In 2011, after his seven-year run as governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger had plenty of reasons to worry about how his time in elected office might be remembered. It wasn’t just that he was widely viewed as an under-performing leader who never lived up to his early promise as a brash outsider who would tackle unaddressed state problems. An ugly scandal broke in his final days in office, triggering a political firestorm, and an even more embarrassing scandal emerged soon afterward.

On his last night as governor, Schwarzenegger commuted the prison sentence of Esteban Nuñez – the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, his friend and occasional political ally – from 16 years to 7 years for his manslaughter conviction in the killing of a San Diego college student. Schwarzenegger initially characterized the sentence as extreme, given that the student died after being knifed by another man. But in an interview with Newsweek three months later, he said he commuted the sentence because “of course you help a friend.” The younger Nuñez is now a free man as a result.

In May 2011, as his celebrity marriage to Maria Shriver collapsed amid intense gossip, Schwarzenegger admitted to fathering a 13-year-old boy with Mildred Baena, long a maid at his Brentwood estate. The revelation triggered headlines around the world.

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez cited both scandals in a scathing column that saw them as evidence that Schwarzenegger “has always seemed to live in his own celebrity world by his own twisted rules of privilege and entitlement, his life an orgy of self-glory.”

Legacy play pays off in big way

But six summers later, such harsh rebukes are hard to find. Instead, Schwarzenegger’s image has been resurrected to a considerable degree. His 2006 legacy play – shepherding Assembly Bill 32 to passage to make a California a pioneer in targeting and reducing the greenhouse gases believed to help cause global warming – has paid immense dividends.

This was on display last week when Gov. Jerry Brown featured Schwarzenegger at the signing ceremony for legislation extending the state’s cap-and-trade program for emissions that was established by AB32, with the men swapping praise for being leaders on what they called the world’s most pressing issue.

Last October, on the 10th anniversary of AB32’s signing, Schwarzenegger was also featured at an event organized by the governor’s office.

This was nothing new for the Austrian-born movie star, who’s been feted around the world for his environmental leadership. The praise is usually unstinting, and doesn’t note interesting nuances about AB32’s actual record – starting with the fact that the main reason for declining emissions in California in recent years is not the landmark law but the increased use of cheap, relatively clean natural gas, a fossil fuel of the sort the law targets. In 2015, Forbes said natural gas – not renewable energy – was “easily California’s most important source of energy.”

But now Schwarzenegger finds himself winning praise for another reason: His history offers an easy way for journalists to make the point that President Donald Trump doesn’t speak for all Republicans when he either questions whether climate change is real or opposes ameliorative efforts by the government to reduce its effects. A Nexis news database search shows major publications from Los Angeles to New York to London to Singapore have regularly made this point since Trump’s inauguration.

Schwarzenegger directly sought to promote this narrative with his late June visit to Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and jointly criticize Trump for his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord signed by President Obama in December 2015. Schwarzenegger used social media – including the image shown above – to publicize his meeting with Macron.

“One man cannot destroy our progress,” said Schwarzenegger, who turned 70 on Sunday. “One man can’t stop our clean energy revolution. And one man can’t go back in time.” He laughed heartily at Macron’s mocking Trump for not wanting to “make the planet great again.”

His new cause: redistricting reform

Now Schwarzenegger is trying to build on another of his accomplishments while governor. He led the successful push for Proposition 11 in 2008 and Proposition 20 in 2010 to assign redistricting duties for state and congressional districts to a nonpartisan commission and intends to lobby for similar reforms in other states. His official website declares “let’s shine a light on gerrymandering,” which has been blamed for increasing partisanship and discouraging moderates of both parties by packing voters with similar views into uncompetitive districts.

Schwarzenegger “has a Terminate Gerrymandering Crowdpac that he’s pledged to match dollar-for-dollar,” Politico reported last week. “He’ll be appearing at events, meeting with lawyers, having his team jump in to rewrite incomprehensible charts of the ‘efficiency gap’ and other technicalities ahead of Gill v. Whitford, the Wisconsin gerrymandering challenge that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg … called ‘the most important’ case of the Supreme Court’s next term.”

He’s “very, very close to running,” close friend Fabian Nunez told the Los Angeles Times. “There’s still a possibility that he decides not to run. I doubt that’s going to be the case.”

It’s curious Nunez is making this semi-announcement. Villaraigosa himself is hampered by a personal scandal involving his marriage and affairs.

