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Actress Bo Derek may be a "10," but state lawmakers Wednesday indefinitely put off a decision on whether to confirm her appointment by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to a state board. The Senate Rules Committee delayed action on the governor’s appointments of Derek, Keith Brackpool, David J. Israel and Richard A. Rosenberg to the California Horse Racing Board. If confirmed, they would all serve well into the administration of the next governor, who takes office in January.

<p>The Associated Press Jul. 20, 2010 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday appointed actress Geena Davis to a California commission established to promote women's equality.</p> <p>Schwarzenegger named the 54-year-old actress to the Commission on the Status of Women. The nonpartisan panel advocates for women and girls in areas such as education and access to health care.</p>

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Manatt, Phelps & Phillips partner George D. Kieffer to the University of California Board of Regents. ... Kieffer, 61, is based in Manatt Phelps’ Los Angeles office, where he serves as chair of the firm’s Government and Regulatory Policy Division, overseeing major business litigation, business transactions and land use matters. He is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of ManattJones Global Strategies LLC, an international consulting firm and wholly-owned affiliate of Manatt Phelps. Admitted to the State Bar in 1973, Kieffer joined the firm as an associate that...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named Karen Douglas the new chair of the California Energy Commission on Thursday. Douglas, 34, has served on the commission since last year. Before that, she was the director of the California Climate Initiative at Environmental Defense. A Democrat, she'll earn $132,179. The position requires Senate confirmation.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said Monday that Gerald Parksy, a longtime Republican political figure, will chair the tax commission she and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formed in late October. The commission, according to the executive order Schwarzenegger signed, will release a report on how to modernize California's tax structure on April 15, 2009. The commission has gotten off to a slow start, however. On October 30, Schwarzenegger said, "Speaker Bass and the Senate President pro Tem and I will name 12 commission members in time for them to begin their work in November." But as of yet no one...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger officially named San Francisco Democrat Carole Migden to a high-paying seat on the state's waste board on Friday. The job pays $132,178 per year. The first was ex-Assemblyman John Laird. Then came former Sen. Sheila Kuehl. All three are Democrats. All three also happened to be members of the LGBT caucus. A couple years back, she pressed the vote button of an Assembly Republican for her own legislation. Earlier this year, she paid a state record $350,000 fine for campaign finance violations. She pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless driving after a 30-mile drive in her state-owned...

For termed-out and defeated legislators or former high-ranking gubernatorial staffers in search of a soft landing, there is none softer than the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Appointees to the six-member board take home $132,000 a year, plus expenses and a car allowance. That's not bad for what amounts to four all-day meetings a month. Some them work hard between meetings; others don't. The waste board reeks of the government's stale status quo, a potent symbol of lawmakers who are out of touch. Even as California slips further into fiscal chaos, legislators and friends of the governor continue to enjoy...

The long tradition of political appointees landing high-paid slots on California's waste board continued Tuesday. Two termed-out Democratic state lawmakers – Assemblyman John Laird of Santa Cruz and Sen. Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica – were appointed to posts on the Integrated Waste Management Board, courtesy of the Democratic legislative leaders. The jobs pay $132,178 a year. Both new recycling board commissioners will replace other well-connected members. Laird will replace Cheryl Peace, the wife of a former state legislator. Kuehl will replace former Democratic Sen. Wes Chesbro. Government watchdogs have criticized the board for its high proportion of highly paid...

It looks like Sen. Carole Migden will likely land on California's high-paying waste commission, after all. After Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata appointed Sen. Sheila Kuehl to a spot on the $132,178 commission on Tuesday, Capitol Alert has learned that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to name the fiery San Francisco Democrat to the final vacancy on the recycling panel. It is one of the most plum appointments in state government. On Tuesday, California's two Democratic leaders appointed two of their termed-out colleagues - Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz - to the board. There remains...

