John Howard of the Capitol Weekly has posted an article on Kennedy’s appointment, in which he reveals that Kennedy turned the Governor down on an initial ask, and then finally accepted after being given carte blanche authority over the hiring and firing of the senior staff.
The article begins:
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has hired Susan Kennedy, a top aide to former
Gov. Gray Davis, as his new chief of staff, Capitol sources in both major parties
said. The chief of staff’s position is considered the most powerful administrative
position in state government, with broad authority over policy-making and the sprawling
bureaucracy.
The decision was made following two days of intense, closed-door meetings that included
negotiating sessions across the street from the Capitol in the Hyatt Regency Hotel,
where Schwarzenegger stays while in Sacramento. Kennedy’s hiring was the culmination
of a five-hour meeting, sources said, at which Kennedy demanded–and got–sole authority
over hiring and firing the executive staff. That provision spread anger among Republican
insiders, who said they feared a major purge of GOP staffers among the governor’s
inner circle.
Read it all here. As one of my readers said in response to this news, "Oy Vey."