But Nunez’ scandal was far worse, and likely will come up if Villaraigosa runs for the higher office. Nunez got his son’s murder sentence commuted by another close friend, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Times reported in 2011:

Esteban Nuñez, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in the October 2008 stabbing death of college student Luis Dos Santos near San Diego State, had his prison term commuted to seven years by the governor.

Along with a tax increase, $20 billion deficits and a crashing state economy, the commutation tainted the final days of Schwarzenegger’s ill-starred seven years in office.

‘Help a friend’

A year ago, the U-T San Diego reported on how the family of the murder victim, Louis Santos, still is not reconciled to Schwarzenegger’s action:

In a statement, Schwarzenegger called the sentence “excessive” because he did not believe Nuñez had inflicted the fatal wound. He also cited Nuñez’s previously clean record. Critics are convinced Schwarzenegger, a Republican, was motivated to help his ally, Fabian Nuñez, the Democratic Assembly speaker. Schwarzenegger’s “of course you help a friend” comment to Newsweek a few months later only reinforced those suspicions.

Schwarzenegger’s April 2011 quote “goes toward his total attitude. He taunted us,” Santos said.

Santos said the statement made him even more than determined to see the court process through to the end.

“The pain and the memory of the events will never go away. I can’t stick my head in the sand,” Santos said.

Santos is not alone. In court papers, Deputy District Attorney Laura Tanney claimed the remark reflected a “cynical and mocking attitude.”

‘Boring question’

The commutation also outraged Bruce Henderson, the father of Keith Henderson, a victim who survived Nunez’ assault. And another cynical remark by Schwarzenegger was recorded. Henderson wrote in May 2011:

News of Schwarzennegger’s clemency for the man who tried to kill my son took me back again to that first agonizing day at the hospital. When I checked into a hotel that night, I turned on the TV as the local news was covering the story, and watched as paramedics pushed a gurney into an ambulance. A blanket covered an unidentified victim. Then, I recognized my son’s scuffed sneakers sticking out from the blanket. Realizing how very close we had come to losing him, I started shaking.

Esteban Nunez is incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison, where he was transferred to a “sensitive-needs” unit after the Nunez family sent to the warden’s assistant a new Kindle, which was later returned….

Recently leaving an event, Schwarzenegger was asked by a reporter for a comment on the Nunez commutation. The ex-governor dismissed it as a “boring question,” and strode away from the TV camera. As he did, Schwarzenegger made a loud snoring sound.

And that’s how politics really is played in California.

In January 2008. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he backed state lawmakers’ push to revise strict term limits for a specific reason. In response to a question I asked him at an editorial board meeting, Arnold said he thought Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate President Don Perata deserved to keep their jobs because under their stewardship, they had kept the state in “a good kind of groove.”

Really? In what way? Both at the time and six years later, any “groove” is hard to discern.

Now we’re seeing another display of this from the Sacramento media-political establishment: the recent media boomlet promoting the idea that departing Senate President Darrell Steinberg has done such a bang-up job that he deserves another really big job after he is termed-out — as justice on the California Supreme Court.

Here’s what the Sac Bee’s Capitol Alert had to say about what Ventura County Star columnist Timm Herdt had to say:

Herdt makes the case that Gov. Jerry Brown should appoint Steinberg to fill one of two openings on the California Supreme Court. Herdt praised Steinberg as the “most productive legislative leader” since term limits were imposed, and argued for his broad expertise in state law and his skill as a consensus-builder.

Herdt wrote that Steinberg — who worked as an employee-rights lawyer and an administrative law judge before being elected to the Legislature — would be a “soberly creative” choice for Brown.

‘Productive’ in what sense?

Now I understand why folks might have been charmed by Núñez. He has a loose, funny, teasing manner, or at least he did in my several encounters with him. And I understand that many journos think well of Steinberg, who by most accounts is very smart and a very hard worker.

But just as back in 2008 I wondered what kind of groove Arnold was perceiving, with Herdt’s assessment of Steinberg, I wonder in what sense has the Senate leader been “productive.”

In the past dozen years, where are the big achievements that Steinberg has produced?

California has the highest poverty rate in the nation, and by far.

The great majority of counties have never emerged from the Great Recession.

California’s schools are clearly behind the nation’s other mega states when it comes to apples-to-apples comparisons of students by age and ethnicity.

The 2012 state pension reform measure is vanilla and doesn’t do remotely enough to help the local governments that are hardest hit.

The 2014 teachers pension bailout puts 90 percent of the burden on taxpayers and only 10 percent on teachers themselves. A key selling point of the 2012 state pension reform was that it would force employees to equally share in their pension costs. Never mind!

