Bustamante job hunting after roles at the top

Sacramento Bee ^ | 1/8/7 | E.J. Schultz

[SmithL]

At 2:28 p.m. Sunday, Cruz Bustamante's elective political career came to a likely end. At that moment, former Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi was sworn in as the state's new lieutenant governor, leaving the Dinuba-born Bustamante without an elected political job for the first time since 1993.

He smiled and clapped as he watched his successor's ceremony in Sacramento, but Bustamante gave little indication of his next move -- except to say that it probably won't involve running for office.

"I think partisan office is pretty much done now," he said in an interview. "I'm out of this activity. There are some folks who are suggesting maybe a nonpartisan office. But you know I'm not at this point looking at anything more than spending a lot more time with my family and finding employment that will allow me to do that."

When pressed for details, Bustamante, a 54-year-old Democrat, said only that, "I'm making a lot of inquiries and I'm hopeful in the next 30 days I'll be able to do something."

The grandson of Mexican immigrants, Bustamante has been politically active since the 1970s. He was elected to a Fresno-area Assembly seat in 1993 and later took over as Assembly speaker, becoming one of the state's most powerful Latino politicians. He used the post to push for a new University of California campus in Merced -- which he now lists as one of his greatest political achievements.

"For the Central Valley, it's something that will change the social, political, economic culture," he said of the campus, which opened in 2005.

Bustamante was elected lieutenant governor in 1998 and re-elected to a final term in 2002. He grabbed national headlines in 2003 when he faced Arnold Schwarzenegger and others in the recall election. His campaign sputtered and he lost badly....

[SmithL]

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

The grandson of Mexican immigrants..."

Grandson my butt. He himself is an illegal alien, having crossed the border as a child, and never having taken the proper steps to become a citizen. He has been evasive on this topic.

[ArmstedFragg]

I hear Maldef's hiring.

[mrmargaritaville]

Politically active since the 1970s-he's 54 years old-which really means he's probably never had a "real" job in his life-another career politician

[dontposttome]

I saw some of his campaign ads. At first I thought they were ads for a diet program, since he focused on how much weight he lost. I couldn't quite see how that was relevant.

[rottndog]

When the first four words of your campaign commercial are "I was really fat...", you know you are in trouble...