Today the Board of Directors of the California Chamber of Commerce is meeting to discuss, among other things, whether or not the Chamber will take an official position on Proposition 93.  As is often talked about here on the FlashReport, Proposition 93 is what we call the "Fabian Nunez Career Politician Extension Act" as this measure was crafted by Nunez, and placed on the ballot by him, as a pretty naked attempt to preserve and consolidate his political power, as Assembly Speaker, for another six years. 
 
Some members of the Chamber’s Board may actually want to roll up their sleeves and get into the policy matter of the initiative.  But before they do so, they may want to consider the politics of the situation…
 
The Chamber, under the very able and capable leadership of Allan Zaramberg, came out pretty publicly and strongly saying that it would support a change in the state’s legislative term limits as part of a negotiated deal that would include a fair redistricting plan.  The idea behind the Chamber’s position was sound — in order to have a decent shot at passing a plan that would limit unfair gerrymandering in the future, such a plan would need to be tied directly to a term-limits deal, so that Democrat politicians like Senate President Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, and perhaps more importantly the public employee unions, would have a tremendous incentive to support the passage of both, tied together, on the ballot.
 
Well, at some point in the midst of negotiations, Fabian Nunez took his proverbial marbles and went to play on his own.  He walked away from the Chamber and its allies, who were in good faith trying to negotiate a term-limits reform/redistricting package, an unilaterally qualified his own solo measure — one that he knew would preserve his own political career.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.