Replace Shelley With a Pro, Nunez Suggests

SACRAMENTO —  The political jockeying over which party will benefit from Secretary of State Kevin Shelley’s resignation intensified Sunday as Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez discouraged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from appointing any politician to serve out Shelley’s term.

Shelley’s resignation, announced Friday, does not take effect until March 1, but already Democrats are worried that Schwarzenegger’s choice of an interim replacement may give the Republicans a leg up in taking control of a second of California’s eight statewide elected offices. Shelley, like every other such officeholder except for Schwarzenegger, is a Democrat.

Although Schwarzenegger will choose the replacement, either house of the Legislature -- both of which are controlled by Democrats -- can reject the appointment within 90 days.

Nunez (D-Los Angeles) sought to avert such a fight by issuing a statement Sunday. “The governor has the opportunity to put someone at the helm who will focus on administering elections -- not on their political future,” he said in calling for “an experienced professional, not a politician.”

Margita Thompson, Schwarzenegger’s press secretary, on Sunday would not rule out the appointment of a politician, saying only, “The governor will make sure to name someone who instills confidence in the position of secretary of state.”

The stakes for Democrats are significant and go beyond which party will claim the office in 2006, when Shelley’s term would have expired. Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers are gearing up for a massive battle in a special election the governor is expected to call for later this year on ballot measures that would wrest a good deal of power away from the Legislature. The secretary of state oversees such elections, making any bias or ambition of the officeholder a subject of significant concern.

“It sounds like he [Nunez] wants to play politics with it, to narrow it down so that a Democrat can run to reclaim office,” said Assembly GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield. “That’s the wrong approach to take in. I would put everything on the table and say pick the best and brightest.”

Nunez’s stand is more combative than that of Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland), who said on Thursday, the day before Shelley’s resignation, that he would welcome the nomination of Ross Johnson, a former GOP senator from Irvine who was forced out of the Legislature last year by term limits.

Johnson is 65 and not considered likely to run for the post in two years.

“Since the appointee is likely to be a card-carrying member of the governor’s political party, Sen. Perata is already on the record as expressing his preference for Sen. Johnson,” said Jason Kinney, a Perata spokesman.

But in a telephone interview Sunday, when Nunez was asked about the possibility of Johnson, he said: “I don’t want to outright nix anybody, but I certainly think a nonpartisan administrator -- who can really bring some integrity back to the office of the secretary of state and make sure we upgrade our voting systems -- needs to be the driving force. It might not be [a matter of] who’s got a good friend we can all live with.”

Among the names frequently bandied about in Sacramento: Bruce McPherson of Santa Cruz, a moderate Republican who left the Senate last year because of term limits; former U.S. Treasurer Rosaria Marin, who lost in the GOP primary to choose a challenger to Sen. Barbara Boxer last year; and Rep. Mary Bono of Palm Springs, also a Republican.

Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State, predicted that Schwarzenegger would not want to give up the political benefits that would come with the right appointment.

“We all know in the end this governor is very smart, consistently underrated, and he’s going to appoint someone who gives him the most mileage he can get,” Gerston said.

“This is like a free pass in a game. You can’t ask for anything more. They control one of the eight offices and now they can get another one. This is unbelievable for these guys.”

The last major battle over such an interim appointment in Sacramento took place in 1988, when the Senate rejected Gov. George Deukmejian’s choice of Daniel Lungren to fill the remainder of state Treasurer Jess Unruh’s term after Unruh died in office. Lungren’s nomination lost after he came under attack for his conservative record.

Deukmejian ended up appointing Tom Hayes, then the state’s auditor general and someone Democrats considered would be a caretaker until the next election. Hayes ended up running to keep the job in 1990 but was defeated.