Free Republic

My esteemed colleague and fellow political writer Carla Marinucci at the San Francisco Chronicle blogged yesterday that former Contra Costa County Supervisor Sunne Wright McPeak is rumored to be a potential 2010 Democratic gubernatorial candidate. While McPeak’s credentials for such an undertaking are numerous, the Pleasanton resident told me last night that “if I ever decided to take leave of my mind and do something like that, I’ll come see you for counseling.” (To all the professional counselors out there, no need to worry. I never charge for my services.) As you may recall, McPeak left her post as chief...

California must spend $107 billion on its roads, ports and other transportation infrastructure to keep its economy competitive and its quality of life decent, a member of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Cabinet said Thursday in Oxnard. Sunne Wright McPeak, California's secretary of business, transportation and housing, was one of the architects of Schwarzenegger's massive public works proposals, some of which will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot. McPeak spoke about those proposals and some of the other challenges facing the state at a dinner held by the World Affairs Council of Ventura County. Voters will decide on four bond measures worth...

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...

SACRAMENTO - California's capital is packed with more than 1,000 lobbyists, but when people want to make something happen in Sacramento, they often turn instead to Bob White, a genial Republican maestro who helped elect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. White has an advantage lobbyists don't. While registered influence peddlers must reveal whom they work for, White calls himself a strategist who doesn't directly push for changes in state policy. That legal distinction allows White to conceal who his corporate clients are, even though he and members of his consulting firm, California Strategies, go to bat for them by exploiting a loophole...

With the FBI investigating allegations of faulty welds on the new Bay Bridge span, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office ordered crews Thursday to stop pouring concrete on the last four foundations under construction until state and federal inspectors re-examine some of the work in question. At the same time, Sunne McPeak, the governor's secretary of business, housing and transportation, called in the Federal Highway Administration to start its own safety review -- a process that could take months. "It's not lost on us that we have to move quickly on a review of the welds,'' said Mark DeSio, spokesman for both...

The governor's office knew California could not afford to finish the Bay Bridge reconstruction at least one month before Caltrans opened bids on the remaining tower. Newly released Caltrans documents, obtained by the Oakland Tribune after a protracted public records request, show for the first time that top state officials were briefed in April 2004 that the bridge would cost more than expected. The memos throw the official line into question. Until now, the Schwarzenegger team had insisted — through heated state Senate investigative hearings earlier this year — that Caltrans sat on a secret April report that showed California...

A legislative package that calls for the state to build more toll roads in partnership with the private sector, charge tolls in existing car-pool lanes and streamline the way it designs and builds new roads was unveiled in Sacramento on Thursday. State Business, Transportation and Housing Secretary Sunne Wright McPeak announced the makeup of the package Thursday, calling the "GoCalifornia" plan an innovative reform and revitalization measure for California highways. "We're putting the 'go' back into California's transportation system which has stalled after years of neglect," McPeak said in a written statement issued from the agency's Sacramento headquarters. "GoCalifornia will...

SACRAMENTO — The second-most-powerful California politician is proposing the state seize some zoning power from cities and counties to build projects that round out areas like Oakland and the East Bay as transportation hubs, where even depressed inner-city housing would then bloom — an issue voters may decide this year. The proposal to ease sprawl, traffic congestion and housing prices is opposed by cities and counties but could go to voters this turbulent political year — with or without the support of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor is planning to call a statewide special election on a wide array...

Transportation reform next on state's agenda Fancy Bay Bridge not in the plan, environmental reform, toll roads are State transportation secretary Sunne Wright McPeak returned to familiar ground when she laid out for the Oakland Chamber of Commerce her and her boss' ambitious vision to restore California's golden luster. Her boss, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is expected to reveal details of his "GoCalifornia" initiative any day. It will feature toll roads, converting some carpool lanes into tolled "HOT lanes," streamlining the state's environmental laws and promoting high-density housing in urban areas near mass transit.On Friday, McPeak offered the clearest, most comprehensive...