The state appears no closer to solving its intractable water problems.

This list could go on and on.

That’s all you got?

So what is behind the happy talk?

I think much of it has to do with the fact that Prop. 25 makes it easier to pass budgets and not have multi-month dramas summer after summer after summer.

And some of it also has to do with AB 32, the state’s landmark 2006 law forcing a shift to cleaner-but-costlier energy.

Journos never seem to remember that it was peddled with the claim that it would convince the rest of the world to copy California; that didn’t happen. Nor do they ever notice that in 2006, no one had the audacity to pretend it was a job-creation program, the present ongoing Lie No. 1 of public policy in the Golden State.

This rosy-scenario-itis isn’t a new problem, alas. Here’s an example from 2008.

The view from within a one-mile perimeter around the state Capitol sure is counter to the view in California’s other 163,000 square miles.

In the first half of the year, legislative leaders, political parties and political action committees lured campaign contributors with limousine rides, gourmet meals and swag bags loaded with booze and iPad Minis, a CalWatchdog.com analysis of campaign spending reports has found.

Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy, a political action committee funded by multi-national corporations and special interest groups, spent heavily in support of Democrat Leticia Perez, a Central Valley state Senate candidate who narrowly lost a July special election. The PAC filled its campaign coffers with checks from the state’s most active special interest groups, including $250,000 from Chevron, $80,000 from the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, $25,000 from Wal-Mart and $38,000 from PG&E.

But you have to spend money to make money. The committee attracted its contributors by spending $73,140 on a fundraising event at French Laundry, Napa Valley’s most exclusive restaurant. The television chef and culinary critic Anthony Bourdain considers it the best restaurant in the world. Earlier this year, the Daily Meal named the Napa Valley establishment “the finest restaurant in the U.S.”

“A great meal is a kind of journey that returns you to sources of pleasure you may have forgotten and takes you to places you haven’t been before,” the three-Michelin-starred restaurant explains on its website.

Limo rides for Perez and Huff

Legislative leaders took a more literal kind of journey with their campaign contributors. Democratic Speaker of the Assembly John Perez and Republican Senate leader Bob Huff expensed limousine rentals to their campaign committees, according to semi-annual disclosure reports.

Perez rang up $1,872 in charges to Abe’s Limousine & Tours during a December trip back east for the White House holiday reception. The speaker was accompanied by two unidentified individuals, according to his latest campaign report. The speaker’s office did not respond to CalWatchdog.com’s request for a comment about the trip.

Limo rides were a bipartisan affair. In May, the Senate GOP leader took a dozen contributors out to a San Francisco Giants ballgame to raise funds for his 2016 Assembly bid. Sacramento-based Universal Limousine and Transportation charged $1,448 for the night. “Whether it’s to impress that important business client, or for a wedding or a special night out on the town, our richly appointed stretch limousines are a perfect way to travel worry-free and in style,” Universal Limousine, the company they used, boasts on its website.

Huff’s group rang up an additional $584 in charges once they arrived at AT&T Park. Although profligate with its fundraising, Huff’s 2016 Assembly committee has been frugal with fellow Republicans. The committee hasn’t parted with any of its cash this cycle. It did not report any contributions to any targeted Senate candidates nor has it transferred any funds to the state party.

But while Huff didn’t share his campaign cash with the state party, he shares its taste in limo companies. In April, the California Republican Party accumulated $1,272 in transportation charges with the same company.

2013 Speaker’s Cup swag bag: iPad Minis and booze

Of course, expensive meals and limo rides don’t last. To make sure that the state’s major political donors treasure the memories, campaign committees spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury swag bags that included expensive booze and iPad Minis. None came close to rivaling this year’s Speaker Cup, considered “the jewel of the legislative fundraising circuit.”

Held annually at the swanky Pebble Beach Resort, the Speaker’s Cup helps California Democrats raise more than a million dollars per year from the state’s biggest special interest groups. The event, which is underwritten by AT&T, gives wealthy benefactors quality face time with legislators as they hit the links or relax at the world-renowned 22,000-square-foot spa.

“The Speaker’s Cup is the centerpiece of a corporate lobbying strategy so comprehensive and successful that it has rewritten the special-interest playbook in Sacramento,” the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 2012 profile of the annual event.

The feature item of this year’s swag bag was an iPad Mini, bought and paid for by the event’s lead sponsor, AT&T. The telecommunications giant, which routinely lobbies the legislature, spent just shy of six-figures on 253 iPad Minis as an in-kind contribution for the 2013 Speaker’s Cup. On May 4, the committee reported a $99,596.69 expenditure at the San Francisco Apple Store.

