The U-T's Bill Ainsworth reports that since the special election last month,
Maria Shriver's clout inside the administration has been on the rise. Her secret, he says, is "silence."
"Conspicuous silence may become her greatest asset, paving the way for her to play an influential role in Schwarzenegger's effort to create and communicate a more bipartisan approach to governing as he runs for re-election next year.
"Shriver also played a role in Schwarzenegger's unusual move to hire
Susan Kennedy, a top Democrat and former key aide to Davis, to be his chief of staff. Kennedy replaces Republican Patricia Clarey.
"This is a sign that Maria said, 'You've got to put someone in charge,' " said political analyst
Tony Quinn. "This is a sign that she's going to play a bigger role in the administration."Schwarzenegger said at a news conference that Shriver was a strong supporter of hiring Kennedy. "She loves it," he said.
Yesterday,
the governor sought to counter speculation that his wife engineered the appointment of his new chief of staff, saying that Shriver and Kennedy met for the first time only recently."
Republicans are
still reeling from the Susan Kennedy appointment, reports Jordan Rau. "Kennedy's appointment has raised particular ire among conservatives because she is a former Democratic Party executive director and senior member of Gray Davis' administration. Anti-gay activists have also objected strenuously because she is a lesbian. A new website, stopsusankennedy.com, urges people to petition Schwarzenegger to rescind the appointment.
"For now, most analysts and political veterans said
the chance of a GOP challenge was minimal. There are
no signs that the one candidate considered a credible threat — state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) — will drop his bid for lieutenant governor and take on Schwarzenegger. Running as a conservative Republican, McClintock won 1.1 million votes in the 2003 recall election, in which Schwarzenegger captured 4.2 million votes.
Dan Walters writes: "
The identity of Schwarzenegger's chief of staff is unimportant, except to Capitol denizens, political junkies and ideological crusaders. Nor, for that matter, is Schwarzenegger's personal political future, if he has one, important. What is important is whether any governor can restore some level of engagement and relevance to state government."
Meanwhile, the governor
dropped the "Acting" prefix to Department of Finance Director
Mike Genest yesterday, reports Clea Benson for the Bee. "Genest replaces Tom Campbell, who had agreed to take the post for a year while on leave from his post as dean of the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business."
And hey, Genest is even a Republican!
"Campbell followed Schwarzenegger's first finance director: Donna Arduin, a Florida budget official with a reputation for dramatic cost-cutting proposals."
A federal judge has blasted the state's prison health care system, and demanded Gov. Schwarzenegger appoint someone to help with the problem. "Saying California authorities "still fail to grasp the gravity" of a crisis in prison health care, a federal judge on Thursday
gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger five days to put in charge someone with "authority and ability." He ordered inspections to see that emergency fixes are made by early next year," reports the Bee.
And as long as the courts were piling on the governor, a superior court judge ruled the
governor's fake news video releases were illegal, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled that the state cannot produce video 'news releases' that are one-sided. The lawsuit was filed after Schwarzenegger's administration produced two videos, styled to be like broadcast news reports, promoting emergency regulations changing nurse-to-patient ratios and ending mandatory meal breaks for hourly workers."
Ah, seems like so long ago, doesn't it?
Speaker
Fabian Nuñez wants in on the
legislative oversight hearings on executive pay at the University of California. "It has become painfully obvious that one of California's most respected institutions needs to enhance the transparency and disclosure of how they compensate their top management," Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said in a statement. Nunez, D-Los Angeles, is an ex-officio member of UC's governing body, the Board of Regents. Núñez said he approved a request this week by Assemblyman
Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, chairman of the budget subcommittee on education, to
hold hearings in late May or early June.