Thread: Hillary’s "Poor" Advocate Has Lavish Life

October 05, 2007
Hillary’s "Poor" Advocate Has Lavish Life
A state legislator who was crowned national co chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign because he’s a champion of working class Latinos refuses to account for expensive luxurious trips abroad, stays at fine hotels and “official businessâ€

Assembly speaker taps campaign funds for expensive meals, hotels
The Associated Press
News Fuze
Article Launched:10/05/2007 02:49:35 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO—Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has used campaign funds to pay for food, lodging and merchandise at upscale hotels, restaurants and stores in Europe and the United States, according to reports he is required to file with the state.
The expenditures include $8,745 at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona, Spain; $5,149 for a "meeting" at Cave L'Avant Garde, a wine seller in France's Bordeaux region; $2,562 for "office expenses" two years apart at Louis Vuitton, a Parisian store that specializes in leather goods, clothing, fashion accessories and jewelry; and $1,795 for another "meeting" at Le Grand Colbert, a Parisian restaurant.

Other expenditures include $1,715 at Asia de Cuba, a West Hollywood restaurant; $317 at Pavilion Salon Shoes in Sacramento; $2,428 for a meeting at 58 Degrees and Holding, a Sacramento restaurant; and $800 to rent a car in Kihei, Hawaii.

California law requires that campaign fund expenditures be reasonably related to a political, legislative or governmental purpose.

Nunez, a Los Angeles Democrat, has taken several overseas trips in his three years as leader of the Assembly, including a trip to Europe earlier this year to study France's high-speed rail system and preschool programs.

He's also gone to Germany and Denmark to look at their renewable energy programs and to South America to examine global warming solutions.

But some travel expenditures, including those in Barcelona last year and a $3,199 bill at Hotel Parco in Rome this year, do not seem to be part of any policy-related trips announced by the speaker's office.

Nunez told The Los Angeles Times his travel is "not only justified but necessary for the decisions I need to make on a daily basis."

A spokeswoman for Nunez, Beth Willon, would not discuss the reason for the questionable expenditures, saying only that the expenses were "properly disclosed and described as required by law."

But Doug Heller, executive director of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica-based consumer group, said Nunez should provide more information about why the spending was justified.

"How much political, legislative and governmental work does Fabian Nunez have to do in Barcelona?" Heller asked. "If they're legitimate, you've got to explain it."

Nunez is not the only California politician who has tapped campaign funds for overseas travel this year. The Associated Press reported last month that lawmakers also took trips to Japan, Taiwan, France, China, Argentina, Brazil, Azerbaijan and Germany this year.

In each case, they were required to pay for at least some of the travel expenses out of their own pockets or, more likely, their campaign accounts.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7096652

Ahhh yes, he sure sounds like an advocate for poor latinos huh?

He advocates that all his special interest corporate sponsors get all the cheap labor they want.

If latinos think he is looking out for them, we are dumber than I thought.

If Californians vote him into office again, well.....

October 5, 2007
Politicians Say the Dumbest Things: Nuñez is 'Middle Class'?

I almost choked on my Cheerios this morning when reading a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times about California Assembly leader Fabian Nuñez's spending habits of campaign funds. According to the Times story:

The spending, listed in mandatory filings with the state, includes $47,412 on United, Lufthansa and Air France airlines this year; $8,745 at the exclusive Hotel Arts in Barcelona, Spain; $5,149 for a "meeting" at Cave L'Avant Garde, a wine seller in the Bordeaux region of France; a total of $2,562 for two "office expenses" at Vuitton, two years apart; and $1,795 for a "meeting" at Le Grand Colbert, a venerable Parisian restaurant.

But whatever. That part of the story has been told a thousand times over by other politicians throughout history. What really induced the gag reflex was this gem by the Speaker of the Assembly, who also reps LA's 46th district:

In the interview, Nuñez said he wouldn't need to use his $5.3-million "Friends of Fabian Nuñez" campaign account to offset travel costs if he were independently wealthy. The speaker's job pays $130,062 a year plus a tax-free $170 for expenses each day the Assembly is in session.
"There's not too big a difference," he said, "between how I live and how most middle-class people live."

OK, so if according to Nuñez, If $130,000 is nearly middle class, then maybe he should help the federal government to change its poverty guidelines. After all, the 2007 federal poverty level for a family of four is set at $20,650.

Ain't no Louis Vuitton shopping with that chump change.

http://laist.com/2007/10/05/politicians_say.php

Ahhh yes, he sure sounds like an advocate for poor latinos huh?

He advocates that all his special interest corporate sponsors get all the cheap labor they want.

If latinos think he is looking out for them, we are dumber than I thought.

If Californians vote him into office again, well.....

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT. AND THIS IS JUST THE STUFF WE HAVE FOUND OUT ABOUT. THERE IS LIKELY TO BE MORE

hahahahaha Billary is a NUT case trying to pass off her funk to AmeriKA

Heck, Fabian is no different than any other Mexican politician, so what is the problem?

Check out this jokers district!

