L.A.’s Nunez Is Formally Chosen Assembly Speaker

SACRAMENTO —  With a resounding “aye,” the California Assembly on Thursday formally elected Fabian Nunez, a 37-year-old freshman Democrat from Los Angeles, as its next leader.

The voice vote was procedural, as Nunez had informally locked up enough support in November to replace Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City). Nunez will be sworn in and take charge of the 80-member body Feb. 9.

He is the fourth consecutive lawmaker from Los Angeles to lead the Assembly, a job that entails close negotiations with the governor and other legislative leaders to craft the state’s financial and legal policy. As speaker, Nunez also will assign fellow lawmakers to head committees and raise money to help them win elections.

Democrats, who dominate the Assembly and therefore have the prerogative to choose the speaker, say they are not unhappy with Wesson, though some have criticized him as being too indulgent to bring order to the often raucous house. His term in the Assembly does not expire until December. But Democratic lawmakers say they want a new leader, rather than a lame duck, to deal with the 2-month-old administration of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and plot Democratic victories in the March primaries.

Wesson said that in 2006 he would run for either lieutenant governor or the state Senate seat now held by Kevin Murray (D-Culver City).

“Don’t throw dirt on me yet,” Wesson jokingly warned one lawmaker who praised him as a good speaker and friend. “I’m still breathing.”

Wesson formally nominated Nunez for the speaker position Thursday, and he has championed Nunez even as several more experienced lawmakers maneuvered for the job over the past year.

Choosing a freshman leader, Wesson said, would bring needed stability to the Assembly because Nunez could serve for five years. No speaker has served more than two years and two months since Willie Brown left in 1995. Brown led the Assembly for 14 years and was forced out because of term limits.

Wesson said he feels he is just hitting his stride in his 23rd month as speaker. He counted among his successes an agreement struck last month with Schwarzenegger to place two budget-balancing measures on the March ballot -- a $15-billion deficit bond and a constitutional amendment to help keep California from ever borrowing again to balance its budget.

“Last month it was the Assembly that brokered the deal with Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Wesson said. “It was me looking him eyeball to eyeball. He can call it his recovery plan, and those are elements that he wanted to do, but that plan was devised by us. That was good work on the part of the Assembly,” he said.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers say they like Wesson, and credit him with being respectful of different perspectives -- sometimes to a fault.

Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg) called Wesson “one of the easiest guys to get along with up here,” but said he often tried too hard to build consensus.

“There are many times when members would have preferred that he take prompt action or stronger action instead of always trying to reach that consensus,” Canciamilla said. “There were ... debates and fights and discussions that were not necessary, did not add value to what was going on.”

Nunez vowed to foster a spirit of bipartisanship in the Assembly, where bickering between Republicans and Democrats last year frequently slowed work and prompted Wesson to lock members in the chamber for 30 straight hours to get enough votes to pass a budget.

“Some say we’re hopelessly divided in this house,” Nunez said in a brief speech. “They say that Republicans and Democrats cannot get along. ... But however different we may be, there is far more that unites us than divides us.

“We should reestablish this great legislative body as the house of ideas,” he said. “And more importantly, we must work together for the benefit of all Californians.”

One of 12 children of a maid and a gardener, Nunez was born in San Diego but raised in Tijuana until he was 7 years old, when his family moved back to San Diego. Before his 2002 election to the Assembly to represent downtown Los Angeles, Nunez ran political campaigns, lobbied for the Los Angeles Unified School District and served as political director for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

“I came to San Diego 30 years ago, a kid with different colored socks, maybe just a couple of pairs of high-water pants,” he said. “And it’s amazing and awesome to think that 30 years later I stand here before you to accept your nomination as the 66th speaker of the California Assembly.”

Democrats praised Nunez as a passionate, patient and hard-working man dedicated to bringing Californians good jobs, health care, safe neighborhoods and affordable college educations.

The new GOP leader, Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), a fellow freshman who regularly plays basketball with Nunez, said he hopes for a new era of collegial, substantive debate.

But some Republicans said they feared that was not likely under Nunez. They point out that he comes from a combative union background, and say they fear he will be more aggressive and overtly political than Wesson.

On Thursday, Republicans circulated a December article from a Mexico City newspaper, La Cronica de Hoy, in which Nunez is quoted in Spanish as saying he has “already declared war” on Schwarzenegger and expects confrontations with the Republican governor over immigrant rights and cuts to education. In the article, Nunez notes that Schwarzenegger’s advisors backed Proposition 187, the 1994 initiative that sought to deny health, education and other public benefits to illegal immigrants. The measure passed but was later overturned by the courts.

In the article, Nunez said that he wants a healthy relationship with Schwarzenegger, but that if the governor continues as he’s going, “we are going to have to attack him politically.”

Nunez spokesman Gabriel Sanchez said Nunez had been misquoted by La Cronica de Hoy and was seeking a correction.

Times staff writer Joe Mathews contributed to this report.