Incoming Speaker Has Youth and Skill on His Side

At first glance, you might figure Fabian Nunez for a legislative intern. Or, perhaps, an eager young staffer.

Next Monday, he’ll become the Assembly speaker -- the eighth since term limits began taking hold nine years ago.

The first two speakers don’t really count. They were Republican puppets of departing Speaker Willie Brown and rejected by their own party. Next came a legitimately elected Republican who served one year before the GOP lost control. Then followed four Democrats packed into seven years -- allowed barely enough time to turn around in their august office before being booted out by term limits.

Now enters Assemblyman Nunez, 37, a Los Angeles Democrat who has been a member of the Legislature only 14 months.

Some quick observations:

* Don’t be deceived by the juvenile looks: the slight build (5 feet 8), the smooth face, the spectacles. Or the pleasant, deferential manner. “He opens doors for me,” says spokesman Gabriel Sanchez. “I don’t know what to do.”

By all indications, the guy’s tough-minded, tenacious, energetic, bright, ambitious. He’s only a freshman, but he beat out three sophomore candidates for speaker. He’s also articulate and concise -- traits not found in every political leader.

And he’s a skilled political operator. “Probably the most politically astute speaker in awhile,” says Miguel Contreras, who heads the L.A. County Federation of Labor. Nunez became schooled in campaign management as the federation’s political director, Contreras says.

* Because he’s only a freshman, Nunez has one huge advantage over his predecessors: He can remain as speaker for four years, barring a coup. Legislators theoretically will be more likely to follow his lead, aware he’ll be around for a while to reward and punish.

The job’s not merely prestigious, it’s powerful. The speaker appoints committee chairmen and members, assigns offices and allots staff. He fills scores of seats on boards, including the Coastal Commission, and is a University of California regent.

* This is another “American Dream” story not uncommon in the Assembly, which can be characterized as “the people’s house.” Members are closer to the people than are senators because they face reelection more often and represent far fewer voters. There’s more opportunity to relate to common folk. It makes sense that the two most famous speakers -- Jesse Unruh (1960s) and Brown -- came from gritty families that struggled against poverty.

People who climb up from those backgrounds learn not only how to excel, but how to survive. That was Unruh and Brown. It also seems to be former Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, now an L.A. city councilman. Nunez appears to have similar markings.

* This modern California version of the American Dream involves Latinos. Of the five recent Democratic speakers, Nunez will be the third Latino. He’ll succeed Herb Wesson (D-Culver City), who was the second black speaker. It’s all reflective of the state’s diversity.

Of the 80 Assembly members, 18 (about 23%) are Latinos. Of the 40 senators, nine are Latinos.

Nunez’s story is this:

His father came to California from Mexico, legally, as a bracero field hand in the 1950s. Later, his mother joined him. They worked crops in the Central Valley.

“It was somewhat degrading,” Nunez says. “They’d put them through ‘the cleansing’ process. Fumigation....

“It was basically a form of slavery. They were confined to field areas. They had to buy from little stores and pay exorbitant prices. But they put up with it because they knew if they stayed long enough, they could become legal residents.”

The couple had 12 children. Fabian was one of the youngest. They wound up in San Diego, his father a gardener and his mother a maid. To make ends meet, they lived in Tijuana until Fabian was 7.

“It really shaped my character,” Nunez says. “It forced me to mature at an earlier age than most kids. Most kids wake up early Saturdays to watch cartoons. I’d go to work with my dad to clean yards for a lot of rich people in La Jolla.... It made me a workaholic ....

“My father used to say to me, ‘Never put your hands in your pockets because it’s a sign of laziness.’ ”

He got good grades and big scholarships, graduating from Pitzer College in Claremont.

So how’d he pull off the speakership? Worked at it from the moment he arrived in the Capitol. Put together deals. Beat out Joe Nation of San Rafael, Dario Frommer of Los Feliz and -- the last to surrender -- Jenny Oropeza of Long Beach.

His biggest asset may have been Wesson, who swung votes to Nunez. Wesson asserts he liked the idea of a stable, long speakership. But the departing speaker also liked the idea that Nunez could be patient about taking over and not push him out before he was ready to leave.

Nunez will be personable and pragmatic. But the pressure will be on to produce -- a compromise budget that protects the poor and middle class; true workers’ comp reform that doesn’t hurt the injured; a November election that preserves the Democratic majority.

The deck is stacked against him: A superstar Republican governor. An unpopular, polarized, term-limited Legislature. But Nunez has played and won against a stacked deck before.