Núñez Staffer Takes Issue With Recent News Coverage
The Sacramento Bee's "hinting at a conflict" of interest because of Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez's (D-Los Angeles) wife's position at an organization funded in part by the California Hospital Association "is unfounded and unwarranted," Steve Maviglio, deputy chief of staff for the speaker, writes in a Bee opinion piece (Maviglio, Sacramento Bee, 10/21).
Núñez's wife, Maria Robles, is president of Californians for Patient Care, a not-for-profit organization that tax records list as a subsidiary of CHA (California Healthline, 10/17).
Maviglio faults the Bee for not noting the California Nurses Association's opposition to health care reform legislation by Núñez in an article that detailed CNA's request that the speaker abstain from voting on measures to overhaul the state health care system because of his wife's position.
Maviglio also takes issue with the Bee's coverage of charges questioning campaign spending by Núñez, writing, "The speaker has no apologies for using campaign funds instead of taxpayer money for what the Fair Political Practices Commission has repeatedly ruled are legitimate expenditures" (Maviglio, Sacramento Bee, 10/21).