Free Republic

SACRAMENTO — Secretary of Veterans Affairs Maurice Johannessen, who as a state senator angered fellow Republicans by twice voting for Democrat Gov. Gray Davis' budgets, said Wednesday that he had been fired by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor appointed Leo Tuttle, a retired Air Force colonel and former deputy secretary of the veterans department in the Pete Wilson administration, as the interim head of the agency. Johannessen charged that his removal Monday night was a payback by influential GOP senators because he broke ranks with them on the 2001 and 2002 budgets. "I was told that I was the No....

Politics: K. Maurice Johannessen is being shunned after casting swing vote on budget. By JULIE TAMAKI, TIMES STAFF WRITER SACRAMENTO -- Since he cast the lone Republican vote needed to approve a state budget in the Senate nearly two months ago, Sen. K. Maurice Johannessen of Redding has been booted from his party caucus and stripped of his leadership role. He is no longer welcome at GOP lunches. He's not provided official copies of party briefing papers on upcoming bills. And today, when members of the Senate pause to give a send-off to Johannessen, who is termed out, Republicans are...

Conduct questions up close and personal for two state politicians By STEVE GEISSINGERSACRAMENTO BUREAU SACRAMENTO -- For two state lawmakers -- one a Democrat and the other a Republican -- the issue of ethics has become very personal in recent weeks. Assemblyman Dean Florez, a Fresno-area Democrat, says he was fired from his role as head of the inquiry into the state's ill-fated Oracle software contract because he was too tough on Gov. Gray Davis' administration In another instance, Sen. Maurice Johannessen, a Redding Republican who faces term limits this year, sided with the dominant Senate Democrats on the state's...