confounding that Schwarzenegger would appoint Nuñez to the state Board of Education. He handed a Democrat and avowed enemy one of the most prestigious patronage jobs in government. --snip-- Among all Schwarzenegger appointees to state government jobs, regulatory boards and commissions — more than 2,000 in all — about 54% have been Republicans. The rest...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-appointment of a political rival to the state Board of Education didn't buy him much love in the enemy camp. On Wednesday, the governor gave another term on the board to Joe Nunez, a longtime teachers' union activist and chair of the organization that battled Schwarzenegger in last year's special election. On Thursday, Nunez, in his role as the Alliance for a Better California board chair, filed a five-page complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission against Schwarzenegger and the governor's old campaign vehicle, the California Recovery Team. It demanded that the FPPC investigate and file a...

For two years, the California Teachers Association has beat up on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with relentless ferocity. It made sense: The CTA is used to treating state revenues as if they were an all-you-can-eat buffet, and the governor was eager to take the union on. Last November, unfortunately, the CTA won the power struggle. All four reform initiatives Schwarzenegger touted were rejected after a campaign in which loads of demagogic ads were run describing the governor as a threat to truth, justice and the American way. This deceptive campaign, overseen by CTA political strategist Joe Nuñez – morphed Schwarzenegger's calls...

For two years, the California Teachers Association has beat up on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with relentless ferocity. It made sense: The CTA is used to treating state revenues as if they were an all-you-can-eat buffet, and the governor – at least in his old fiscal-conservative iteration – was eager to take the union on. Last November, unfortunately, the CTA won the power struggle. All four reform initiatives Schwarzenegger touted were rejected after a campaign in which the CTA-run Alliance for a Better California ran loads of demagogic ads describing the governor as a threat to truth, justice and the American...

Auditors found questionable spending by state Education Secretary Alan Bersin when he was superintendent of schools in San Diego. The audit, conducted for the San Diego Unified School District by a law firm, Loeb & Loeb, looked at Bersin's handling of more than $630,000 in tax-deductible donations made by individuals and corporations to an education innovation fund. The audit said Bersin spent the money as he wanted, often reimbursing himself for personal and business expenses. There were also undocumented reimbursements and possible double-billings, auditors said. School district officials have forwarded the audit to the state attorney general, Fair Political Practices...

Teachers union official has just been renamed to Board of Education. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's reappointment of a political rival to the State Board of Education didn't buy him much love in the enemy camp. On Wednesday, the governor gave another term on the board to Joe Nuñez, a longtime teachers union activist and chairman of the organization that battled Schwarzenegger in last year's special election. On Thursday, Nuñez, in his role as the Alliance for a Better California board chairman, filed a five-page complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission against Schwarzenegger and the governor's old campaign vehicle, the California...

A state appeals court says a campaign committee controlled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke state law by not promptly reporting millions of dollars in expenditures promoting four measures on last November's special election ballot. The 3rd District Court of Appeal, in a decision issued Wednesday, said Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team should have reported the expenditures within 24 hours after they were made during the 90 days leading up to the Nov. 8 election but failed to do so. "CRT ignores that the (Political Reform Act) requires reporting of independent expenditures on a 24-hour basis during an election cycle," a three...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has reappointed to the state Board of Education a top political officer of the California Teachers Association, a union which continues to call for the governor's head. Schwarzenegger's office said the reappointment of Joe Nunez, 53, of Stockton was neither an election-year olive branch to the union nor politically motivated in any other way. "Mr. Nunez has more than three decades of experience in education," Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Sabrina Demayo Lockhart said. "The governor is always looking for the most qualified folks... We highly regard each appointment that we make, we look for people who are highly qualified...