SACRAMENTO — State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is being feted at a Pebble Beach fundraiser this weekend by AT&T, whose interests he is championing in legislation with high stakes for two industries and millions of California consumers.
AT&T, which wants to compete freely with cable television companies and stands to gain billions if lawmakers allow it, is holding the "Speaker's Cup" fundraiser at the fabled Monterey County golf resort.
Dozens of corporations, unions and Indian tribes will pay $10,000 to $45,000 to have their lobbyists and other representatives hobnob with Nunez (D-Los Angeles) and other elected officials over golf games, cocktails, spa treatments and dinner.
The event, scheduled a year in advance, is one of the biggest annual fundraisers for the state Democratic Party. The party, a major source of money for legislative campaigns, can accept unlimited donations; individual candidates cannot.
Nunez, whose duties as speaker include fundraising for legislative contests, is sponsoring a bill that would dramatically reshape the way Californians get video services.
California law requires companies seeking to offer cable television service to strike franchising agreements with each city and county where they want to do so -- negotiations that take months. Nunez's bill would free phone companies from having to negotiate hundreds of such agreements.
AT&T, Verizon and others, noting that cable TV bills have risen faster than inflation in recent years, say opening the industry to more competition will save consumers hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Nunez endorses that view.
Opponents say it could cost local governments millions of dollars in lost fees and would be disadvantageous to cable companies, which have long-term agreements with local governments that they are required to fulfill.
The issue is expected to be one of the hardest-fought in the Legislature this year.
Ned Wigglesworth, analyst with the campaign finance watchdog group therestofus.org, called the appearance of Nunez's attendance at the AT&T fundraiser "awful."
"From the perspective of it actually influencing Nunez, we have no way of knowing," said Wigglesworth, "but it very well could. When you're speaker of the California Assembly you're held to a higher standard and you have a responsibility to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest."
