Poised for a Tough Battle

Fabian Nunez couldn’t have risen to power in the Capitol much more quickly than he did. Now, after only two years in the Legislature, he is the Democratic counterweight to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A 37-year-old union organizer from Los Angeles who jumped ahead of a pack of candidates to lock up the Assembly speakership as a freshman, Nunez has proved himself and matured in important ways, observers say.

He succeeded at a speaker’s primary job by hanging on to every Democratic seat in November’s election, despite Schwarzenegger’s campaign to elect more Republicans. His fundraising gave Democrats the edge in buying advertising for candidates.

And out from the shadow of longtime Senate leader John Burton, whose term in the Legislature expired, he is more securely positioned than new Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland), who was barely elected by fellow senators and is enduring a federal investigation of his family and business associates.

Nunez gets good reviews from colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, who call him well grounded, politically astute, energetic and smart.

“I had more experience than Fabian at his age, and I don’t think I could have done what he did,” Burton said. “What he did in the elections was incredible.... That clearly strengthens the guy in his own caucus. It would add to my confidence if I were his age.”

For all these reasons, Nunez has a chance to “step it up” and define a Democratic agenda, a role that for decades has been dominated by the Senate, said Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.

“He’s got a smoothness which is quite impressive for somebody so young,” Cain said.

Nunez maintains a liberal voting record but prefers to call himself a “core” Democrat. His political philosophy, he said, comes from his childhood as one of a dozen children of a gardener and a maid.

“It all comes from how I was raised and how broke I was growing up,” he said. “It’s always my point of departure with everything I do. With every decision I make, I always think back: How does this affect the people that grew up I like I did?”

The Democratic agenda in the coming year, Nunez said, will focus on getting healthcare coverage for 6 million uninsured people, creating jobs, protecting higher education from budget cuts and cleaning the state’s air and water.

Nunez doesn’t list gay marriage and driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants as priorities. But they are for others in his caucus. One of his toughest jobs will be reconciling liberal Democrats with a more moderate faction that fears alienating voters with a left-leaning social agenda.

This month Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill to legalize gay marriage, with Nunez as coauthor.

“I personally believe it’s a civil rights issue,” Nunez said. “The civil rights movement wasn’t always popular, but the Democratic Party was always at the forefront of that, and I think we have to keep with that tradition.”

Gay marriage and driver’s license bills probably will attract more media attention than transportation or education legislation, Nunez said, leaving a public impression that Democratic lawmakers are primarily pushing a social agenda.

“Do you shy away from allowing gay and lesbian couples their full civil rights because we’re going to lose a P.R. battle?” he asked. “That’s a question we have to ask ourselves. I can’t speak for the entire caucus.”

The issue will be hashed out at a Democratic caucus retreat in early January, Nunez said.

One of the more moderate Democrats, Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg), said that under Nunez, he has argued unsuccessfully against taking on a liberal agenda.

“We work in a place that does not value independence and does not value independent thought,” said Canciamilla, who lost a committee chairmanship under Nunez and was not named to either a caucus leadership post or a new committee chairmanship. “For a caucus that values diversity, we don’t generally value diversity in thought and deed.”

However the Democratic agenda is defined, advancing it will require Nunez to work with Schwarzenegger. Their professional relationship would be difficult even if the men enjoyed rapport, which they do not.

As former political director of the 800,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Nunez is steeped in the “special interests” that Schwarzenegger decries as a corruptive influence in Sacramento.

The governor frequently criticizes the Legislature as being out of touch with the public and has threatened to use ballot measures to circumvent it on issues including workers’ compensation reform and spending limits. Last summer, as Schwarzenegger pushed to pass his budget plan, the governor referred to Democratic lawmakers as “girlie men” who represent “the unions, the trial lawyers.”

Relations between Nunez and Schwarzenegger deteriorated in those budget talks, and the governor went over the heads of lawmakers to cut deals with teachers unions, higher education officials and local government leaders.

Looking back recently, Nunez said his biggest mistake in his first year as speaker was making snide comments about whether Schwarzenegger wears shoe lifts and makeup.

Nunez recently called those comments “unnecessary” and “beneath me.”

“It’s something I wouldn’t do again,” he said. “Because I realize the relationship with the governor is very different than your relationship with a neighbor or a friend because it’s an institutional relationship. Just from observing John Burton, I learned the personal relationship can help solidify the institutional relationship, so you don’t want to unnecessarily create conflict over an issue that’s not substantive.

“If the governor’s upset over [how to reduce the cost of] prescription drugs, that’s fine with me because it’s a real substantive issue and we have a real difference.”

Schwarzenegger spokesman Rob Stutzman said the governor “never gave much of a reaction” to Nunez’s comments.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to believe the pettiness of those comments will impede a relationship into the future,” Stutzman said. “The governor sees a young, aggressive leader that can be one of California’s great speakers.

“We appreciate how difficult [Nunez’s] job is. He has to preside over a caucus that’s pushing his party far to the left and out of the mainstream when he clearly understands that California’s future lies in moderate, common-sense solutions.”

Nunez has called Schwarzenegger possibly the most popular politician in the country and said his “honeymoon” with voters could last into a second term. Democrats, he said, will pick their fights with Schwarzenegger carefully.

In a house in which all 80 members are up for reelection every two years and term limits expel them after six years, time was on Nunez’s side. He was elected speaker in part because he could serve five full years and give the post a degree of stability that had been lacking. The legendary Willie Brown led the Assembly for nearly 15 years, but after he was ousted in 1995 by term limits, seven speakers have rotated through, some serving for less than a year.

“I sense ever greater confidence [in Nunez], although he’s always had a natural certainty and assuredness to him,” Leno said. “I think he really proved his political acumen this past election season, which of course is the telling factor for the leader of a caucus.... He certainly would have been held responsible if we had lost seats.”

At his inauguration Dec. 6, Nunez won praise even from Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia). The two had clashed on the floor of the Assembly last year over the term “illegal alien,” which Mountjoy repeated even after Nunez said he found it offensive.

“Mr. Nunez said I made his blood boil, and it made me very concerned that he was now going to be the speaker and have control over all the things I have,” Mountjoy said as he seconded the nomination for Nunez as speaker. “I have since learned that he’s a very fair speaker.”

Nunez now laughs about the exchange with Mountjoy.

“It turns out he’s just as passionate as I am,” Nunez said. “He’s just on the other side of the aisle.”

In 2006, half the seats in the Assembly will be up for grabs again and a third of the current members will be ousted by term limits. Within three years, if not sooner, ambitious lawmakers will be jockeying to replace Nunez.

Cain, whose institute at UC Berkeley recently published a detailed study of the effects of term limits, said even a speaker with the political talent of Brown would be substantially handicapped by the Assembly churn.

Said Cain: “I think the governor is infinitely more powerful now than before term limits.”