In less than an hour, Assembly Speaker Fabian “Louis Vuitton” Nunez will be holding what is being billed as his “last press conference as Speaker” – thank goodness. It is tiresome, as we all know, to hear self-absorbed people speak at a microphone.
Anyways, according to a blog post over on the Nunez Propaganda Website, the Speaker’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Steve Maviglio, says that Nunez is going to unveil yet another attempt to reduce legislative term-limits (apparently the Speaker’s memory extends backwards around ten weeks, but not much longer) – coupled with some sort of redistricting reform and a fundraising “blackout period” during budget negotiation season (yeah, those are so effective).
Once again, though, it is the Fabian “Party of One” – where Nunez figures out what he wants, announces it from a podium, and he is off to the races. This worked like a charm for his health care boondoggle, and his Career Politician Term Limits Weakening Initiative (Prop. 93), didn’t it?
As demonstration of Nunez’ ongoing hubris, Maviglio says in the last line of his blog post, “Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines is expected to be supportive of the plan, with Assembly action slated for sometime in the next few weeks.”
I just got off of the phone with Morgan Crinklaw, Villines’ top spokesperson who made it very clear. While Mike Villines has always been a strong supporter of reforming redistricting, he has not seen this bill, has not been consulting about it, and thus by definition it is not being introduced as some sort of product of negotiation.
So Maviglio literally made that up — it’s wishful thinking.
As the saying goes, "the devil will be in the details” of Nunez’ proposal. Does the proposal remove the self-interested legislators completely from the redistricting process? Does the proposal call for real tight definition of communities that must be kept together in legislative districts? Does the proposal require nesting two Assembly seats in each Senate seat? Does the proposal include the 53 (and possibly more) United States House of Representative Districts?
The voters just spoke on the weakening of term-limits. I’m not saying that there is not a redistricting plan that would not be worth the trade-off of altering term-limits, I am just dubious that Nunez would support one that gets us there.
P.S. How much you want to bet that under whatever proposal Nunez makes, if passed, it would allow him at some point down the road to once again seek election to the State Assembly. Always look for his self-serving angle.
May 6th, 2008 at 12:00 am
To quote your hero, Ronald Reagan, “there you go again”
The legislation would not allow the Speaker to run for the Assembly again. So much for that theory.
And as for going at it alone, do you want me to tick off the 100+ organizations and supporters, including Mayor Autry, AARP, and the SD Chamber, that supported the health care plan? By the time you were done reading it, you could have visited your ex-boss Carona in jail and be home in time to catch the 30-second highlight reel of the Romney campaign.
Here’s the Villines statement:
“I wish Speaker Nunez well as his term as Speaker comes to an end. It has been a pleasure working with him and I consider him a good friend. I am confident he will continue to achieve great things in his future endeavors.
“I have always supported reforming the way business is done in Sacramento. We must end the status quo. We must also reform redistricting to take the power to draw district lines out of the hands of politicians and give it back to the voters. I look forward to receiving the specifics of this proposal so we can begin to work together to come to a bipartisan agreement that reforms the system and puts Californians first.”
As much as I like Mike Villines, I’m quite happy where I am, and Morgan Crinklaw does a helluva job with what he has to work with in his caucus :)
May 7th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Steve: Way to talk around the fact that your claim of Villines “expected support” had no basis in fact.
Jon got you. Just admit it.