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If it were to pass, both Nez and Perata could stay in power after 2008. If not, the two will be termed out of office.
The measure is a long shot, growing longer. And Nez and Perata have only themselves to blame.
Their actions and inactions have given the No on 93 folks all the material they need to defeat the termlimits measure. The TV spots are going to be devastating. They are likely to overwhelm the many sound reasons to loosen term limits, which have created a revolvingdoor legislature where members lack expertise, rely too heavily on staff and lobbyists for guidance and feel too little compulsion to take on the complex, longterm issues facing the state.
The excesses of Speaker were the flash points of the 1990 measure that limited legislators to three terms (six years) in the Assembly and two terms (eight years) in the Senate. Under Prop. 93,[url=http://www.xantrex.cc]louis vuitton outlet[/url], a legislator would be limited to 12 years, but it could be served in one house.
Expect the name "" to loom large in February 2008.
The potentially fatal blow to Proposition 93 was delivered with the recent expose of Nez's lavish spending from his $5.3 million "Friends of Fabian Nez" campaign account. The reports portrayed a politician who traveled the world in luxury in pursuit he claims of knowledge required to do the people's business in Sacramento.
Some of the line items are certain to blast on your television screen between now and February. Nez spent $8,745 to stay at the in Barcelona, Spain; $5,149 for a meeting at Cave L'Avant Garde wine shop in the Bordeaux region of France; $2,562 for two "office expenses" at [url=http://www.xantrex.cc]Louis Vuitton[/url] in Paris. His $80,000 of office expenses over the last two years included purchases at Polo Ralph Lauren and . His airline expenses this year exceed $47,000.
The list goes on and on.
"He's a walking billboard for term limits," said , director of the , which wasted no time in exploiting the disclosures. On Tuesday, it filed a complaint with the , alleging that the speaker's use of campaign funds for personal expenses violates state law.
Perata's use of campaign funds, while modest and provincial in comparison with the globetrotting Nez, was the subject of a May expose in the titled "." No doubt some of those expenses such as the trips to wine shops, the 62 meals in excess of $500 and the "office expenses" that included artwork and a $6,669 outlay at a women's clothing shop will haunt him in the termlimits campaign.
The legality of these expenses is likely to depend on whether Nez and Perata can provide the FPPC with a more persuasive explanation of their business purpose than they gave to the Times and Express reporters. The line between "personal" and "business" is not quite black and white. State law says spending from campaign funds must be "reasonably or directly related to a legitimate political, legislative or government purpose."
The defense of Nez's $1,000 purchase of gourmet cookies should keep his lawyers well fed. But as a political matter, such spending contributes to the perception that people in power lose touch with the concept of public service.
"There's not too big a difference," Nez told the Times, "between how I live and how most middleclass people live."
Oh, yes. Most working people including, by the way, the rankandfile union members whose dues (along with corporate donations) helped build the speaker's "Friends" account don't have a $3,199 stay at Rome's Hotel Parco on their monthly
Even before the latest disclosures, the Yes on 93 campaign was facing another selfinflicted wound from Nez and Perata: Their failure to come through with their promise to deliver redistricting reform. The idea was that an independent commission, rather than the politicians themselves, should be drawing district boundaries. It would have made for a complementary ballot package and each would have advanced the concept of representative democracy.