Thursday, November 20, 2003

California Politics: Some Schwarzenegger Appointments

Some of the key players newly-inaugurated Governor Schwarzenegger has selected include the following:

Donna Arduin - Finance Director. Senior staff includes: Mike Genest (deputy chief), David Harper (legislative liaison), and H.D. Plamer (Finance spokesman), the latter a former Pete Wilson finance official. All three were assistants to Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte, making what looks to me like a heavily partisan line-up in Finance. For more on Arduin's previous positions in New York and Jeb Bush's Florida, see Circuit-riding budget whiz comes to California.

Terry Tamminen - Secretary, state Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Tamminen has good credentials as an environmentalist. But the undersecretary will by James Branham, a PR person for Pacific Lumber. Maureen Gorsen, a former Wilson official, will be head of EPA law enforcement.

Dick Riordan - Education Secretary. A former mayor of Los Angeles, Riordan is considered a moderate Republican, but the teacher's unions were not pleased about his appointment.

Richard Costigan - chief legislative negotiator. He's a Chamber of Commer lobbyist.

Kimberly Belshe - Health and Human Services Secretary; former Wilson official.

Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub's Weblog is a good source for details on Schwarzenegger's appointments.

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