Reporting from Sacramento -- California has often been tagged as the "nanny state" for passing laws that some people say interfere with citizens' lives. But now it has earned the label for a whole different reason, thanks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Republican governor announced this week that he had appointed a nanny -- his own children's nanny, in fact -- as a part-time state regulator on the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind. Lindsay Ann Schnaidt, 32, a Democrat from Hermosa Beach who has worked for the Schwarzenegger family for seven years, will be paid $100 a day...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed his children's nanny to a board that oversees the guide dog industry. Thirty-two-year-old Lindsay Schnaidt will be a part-time state regulator on the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind. She will be paid $100 each time the board meets. That's usually about eight times a year. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear says Schnaidt expressed interest in serving California. She is a former teacher and has worked for the family for seven years. McLear says she fills a seat that must go to a representative of the public rather than someone with expertise...

This Governor is in the habit of rolling out Judicial appointments in big batches. Until this week, his last batch of new Judges was announced back in May -- twenty of them. I have made no bones about that fact that it is galling to me that the Governor, who was elected with all of the support of the Republican Party, loves to appoint registrants of the party of Barack Obama to the bench. In that May batch, it was 9 Republicans and 8 Democrats. It is a very sad situation for GOP donors and activists that we have to...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday appointed two former aides to well-paying state jobs, less than two weeks after ordering spending cuts to most state agencies. The state faces a multibillion dollar budget deficit over the next year-and-a-half. His latest appointments benefited a former speech writer and an assistant to Schwarzenegger's chief of staff. Jeffrey Danzinger, 47, of Fair Oaks, who was deputy communications director and chief speechwriter for the governor until 2006, is moving from being a member of the Integrated Waste Management Board to serving as an adviser to the board. His pay will be $103,603 in his new...

Dr. Henry Gong, a prominent pulmonary physician and a member of the California Air Resources Board, has died. Board chairwoman Mary Nichols said Monday that Gong died from heart failure Aug. 16 at his home in Pacific Palisades, surrounded by his family. He was 60. "Dr. Gong brought a unique, invaluable perspective to air issues as a physician specializing in pulmonary health," Nichols said in a statement. "All of us who breathe California's air owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Gong as one of the state's true clean air champions. We will miss him." Gong, one of 11 air...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has put a key banking oversight agency under the stewardship of an administrator who, according to a bipartisan legislative investigation, helped arrange the misuse of millions of dollars of public funds and steered government contracts to friends. Michael A. Kelley, appointed commissioner of the Department of Financial Services by the governor in December, was a central figure in the scandal that ultimately drove former Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush from office in 2000. Kelley, who was Quackenbush's top deputy, was found unanimously by a bipartisan legislative panel to have helped the former insurance commissioner divert public...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday turned to a former top environmental official for Democratic Govs. Jerry Brown and Gray Davis to replace the ousted chairman of the state Air Resources Board. Schwarzenegger's decision to hire Mary Nichols, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment, comes after he fired the former board chairman, Robert Sawyer. At the time, Schwarzenegger was irked that Sawyer backed the Air Resources Board's June 14 vote to support a waiver giving San Joaquin Valley polluters until 2024 to comply with federal Clean Air Act restrictions. Sawyer's firing prompted the ARB's executive director, Catherine Witherspoon, to...

A Berkeley lawyer who has fought electronic voting in California and a half-dozen other states has been tapped by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen as her deputy in charge of voting machinery. Lowell Finley, co-founder and co-director of the election-integrity group Voter Action, has pulled out of lawsuits against elections officials in California, Florida, Ohio and other states in order to accept a post of deputy secretary of state. Bowen, who was sworn in Monday, still is figuring out the management structure for the office, but she expects Finley to have a lead role in her promised "top-to-bottom review"...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has tapped a Republican aide to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign in Ohio to serve as his new press secretary. Aaron McLear, 29, will take over press duties starting next month. He replaces Margita Thompson, who departed last week to work for HealthNet, a Woodland Hills-based health maintenance organization. McLear, an Ohio native, served as communications director for Bush's 2004 campaign in the crucial Midwest swing state. He currently works for the Republican National Committee as a regional press secretary for the Northeast. The Republican governor has shown an affinity for hiring former Bush aides this year....

