Posted on 05/13/2008 12:49:18 PM PDT by SmithL
Fabian Núñez, the eighth and longest-serving Assembly speaker in the 13 years since the legendary Willie Brown was forced to vacate the position in 1995, is being forced out himself by a legislative term limit law he tried, and failed, to persuade voters to change.
None of Núñez's seven predecessors had more than a momentary impact; indeed, a few of them were there scarcely long enough to change the I-love-me plaques in the speaker's ornate office. But Núñez, elected as a first-termer in the hope that he could bring some stability and accomplishment to the Assembly, does have a record of sorts.
It's a record of some legislative successes – especially after his mutually frosty relationship with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger melted into partnership and personal friendship – and an array of failures.
He and Schwarzenegger forged agreement on billions of dollars of infrastructure bonds, anti-global warming legislation and raising the state's minimum wage, among other things. But they failed abjectly on expanding health insurance coverage. Promises on education and political reform went unfilled.
"I've been willing to fail," Núñez said last week during a farewell session with Capitol reporters. "It's one thing I've grown to be very comfortable with."
Often, Núñez was his own worst enemy. His early days as speaker were marked by a tendency to butcher syntax, leaving listeners wondering whether he really knew anything about the topics on which he was expounding. He later became more polished, but his association with Schwarzengger's movie star lifestyle led to some excesses, such as spending many thousands of dollars of campaign funds on high-flying foreign travel.
Núñez's personal finances also improved markedly when he reunited with his estranged wife and she secured a lucrative policy consulting job. The couple purchased a $1.2 million home in a cushy Sacramento suburb.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Hey, he ran back an interception for a TD in Super Bowl XI.
This is perhaps Example 1a as to why term limits need to be placed on all public offices.
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