It wasn’t the company’s only Speaker’s Cup expense. AT&T also plopped down $4,801 for a VIP reception held at Pebble Beach and left a $60,000 down payment for next year’s event.

On the same day that AT&T loaded its shopping cart with iPads, Diageo, the world’s largest producer of spirits, donated $29,504.04 worth of alcohol to the California Democratic Party, which organized the 2013 Speaker’s Cup.  The multi-national corporation made additional in-kind contributions during the first half of the year. In total, Diageo donated $76,091 worth of alcohol to the state’s Democrats. The California Republican Party also reported an in-kind contribution of $262 worth of wine, or .34 percent by volume compared to Democrats.

This isn’t the first time that legislators have been caught using campaign funds for luxury items. In 2007, then-Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez charged thousands of dollars in questionable campaign expenses. Among the list of charges reported by the Times: $47,412 in airfare, $8,745 at an exclusive Spanish hotel; $5,149 at a Bordeaux wine seller; $2,562 at Louis Vuitton; and $1,795 at a Parisian restaurant. The Fair Political Practices Commission later concluded that Nunez had not broken any state laws.

State law bans campaign committees from making expenditures “which confer a substantial personal benefit.” However, the state’s political watchdog has carved out an exception for any activities that have a political, legislative or governmental purpose.

“Former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said Monday that his son’s manslaughter sentence last year in the stabbing death of a 22-year-old college student was politically motivated, angering the parents of the victim,” The Sacramento Bee reported earlier today.

Nunez said his son Esteban “received a tougher sentence” because of Nunez senior’s political career and the ambition of the district attorney in the case. Apparently this is justification enough for the commutation of Esteban Nunez’s sentence from 16 years to seven.

Remember that while in custody, Esteban Nunez bragged to police that his well-connected father Fabian Nunez, would get the charges against him dropped.

While quick to point out other’s political ambitions and abuses, Fabian Nunez shamelessly ignored the really rotten deal he made with Schwarzenegger to commute Esteban’s sentence – a sentence that many feel was already light given the heinousness and attempted cover up of the brutal stabbing of college student Luis Santos. And, Esteban Nunez’s case never went to trial – he agreed to the manslaughter charges, avoiding a very public trial and potential for life in prison.

Adding insult to injury in an already painful situation, Fabian Nunez made his comments within earshot of the Santos family outside of the courtroom.

Fortunately, Bonnie Dumanis, the District Attorney accused by Fabian Nunez of being politically motivated in her prosecution of the case answered. “The DA’s office makes prosecutorial decisions based on the evidence and the law, treating defendants the same regardless of who they may be related to,” she said. “Unfortunately, the governor didn’t do the same and his last-minute commutation greatly diminished justice and outraged the community. We’re trying to right that wrong.”

Every time he opens his mouth, Fabian Nunez proves what an baseless, arrogant, elitist politician he really is.  Yes, Nunez may be well-connected, but with each stupid, insensitive comment he makes about this case, he is looking worse than his son – who thankfully, has learned to shut his mouth.

JULY 11, 2011

I’ve always thought Gov. Arnold’s embrace of extreme environmentalism, such as AB 32, was a scam to make him look good. Now we’re finally getting some facts to confirm that. From the L.A. Times:

Reporting from Sacramento — California’s energy commission has promised millions of dollars to a struggling corn ethanol business founded by a political ally — and generous campaign contributor — to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger despite public assurances that the commission’s environmental funds would not be used to subsidize that technology.

The money comes from a tax on car owners passed three years ago that goes to a fund for clean-energy technologies. When the fund was set up, its backers said it would not be used for corn ethanol, a decades-old gas additive that many environmental scientists argue is at least as bad for the planet as oil.

The decision to use the fund for an ethanol subsidy has the program’s creator crying foul.

“It’s appalling. We gave them a very clear direction where these funds should be going,” said former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, who wrote the bill that created the Alternative Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program. “Ethanol is yesterday’s news. It seems like there’s some inside deal going on.”

Pacific Ethanol, the largest of four companies eligible for up to $15 million in new subsidies offered under the program, was founded by former California Secretary of State Bill Jones, a fixture in the state Republican Party who has given nearly $70,000 to Schwarzenegger’s campaigns, state records show.

Jones himself, one of the few statewide Republicans elected in the last two decades, long has been a recipient of federal farm subsidies. And while in the Legislature back in 1991, he provided the key vote for passing Gov. Pete Wilson’s tax increases.

Any doubts government is nothing but a scam?