In some of the more – uh – interesting political analysis seen in a long time, Fabian Nunez’s 
communications guru Steve Maviglio is promoting the embattled Assembly Speaker for Governor of California. In a blog post that Steve wrote for the The California Majority Report, he lists Nunez, his boss, as #8 on the list of Top Ten Democratic potential candidates for Governor in 2010. Incredibly, Nunez’s gubernatorial prospects have improved since the blog’s previous assessment of would-be Governors when the Speaker was ranked Number 10. Now that’s what we call spin. Talk about failing upward.
Since Maviglio’s last handicapping of Nunez’ odds at being the next Governor of California, a few things have taken place…
- Nunez is under investigation by the FPPC for personal use of campaign funds, failure to adequately disclose campaign expenditures and the use of his campaign account to finance international travel and luxury goods.
- It has been revealed that Nunez personally benefits financially from special interest money thanks to his wife’s six-figure salary from a foundation financed by interests with business before the Legislature. (There is no way that Nunez could afford his expensive Sacramento home without his wife’s income)
- The press has reported the Speaker also pays a bargain rent to live with his professional fundraiser (who’s received a whopping $600,000 from Nunez in recent years) in a luxury loft when he’s in LA.
- Nunez also funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars from special interests with business before the Legislature – and who had already contributed the maximum allowed to the Speaker’s campaign accounts – to a non-profit foundation suspended by the state and legally which should not have been operating but which explicitly promoted Nunez politically in his Assembly district. (Imagine – curry favor with the Speaker, and get a write-off!)
The litany of Nunez scandals is one way to boost name identification – and it has worked rather dramatically. Perhaps the Majority Report has a point. In a June 2007 survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), Nunez only had 11% name ID among likely California voters. Recent private polling which I have seen has shown that in the last six months the Speaker has quadrupled his name ID. The only problem is that Nunez’s name ID is now almost 2 to 1 negative!
The glory-seeking Nunez has always wanted to surpass the fame and accomplishments of previous Assembly Speakers Jesse Unruh and Willie Brown and he’s finally succeed in at least one respect – the same polling shows Nunez’s negative ratings are dramatically higher than even those of the legendary Willie Brown among California’s electorate. That’s one heck of a campaign platform – to loosen term limits and pass Prop. 93 – much less run for Governor.
**There is more – click the link**
November 26th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Jon, maybe you should spend a little more time trying to figure out how to get the CRP out of its massive debt instead of writing fact-deprived missives on the Speaker.
I’m not promoting the Speaker for Governor. The ratings are independent of my job. And the main reason he moved up is that the list has shrunk from 15 potentials to 10. Also, I provided full disclosure about that, something I recommend you do since you appear to be bankrolled by the anti-Prop 93 big bucks.
Allow me to correct you on some other items:
1. The FPPC is randomly auditing the Speaker, along with 29 other legislators. A quick peek at FPPC Chairman Ross Johnson’s filings on similar expenses while he served in the Senate show the same (or less) transparency.
2. The rent on the apartment is market rate, with an agreement drawn up by an election lawyer to insure transparency. You might want to check with some of your GOP legislators (some of whom have their WIVES as fundraisers) about the office space they share with their fundraisers before you throw that stone in your glass house. (BTW, it’s not a “luxury loft.” It’s a 1,000 sq. ft. apartment in a five-story building.)
3. The Speaker didn’t funnel any money to a “foundation.” It was a nonprofit charity, which gave toys to kids and scholarships. Contrast that with some of the “behests” by Republican legislators (now available on the FPPC website) or the LA Times story on Bill Leonard and Barbara Alby.
4. The Speaker’s wive’s job is not policy related and was earned based on her experience as a nurse. The primary funder is the California Hospital Association — which does NOT support the Speaker’s bill.
5. The Speaker’s accomplishments — co-authoring the nation’s first global warming bill, raising the minimum wage, passing billions in infrastructure bonds that you opposed but are now being embraced by Republicans in the legislature — far outweigh a week of bad press. It would interesting for you to cite the polls you’re talking about, since the public polls show no such negative ID.
5. Prop 93 enjoys a double-digit lead in the polls, including widespread support among Republicans. The initiative REDUCES the number of years in office, hence strengthening term limits.
And since we’re on the subject of ethics …Maybe you can take a pledge not to accept any advertising dollars from the anti-term limits reform group to ensure that your readers don’t see any conflict of interest in your numerous columns on the subject? Wadda you say?
November 26th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Thanks for the voluminous response. The best thing about it was your last item. While I am not a consultant for the no-on-93 folks, and have taken not a cent from them, I will use your post as inspiration to dialogue with them about advertising — a superior idea. If my readers think that my opposition to 93 is insincere, but really just a ruse to get a few hundred bucks to line my purse, well, they can head on over to the Democrat Majority Report for their news ;)
November 26th, 2007 at 12:00 am
A nice Orwellian use of language by Mr. M in characterizing those of
us who supported Prop. 140 in 1990 as, “anti-term limits” because we
now oppose efforts to undo LA County Supervisor Peter Schbarum’s
great accomplishment: getting REAL term limits passed in that year.
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Hate is Love.