46th Assembly District

City of Commerce, East Los Angeles, Huntington Park, Los Angeles (Boyle Heights, Downtown Los Angeles, Pico Heights, Westlake), Maywood, Vernon, Walnut Park

These towns are over 80% Latino! Maywood declared US immigration laws don't apply to them! Over 50% of his "constituents" are illegal aliens and anchor babies! This pretty much confirms that Mexico controls our Legislature.

Must confess I checked into this after hearing John and Ken talking about it on the radio today.

Anyone who resides in Mexifornia can appreciate this news.

Was on the front page.
~~

Nuñez middle class? Boy, that's rich
Steve Lopez

October 7, 2007

If he crashes and burns in politics, California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez could have a great future as a travel agent.

As my colleague Nancy Vogel laid out in a jaw-dropping exposé Friday, L.A.'s man of the people has not missed a trick while traveling extensively and luxuriously about the world, throwing campaign funds around like confetti.

Italy. France. Spain.

Our very own rascal in paradise has been there, and he's tasted the world's finest offerings.

A $1,795 meal in Paris. An $8,745 hotel bill in Barcelona. A $5,149 meeting at a Bordeaux wine shop.

"There's not too big a difference," Nuñez told Vogel, "between how I live and how most middle-class people live."

Hands down, it's the quote of the year.

I'm not sure what middle-class people Nuñez is talking about, but I'm worried that he's spending entirely too much time with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Could the speaker be talking about Brentwood's middle-class?

We're talking lifestyles of the rich and famous here, not Applebee's and Ramada. Nuñez may even be trying to compete with Schwarzenegger, who's been using an obscure nonprofit group to finance lavish overseas travel involving private jets and exclusive hotels, as detailed recently by my colleague Paul Pringle.

And there's one more thing these two high rollers have in common:

They're both bending rules of ethics, if not snapping them in half.

Schwarzenegger's little nonprofit is well-fed with donations from people who don't have to disclose their identity. So not only is it unclear who's paying for the governor's travels, but the tax write-off for donors, and the use of a charitable organization to fund luxury travel, are arguably a corruption of the tax code.

In the case of Nuñez, it's legal to use campaign funds for travel, but only if it's related to the business of government and politics.

I suppose it's possible that a Bordeaux wine shop hosted a symposium on California infrastructure bonds, but when I called Nuñez's office for more information I got a stock answer from a spokeswoman:

"The expenditures were properly disclosed and described as required by law."

It's the democracy we've all been waiting for in Sacramento. Gulfstreams, Louis Vuitton office supplies and nose-thumbing responses to inquiring constituents.

Given Nuñez's refusal to explain the specific purpose of his travels, Carmen Balber of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights is biting her nails, hoping Nuñez wasn't sampling fine wine with players who have pumped $5.3 million into the "Friends of Fabian Nuñez" campaign kitty.

"The first question that comes to mind is whether the health insurance industry was sponsoring the speaker's lavish trips, as he's now debating the future of the health market in California," Balber said.

She notes that Nuñez's travel fund has received $136,000 from health insurers and their lobbyists. And Nuñez is working with Schwarzenegger ($719,000 and counting from health insurers and their lobbies) on a health insurance reform bill that would require every Californian to buy coverage, but wouldn't require insurers to cap the cost.

Certainly the insurers would love to raise a fine bottle of red to the passage of such a bill, and Nuñez has been known to pop the cork on crushed grapes that run as high as $224 a bottle.

But do we really want Nuñez managing billions of our tax dollars if this is his idea of money management? Easy come, easy go, I suppose, when you've got campaign funds to burn, on top of $170-a-day in spending money along with a six-figure salary.

I checked one five-week stretch of Nuñez's expenses in 2006 and found that he'd dined at the likes of the Water Grill ($602.29), Pacific Dining Car ($1,003.37), and Asia de Cuba ($538.10), and, in Sacramento, Biba restaurant ($1,026.5.

Along with several other meal/meetings in that five-week stretch, his dining tab came to $7,764.94.

Can someone please give him directions to a Pizza Hut?

As you might have imagined, the news of Nuñez's champagne tastes had some donors feeling duped.

"We would much prefer that he be educating himself about what's the best healthcare system in the world rather than the best wine or the best shoes or any number of expenditures," said Donna Gerber, director of government relations for the California Nurses Assn., which donated $4,000 to Friends of Fabian.

Barry Broad, who represents the Teamsters ($15,900 in donations to Nuñez) and other labor groups, says it's hard to ask members to keep digging into their pockets for campaign donations when the working stiffs open their paper and see that Nuñez is frolicking around the world like he's playing with Monopoly money.

It's the kind of story that "further undermines the public's view of the political process," Broad said. But "I don't know how much lower it could go."

Not much, especially when the records reveal that Nuñez rang up unspecified office expenses at Nordstrom for $476.28.

A set of wine glasses, perhaps?

As for the office expenses from Louis Vuitton, they ran $787.50 on one occasion and $1,775.36 on another, which is a lot of staples.

Based on a call to Louis Vuitton and a search of the website, I'm wondering if Nuñez bought the $650 Taiga binder as a travel calendar and, to enter his next dreamy destination, the Cargo pen with alligator skin, Rhodium finish and an 18-carat gold nib for $1,620.

If the speaker reveals nothing else, can he at least fill the rest of the middle class in on what a gold nib is?

www.latimes.com