State Moves Forward on Implementing Landmark Global Warming Law Market Advisory Committee Members Chosen, Early Action Workshop Scheduled SACRAMENTO – Today, Linda Adams, Secretary for Environmental Protection, announced a 14-member Market Advisory Committee to support the implementation of the state’s first-in-the-nation comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction program. The Committee was formed according to the Governor’s Executive Order S-20-06. The Committee will make recommendations by June 30, 2007, to the state Air Resources Board on the design of a market-based compliance program. “California is showing tremendous leadership on climate change. In my talks with national and international climate leaders, the progress we’re...

Yesterday Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a number of changes in key senior positions in his administrations. A number of them represent great moves, and a few of them are, frankly very disturbing. Let's start with the great news! First and foremost, the Governor's elevation of conservative Dan Dunmoyer to the position of Cabinet Secretary is outstanding news for all of us. Dan is capable, smart and effective. In this key position which acts as a liaison and coordinator between the Governor and all of the Agency heads will be in good hands. Undoubtedly this will be a big relief for former...

As Governor Schwarzenegger prepares for a second term in office, he's bringing in a few new faces and shuffling some of the current folks to new positions. Dan Dunmoyer becomes the governor's new Cabinet Secretary, the main liaison between Schwarzenegger's inner circle and the myriad of state agencies. Dunmoyer, who has been on the governor's staff for the past year, is best known in Capitol circles as the former head of the Personal Insurance Federation of California-- the lobbying association of the "property-casualty" insurance industry. Dunmoyer becomes Governor Schwarzenegger's fourth Cabinet secretary in the past three years. Meantime, the governor's...

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promises comprehensive healthcare reforms but says he's saving the details for after the election. Critics say the governor's opposition to Democratic proposals and his failure to offer solutions of his own do not bode well for a second term. But on Friday, in a Fox News interview, the governor said: "We are going to go and do everything that we can to reform healthcare, to provide healthcare for everyone in California." (snip) Schwarzenegger has tapped healthcare policy experts to help draft a reform plan, with the idea of laying out the particulars next year in his...

As Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger looks toward a second term, he has vowed to make access to health care a top priority. Schwarzenegger intends to unveil a major health-care plan in January, if re-elected. In preparation, Schwarzenegger has hired a top-level staff to actually write the proposal that includes ranking health-care experts from former Gov. Gray Davis' administration. Richard Figueroa, a veteran health-care consultant and go-to person for health issues on Davis' executive staff, is joining Schwarzenegger's team next week, according to Capitol and private sources with direct knowledge of Figueroa's new position. They confirmed that Schwarzenegger intends to release...

As Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, looks toward a second term, his administration has vowed to make access to health care a top priority. The govenror hopes to unveil a major health-care plan that he hopes to unveil in January if he is re-elected. In preparation, Schwarzenegger has hired a top-level staff to actually write the proposal that includes ranking health-care experts from former Gov. Gray Davis' administration. Richard Figueroa, a veteran health care consultant and go-to person for health issues on Davis' executive staff, will join Schwarzenegger's team next week in the Department of Managed Health Care, according to Capitol...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Wednesday that includes a provision added in the waning days of the legislative session allowing his administration to nearly double the pay of 50 top state bosses. Under Assembly Bill 2936, the workers -- mostly heads of agencies and departments -- could get as much as 125 percent of the governor's salary, although the governor says he intends to extend the raise to only one or two officials. Schwarzenegger doesn't take his pay. But in 2007, the salary assigned to his office is scheduled to increase to $206,500. That would mean the top administrators...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday tapped an Oakland high school teacher and government ethics advocate for the state teachers' retirement board. Peter Reinke, a third-generation teacher, will join the 12-member board of the influential California State Teachers' Retirement System, filling the post vacated by controversial Schwarzenegger adviser David Crane. Under fire by teachers' groups and labor unions, Crane was ousted last June by Senate Democrats who said the governor's special adviser for jobs and economic growth was not the right fit for the post at the $142 billion fund. Crane came under criticism for his refusal to oppose a legislative...

