[RTC List] Politics of broadband in CA

[Sean McLaughlin]

  LA Times reports today:

"AT&T is a major player in Sacramento.  Since 2005, it has donated more 
than $5 million to politicians and parties..." and during that time " 
The firm has spent nearly $30 million on lobbying the Legislature ..."


_____________


  AT & T employees urged to back Nuñez measure

The bid to change term limits is backed by Nuñez, whose law let the 
company into the cable TV market.
By Nancy Vogel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 2, 2008
SACRAMENTO -- The president of AT&T California is urging employees to 
support Proposition 93, the term limits measure on Tuesday's ballot 
championed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, whose 2006 law allowing the 
telecommunications company into the lucrative cable TV market could be 
worth billions of dollars.

In a letter e-mailed to 40,000 employees this week, President Ken 
McNeely wrote: "I believe that Prop. 93, which AT&T has supported, 
strikes a good balance between term limits and enabling legislators to 
develop more expertise for California."

Proposition 93, with a campaign financed heavily by public employee 
unions, legislators and corporations including AT&T, would allow Nuñez 
and many other lawmakers to run for office again this year rather than 
be forced out.

Nuñez, a Los Angeles Democrat, wrote the law that permits AT&T and other 
phone companies to compete against cable operators for pay television 
customers.

His 2006 bill won bipartisan support after a hard-fought lobbying 
campaign that pitted AT&T and Verizon against cable companies.

After the bill passed the Legislature, AT&T helped pay for full-page 
newspaper ads praising the speaker's "leadership and vision."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the legislation into law in September 
2006.

Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate 
Governance in Newark, Del., said corporate executives occasionally urge 
employees to vote a certain way on matters of direct importance to a 
company.

AT&T executives "must have felt that there's some connection" between 
the term limits measure and AT&T's success, he said.

"I've always thought that it's frankly better for business to stay out 
of its employees' involvement in the political process," Elson said.

AT&T spokesman James Peterson said in an e-mail statement Friday that 
the company "has always encouraged our employees to actively participate 
in the civic process."

He noted that McNeely's communique referred workers to the California 
secretary of state's website for more information.

Proposition 93 would shorten overall terms in the Legislature from 14 to 
12 years but allow legislators to serve all of those years in the same 
house. It also would allow 34 legislators who otherwise must exit later 
this year to stay until they have served a total of 12 years in their 
current house.

Nuñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) spearheaded 
last year's effort to move California's presidential primary election 
from June to February. If Proposition 93 passes, they and other 
legislators who would have been termed out will be able to run for 
reelection on the June ballot.

No on Prop. 93 campaign spokesman Kevin Spillane called the AT&T letter 
"more evidence of how committed the major special interests with 
business before the Legislature are to supporting Prop. 93."

He said it contradicts proponents' assertion that by freeing legislators 
from having to constantly seek a different office, Proposition 93 would 
strengthen the hand of legislators in their dealings with lobbyists.

"In truth," said Spillane, "the special interests are supporting Prop. 
93 to win favor with powerful incumbent politicians."

The opposition campaign is funded largely by Republican Steve Poizner, 
the state insurance commissioner; the state prison guards union; and a 
national nonprofit term-limits group. Richard Stapler, spokesman for the 
Yes on Prop. 93 campaign, said opponents "take a cynical view of the 
process."

"The other way to look at it is, if you're working with the Legislature 
you want to be working with legislators who are experts in policy 
issues," he said.

"If you can gain more experience, you can craft better public policy," 
said Stapler, "and bad public policy affects every person and every 
business in California."

AT&T is a major player in Sacramento.

Since 2005, it has donated more than $5 million to politicians and 
parties, including $250,000 to the Yes on Prop. 93 campaign.

The firm has spent nearly $30 million on lobbying the Legislature since 
2005 and plays frequent host to legislators and staff at meals, concerts 
and sports events. Each April for several years, AT&T has paid the costs 
of the "Speaker's Cup," a lavish golf fundraiser at Pebble Beach.

nancy.vogel at latimes.com <mailto:nancy.vogel at latimes.com>

-- -- --


"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; 
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without 
interference and to seek, receive and impart information 
and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."  
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 (UN, 1948)


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