Why Nunez Needs That Money

Joe Mathews — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:54:00 -0400

It shows more than a little chutzpah for the California Labor Federation to demand that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez return a pile of campaign cash he is sitting on: $4 million that came from the state Democratic Party. Labor interests, as much as any interests in California, have helped create the governing system in which achieving any difficult policy requires politicians to defend their policies at the ballot. Politicians without a store of cash soon find it difficult to govern, because it's hard for them to credibly go to the ballot without a big, scary pile of greenbacks. It would be wrong if Nunez used the money for his own political career, as labor leaders say they fear. But he needs the money -- and ought to use it -- not for politics, but to govern.

Labor is really angry at Nunez because they don't like the way he's governed recently -- particularly in two policy areas. But the story of those policy areas shows precisely why he needs the cash.

1. Health care. Most of California labor opposed Nunez's compromise on health care legislation with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The legislation passed the Assembly but died in Senate committee. But if it had survived, the financing provisions could not have passed the legislature, which requires 2/3 for tax increases, because of the opposition of Republicans. So Nunez would have had to sponsor and campaign for a ballot initiative to establish the financing. That would have required campaign cash.

2. Indian gaming. Nunez supported new compacts for Indian tribes that labor unsuccessfully opposed -- via four referenda on the February ballot -- because the agreements didn't include promised protections for union organizing. The Indian tribes took care of supporting Nunez's position in that case, but it shows again how a speaker needs campaign money to support his governmental decisions. And this year, even the budget may be on the ballot. With Schwarzenegger seeking budget and redistricting reform that will require voter approval as part of his budget push, it's quite possible that the state budget will be negotiated as part of a legislative package that includes ballot measures that will go to voters in November. Nunez will need campaign money not only for Democratic Assembly candidates but also to defend whatever budget lawmakers negotiate.

Labor's real frustration is that Nunez, who comes out of the labor movement, has dared to cross the unions in a handful of cases. Nunez's defiance is rare (he has aggressively protected worker interests on nearly every issue as speaker), and labor has grown accustomed to getting almost everything it wants from legislative Democrats -- which is a big part of the argument for a redistricting reform that would weaken the hold of interest groups in both parties. But it is no sin -- in fact, it is good politics AND good governance -- to keep a lot of cash on hand if you intend to make policy in California's blockbuster democracy.