SACRAMENTO – When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was swept into office by the recall election in 2003, he promised to end politics as usual, where “money goes in and favors go out.” But Schwarzenegger has carried on the political tradition of providing favors – in the form of coveted state appointments – to generous campaign donors. At least 13 of Schwarzenegger's appointees, their spouses and their companies have contributed more than $1.4 million to his campaigns, according to campaign disclosure forms and a review by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. Schwarzenegger has hired some donors for key positions in...

One of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's closest advisors and strongest voices for cleaner energy has left the administration, a departure that environmental activists describe as a worrisome loss. Terry Tamminen, a favorite of the governor who held some of the most powerful positions on his staff, is now working for Schwarzenegger's campaign as a volunteer and is not planning to return after the election, the governor's aides said. Tamminen, a Democrat, was part of an inner circle with easy access to the governor, leaving him well-positioned to make the case for solar energy, alternative fuels and environmental protection. With Tamminen gone,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed two well-connected Southern California Republicans to the University of California Board of Regents on Friday, filling two vacancies on the 26-member body. William De La Pena, 52, is a prosperous ophthalmologist in Whittier (Los Angeles County) with chains of eye clinics serving Latino communities in East Los Angeles and Santa Ana. Bruce Varner, 69, a civically involved Redlands lawyer whose clients include grocery chain Stater Brothers, is a friend and contributor to longtime Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis of Redlands (San Bernardino County). Lewis, who is under federal investigation for his ties to lobbyists and contractors, wrote...

LOS ANGELES In his bid for more power over public schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is set to appoint a veteran educator to a post designed to ease tensions between City Hall and public school officials opposed to the plan, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ramon C. Cortines, who served six months as interim superintendent of the L.A. Unified school district in 2000, is scheduled to be named deputy mayor for education, youth and families Tuesday. Cortines did not say whether he supports state legislation that would grant Villaraigosa say in district management a proposal that has drawn fire from the...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday appointed the president of a San Jose Hispanic university to the state Board of Education. David Lopez, 53, replaces the former board president, who resigned unexpectedly June 30. Lopez has been president of National Hispanic University since 2003. The school's goal is to increase college attendance of Hispanics and other typically underserved students. Schwarzenegger has been trying to shore up support among Hispanic voters as he seeks re-election. Also Tuesday, his campaign announced the formation of “Hispanic Families for Arnold,” a group of more than 60 Hispanic community leaders who support his re-election....

Sunne Wright McPeak, secretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, said she will leave the cabinet in November, regardless of whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wins re-election, to run a nonprofit aimed at bringing Internet access to urban poor and rural Californians. McPeak, a Pleasanton resident, former president of the Bay Area Council and former Contra Costa County supervisor, has led the state's largest government agency since November 2003. Hers will be the second announcement in two weeks of a cabinet member from the Bay Area stepping down. On June 23, former San Jose Rep. Norman Mineta announced he...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in Oakland today that he supports state legislation that would give crime victims new rights. Accompanied by local police chiefs and several high profile crime victims, Schwarzenegger also said he has appointed Susan Fisher of Sacramento to the newly-created position of Crime Victim Advocate and that he is expediting a program to use global positioning systems to track dangerous criminals. He said he supports "The Crime Victims Bill of Rights," a comprehensive legislative proposal authored by Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, to help crime victims overcome the hardships caused by criminal acts. Schwarzenegger said he has directed...

Congratulations to state first lady Maria Shriver's former press secretary, Terri Carbaugh, on her appointment to the $114,191-a-year Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. Carbaugh, whom Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed a few days back, worked for Shriver from 2004 until she went off the payroll last month. Upon confirmation by the state Senate, Carbaugh will join an impressive roster of political insiders on the commission, which hears appeals from people who feel they were unfairly denied unemployment benefits: -- Former Gov. Gray Davis' legislative secretary, Ann Richardson, whom Davis appointed as he left office. -- Former Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 572 Jack...

