Just A Hardworking Guy From The Labor Movement

Somehow I think the Speaker's Office won't be too happy with this LA Times profile.

SACRAMENTO -- As leader of the California Assembly, Speaker Fabian Nuñez has traveled the world in luxury, paying with campaign funds for visits to some of the finest hotels and restaurants and for purchases at high-end retailers such as Louis Vuitton in Paris.

It is not clear how these activities have related to legislative business, as state law requires, because the Los Angeles Democrat refuses to provide details on tens of thousands of dollars in such expenditures.

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.

Nuñez also spent $2,934 at Colosseum Travel in Rome, and paid $505 to the European airline Spanair.

Other expenses are closer to home: a $1,715 meeting at Asia de Cuba restaurant in West Hollywood; a $317 purchase at upscale Pavilion Salon Shoes in Sacramento; a $2,428 meeting at 58 Degrees and Holding, a Sacramento wine bar and bistro; and $800 spent at Dollar Rent a Car in Kihei, Hawaii.

The Speaker characterized these expenses as "not only justified but necessary for the decisions I need to make on a daily basis." And the evidence for that was... well, his say-so, having refused to supply the Times with any specifics. Fine by me, right, Isn't the word of a politician good enough? It does give pause, however, that Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata's expenses include no overseas travel for the last three years. But hey, they're in entirely different chambers of the same legislature, right?

Look, I've been to Asia de Cuba and managed to keep the check down to $250 or so, but I don't know how many were in Nuñez' party. Plus I was paying for it myself instead of out of my campaign kitty, so I guess I had more of a frugality incentive.

I will point out that this is an insulting and insensitive statement:

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."

What's the average salary of those who live in his district, which includes downtown LA, Boyle Heights, Maywood and Huntington Park? I don't think it's $130,000. That's an amazingly out-of-touch statement, especially in light of these revelations.

You can see a graphic of the expenditures here.

All I'll say is that I will not be nominating Speaker Nuñez for the Calitics ActBlue list, as he doesn't appear to need the money.

(and yes, the story is a term limits-related hit piece, but that doesn't exactly make it false)