Championing The Rights Of The Working Man...At Louis Vuitton
Is that "progress" or "progressive"? First, a little background: California State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, says the headline on an LA Times story, "travels the world like a high roller" on "tens of thousand in campaign funds." Nancy Vogel writes:

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.

Asked in an interview about his foreign travel in general, Nuñez said: "For me, it's a question of: Is my perspective on issues broad enough? Do I have enough context when I make decisions? This is a big state to run. You've got to know what you're doing.

"These trips," he said, "at least the ones I've taken -- I feel very confident and comfortable that they're not only justified but necessary for the decisions I need to make on a daily basis."

Given a list of 99 entries culled from his campaign finance filings, however, Nuñez's staff refused to show how the expenditures were related to California government or politics. Spokeswoman Beth Willon would say only that the expenditures were "properly disclosed and described as required by law."

California law requires all campaign fund expenditures to be at least "reasonably" related to a political, legislative or governmental purpose. Expenditures that confer a substantial personal benefit must be "directly" related to such purposes.

Some of Nuñez's travel in his more than three years as speaker has involved studying high-speed rail and preschool programs in France, studying renewable energy in Germany and Denmark, and visiting South America with other lawmakers and lobbyists to study global warming solutions.

Some activity, however, including the 2006 Barcelona visit and a $3,199 stay at Hotel Parco in Rome this year, does not appear tied to any policy-related trips announced by Nuñez's office.

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."

Excuse me while I double-hurl. I'm "middle-class," and I don't know about you, but Monday, Tuesday and Friday, I spend between $10 (for pizza) and $25 on a working lunch and drinks for my assistant and me, and maybe toss myself a $13 happy hour steak and $8 glass of wine with Lena.

On $170, tax-free? My assistant and I would be having blinis and caviar, and washing it down with champagne...well, but for the obvious work issues (champagne makes me sleepy, not writey). And, then, of course, for the "middle-class" pièce de resistance, when my assistant goes to pick up my mail, instead of taking a big woven straw bag I got for 11 eu at the rue de Rennes Monoprix, she'd be carrying something bought across the Boulevard St. Germain at L.V...maybe this $1000 "bucket" bag.

Hey, but not to worry about Fabio's spending. Steve Varalyay of Torrance isn't concerned. In a letter to the LA Times on Wednesday, he writes:

Re "Keeping up with Fabian," Opinion, Oct. 15

As a progressive activist, I am less concerned about the lifestyle Nuñez leads than what his voting record is on issues that affect working people. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) doesn't live a Spartan-like existence, and neither does presidential candidate John Edwards, but both have sterling records when it comes to pro-worker legislation. Let's keep an eye on Nuñez and see if he starts supporting candidates or writing bills that are blatantly pro-company. That will be a cause for real concern.

Steve Varalyay
Torrance

Sorry, but whatever you think of Ted Kennedy or John Edwards, Kennedy "doesn't live a Spartan-like existence" because he has an enormous family fortune. Likewise, Edwards is a trial lawyer, raking in the bucks. Regarding Nuñez, and "working people," must we have such low standards for the people who are supposed to be working for us?