Democratic lawmakers have denied David Crane, one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's friends and economic advisers, a seat on the California State Teachers' Retirement System board. The Senate Rules Committee voted 3-2 along party lines Wednesday to reject the Republican governor's appointment of Crane to the board. Democrats said they were concerned he would not protect teachers' pensions. Schwarzenegger last year was forced to withdraw an attempt to alter public employee pensions after police and firefighters launched an ad campaign against it. The governor wanted to shift retirement plans for teachers and other public employees to a defined-contribution system - one...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Democratic lawmakers have denied David Crane (D), one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's friends and economic advisers, a seat on the California State Teachers' Retirement System board. The Senate Rules Committee voted 3-2 along party lines Wednesday to reject the Republican governor's appointment of Crane to the board. Democrats said they were concerned he would not protect teachers' pensions. Unions opposed Crane's nomination because he thought CalSTRS should not have weighed in on the governor's pension proposal. Crane, a San Francisco financier, has served as the governor's special adviser on jobs and economic growth since Schwarzenegger was elected...

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger filled a dormant state commission with four Democrats on Friday before asking them to approve a $1-an-hour minimum wage increase without the annual cost-of-living adjustments pushed by Democratic lawmakers. Two of the four were originally appointed to the Industrial Welfare Commission by former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and served until their terms expired last year. The two others were new appointments by the Republican governor, one of them representing the state manufacturer's association. A fifth commissioner's term expires in January. Schwarzenegger, who vetoed two previous minimum wage increases, is asking the commission to increase the minimum...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday named a former aide to Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Steve Westly as head of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Linda Adams, 57, a Democrat from Sacramento with a long history in state government, will come out of retirement to lead the agency at a time when the Schwarzenegger administration is advancing its initiative to reduce greenhouse gases in the state. "This was an opportunity I could not pass up," Adams said in an interview with The Associated Press. "There is so much going on in the area of climate change and global warming." Adams worked in...

Arnold Schwarzenegger now has the former top aides to his two would-be Democratic rivals working for him. It’s all part of his strategy of “buying off the ticked off,” as an Arnold friend puts it. Yesterday the governor moved unilaterally to take another major Democratic issue off the table by raising the minimum wage. Today he appoints lifelong Democrat and environmental favorite Linda Adams as his new secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. With the retirement of veteran air quality warrior Alan Lloyd from CalEPA, there had been concern in environmental circles that the secretaryship would go to a...

Linda Adams will be named director of the California Environmental Protection Agency today by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an administration source said. "With more than 30 years of service to the state … Linda Adams is eminently qualified to serve as secretary for the Cal-EPA," said Bill Maile, spokesman on environmental issues for the governor's office. Adams, 57, a Democrat who has won praise from environmentalists, worked in high-ranking jobs for both state Controller Steve Westly and Gov. Gray Davis, and ran the state Department of Water Resources, among other positions. Westly is running against Treasurer Phil Angelides in the Democratic...

SACRAMENTO – Karen Scarborough, a Democrat who was instrumental in shaping some of the most sweeping environmental policies in San Diego County over the past decade, has been tapped by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for the No. 2 post in the Resources Agency. As undersecretary of resources, Scarborough becomes one of the key guardians of California's wildlife, parks, forests and water systems at a time of stressed budgets and clashes between competing interests. "Karen has the ability to see the big picture and identify strategies that not only address the squeaky wheel but will have long-term benefits," said Michael Beck,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pick to chair the California Energy Commission is about to find himself out of a job. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has said he will not hold a confirmation hearing for Joe Desmond, who has served in that role for a year. Without confirmation, Desmond will be forced to step down by next week. Desmond drew the ire of Democrats and environmentalists on a number of fronts. He has pushed for the multibillion-dollar Frontier Line, a transmission system currently being studied that would connect California with Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. The Schwarzenegger administration sees the line...

