CTA political hack Joe Nunez, who championed the public employee union led effort in 2005 to sink the needed reforms on the special election ballot failed to achieve the two-thirds vote necessary to be confirmed in his appointment to the State Board of Education. Nunez needed 27 votes and he only got 25… But while Senator Dick Ackerman and almost all of the Senate Republican Caucus get credit for opposing the nomination, unfortunately two Republicans spurned the group decision made by the GOP Senators, and voted FOR Nunez’ confirmation – Senator Jeff Denham and Senator Abel Maldonado. However, two Democrat Senators were absent, and today was the deadline for Nunez to be confirmed.

So the good news is that a professional union political hack is off of the State Board of Education.

But the tragic news is that Denham and Maldonado, who both knew how big of a vote this

I spoke with Senate Leader Dick Ackerman who had this to say, "The education of California students will be in better hands now that Nunez is off of the board."

Ackerman is to be commended for his leadership on this issue.

Denham and Maldonado,… Read More

When Republicans lost their majority, Buck McKeon lost his Chairmanship of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He has decided to go back to his old place on the House Armed Services Committee. See article here.… Read More

I just got the regular emailupdate from the Sacramento Bee. The headline reads:

Senate GOP rejects governor’s education appointee

I open the article and find a description of the rejection of Joe Nunez.

One paragraph caught my eye.You can see the whole article here.

"The Senate voted 25-11 on the confirmation of teachers’ union activist Joe Nunez, but with minority Republicans opposed, fell two votes short of the required two-thirds majority."Now that is interesting because several hours earlier. Jon posted on FlashReport a description of the defeat and pointed out that "Republican" SenatorsDenham and Maldonado voted FOR Nunez. See Jon’s post here. The post explain that two Dems were absent for the vote.

So which is it? The Sacramento Bee makes GOP Senators… Read More

REPUBLICAN SENATORS: CAN THEY STAND TOGETHER? Today, Senate President Don Perata will bring up the confirmation vote for Joe Nunez to the State Board of Education. Nunez is one of the top public employee labor union hacks in the state, and actually served as Chairman of the organized union-led effort to sink all of the meaningful and importance reforms that the Governor brought to the voters in the special election of 2005. If you look up Joe Nunez in the dictionary, you will see that he is a total union political hack. Senator Jim Battin penned a post on this site urging his colleagues to vote no. Voting against his confirmation, which under state law takes a 2/3 vote, should be one of the easiest votes that a Republican in the Senate has ever cast.

But it isn’t just an easy "no" vote, it is an important one. At stake is the… Read More

REPUBLICAN SENATORS: CAN THEY STAND TOGETHER? Today, Senate President Don Perata will bring up the confirmation vote for Joe Nunez to the State Board of Education. Nunez is one of the top public employee labor union hacks in the state, and actually served as Chairman of the organized union-led effort to sink all of the meaningful and importance reforms that the Governor brought to the voters in the special election of 2005. If you look up Joe Nunez in the dictionary, you will see that he is a total union political hack. Senator Jim Battin penned a post on this site urging his colleagues to vote no. Voting against his confirmation, which under state law takes a 2/3 vote, should be one of the easiest votes that a Republican in the Senate has ever cast.

But it isn’t just an easy "no" vote, it is an important one. At stake is the… Read More

Well, a year ago, FR San Diego Blogger Barry Jantz and I came up to Sacramento with a red-carpet invitation from the Governor’s office to the State of the State Address, and we even got a special ‘pre-brief’ with some senior staff members. Of course, last year the Governor rolled out his Strategic Growth Plan, and we were pretty critical of it. So, go figure, no red carpet this year! Nevertheless, thanks to live-streaming video, I was able to take in the entire address from my own laptop computer! Of course, my immediate reaction was — this speech seems an aweful lot like last year’s speech, in that everything that I heard was all about spending, spending and more spending. But, since it seems to be the most accepted rhetorical style these days, let me start by taking a moment to praise the Governor for some of what I heard in his speech…

I applaud the Governor for his strong stand in support of redistricting reform, and the Governor declared that his proposed budget would actually close the existing deficit by a… Read More

Friday Night is Date Night in the Spence household. My wife and I try to go out every Friday– with out the kids of course. This Friday found us at the Edwards Cinema in West Covina. We bought tickets for Pursuit of Happiness (BTW: Viewing it should be part of welfare reform.)

As we were waiting for the movie to start,my wife for some reason though that the newly advertised five dollar taquitos were a "must have".

As I’m waiting in line, I overhear this conservation between two employees.

One of the employees tells the other that the medium (for some item I couldn’t hear) went up 50 cents. The other employee says something like "Why did they do that?" The first employee Says and I quote. "Because you got a raise on the first, stupid."

See the price went up because the minimum wage increase needed to paid for by somebody. The first employee understood that, the second will probably be a legislator or worse a Governor.

And worse still they were out of taquitos.… Read More

Well, a year ago, FR San Diego Blogger Barry Jantz and I came up to Sacramento with a red-carpet invitation from the Governor’s office to the State of the State Address, and we even got a special ‘pre-brief’ with some senior staff members. Of course, last year the Governor rolled out his Strategic Growth Plan, and we were pretty critical of it. So, go figure, no red carpet this year! Nevertheless, thanks to live-streaming video, I was able to take in the entire address from my own laptop computer! Of course, my immediate reaction was — this speech seems an aweful lot like last year’s speech, in that everything that I heard was all about spending, spending and more spending. But, since it seems to be the most accepted rhetorical style these days, let me start by taking a moment to praise the Governor for some of what I heard in his speech…

I applaud the Governor for his strong stand in support of redistricting reform, and the Governor declared that his proposed budget would actually close the existing deficit by a… Read More