A former top aide to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new chief of staff was appointed the governor's deputy cabinet secretary Wednesday. Brian Prusnek, 28, of San Francisco, was Susan Kennedy's chief of staff last year and her energy adviser for two years when she was a member of the California Public Utilities Commission. The Republican governor sparked anger from conservatives in November when he appointed Kennedy to lead his staff. Kennedy previously was executive director of the state Democratic Party and a top aide to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, who Schwarzenegger replaced in the 2003 recall election. Prusnek is registered as...

Sacramento -- On the day before Roderick Hickman quit his job as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's corrections czar, he bumped into the lead lobbyist for the state's prison guards union, who was walking out of a meeting with Schwarzenegger's chief of staff [Susan Kennedy]. Hickman became incensed, and the next day he fired off an angry e-mail to Cabinet Secretary Fred Aguiar announcing his resignation and suggesting the governor's office had lost the political will to make big changes in the state's dysfunctional prison system. Hickman, several sources close to him say, was concerned that the union was beginning to have...

Schwarzenegger Names Four to Los Angeles Superior CourtRiverside Jurist Nominated to Succeed Justice Ward on Fourth District Court of Appeal Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday named three local attorneys and an administrative law judge to fill vacancies on the Los Angeles Superior Court. Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board Administrative Law Judge Mary Lou Villar, civil litigators Steven D. Blades and Juan Carlos Dominguez, and former federal prosecutor Ray G. Jurado, now with the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review, would succeed one judge who died and three who retired. The governor yesterday also nominated Riverside Superior Court Judge Douglas Miller as...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Thursday the appointment of a Mountain View woman to a judgeship with the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Shawna M. Schwarz, 42, will fill the seat of retired Judge William F. Martin. Schwarz has served as a commissioner to the Santa Clara Superior Court since 2001. She was previously the directing attorney for Legal Advocates for Children and Youth with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley from 1995 to 2001. Schwarz, a Democrat, earned a law degree from Santa Clara University, a Masters degree in Sociology from Stanford and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford...

SACRAMENTO – The reappointment of state Education Secretary Alan Bersin to the state Board of Education was confirmed by a Senate committee yesterday, despite union opposition stemming from his years as head of San Diego schools. The California Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association, which represents non-teachers, urged the Democratic-controlled committee to reject Bersin because of his legacy in San Diego. “During his reign in San Diego his leadership style was extremely divisive,” Lyssa Sassman of the CTA told the committee. “It divided the community. It hurt teacher morale, and it did not significantly improve student achievement.” The...

SACRAMENTO — Few people have worked harder than Joe Nuñez to sabotage Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political fortunes. A high-ranking teachers union official, he helped engineer the governor's embarrassing defeat in the special election last year. So to Republicans, it was nothing short of infuriating and confounding that Schwarzenegger would appoint Nuñez to the state Board of Education. He handed a Democrat and avowed enemy one of the most prestigious patronage jobs in government. --snip-- Among all Schwarzenegger appointees to state government jobs, regulatory boards and commissions — more than 2,000 in all — about 54% have been Republicans. The rest...

Education is a critical issue for America, and for California. It pains me to no end to know that during five long years, now-disgraced and recalled Governor Gray Davis appointed some very liberal Democrats to the important and impactful position of being a Trustee for the California State University system. There are only a few of these appointments. One of the painful appointments was when Davis appointed his former top education advisor (when he was Liuetenant Governor), Debra Farar, to this prestigious and influential panel. For me, one of the greatest effects of successfully recalling Gray Davis and replacing him...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-appointment of a political rival to the state Board of Education didn't buy him much love in the enemy camp. On Wednesday, the governor gave another term on the board to Joe Nunez, a longtime teachers' union activist and chair of the organization that battled Schwarzenegger in last year's special election. On Thursday, Nunez, in his role as the Alliance for a Better California board chair, filed a five-page complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission against Schwarzenegger and the governor's old campaign vehicle, the California Recovery Team. It demanded that the FPPC investigate and file a...