Maviglio Joins the Alliance

Everyone is ramping up for the final stretch of the special election campaign. First, top Schwarzenegger campaign strategist Mike Murphy moved to Sacramento full-time. Then chief of staff Pat Clarey, communications director Rob Stutzman and director of finance Tom Campbell all took time off work to hit the campaign trail full time. So now it is the Democrats’ turn. Steve Maviglio, deputy chief of staff to Speaker Fabian Nunez, is taking a leave of absence from his job as the Speaker’s chief spokesman to join Gale Kaufman and the Alliance for a Better California. The move highlights not only the fact that Democrats are gearing up for the election, but also the Speaker’s close relationship with the union-coalition lined up again Schwarzenegger. Nunez got his start in politics as a union organizer, and his chief political consultant, Gale Kaufman, is the lead consultant for the Alliance for Better California, the anti-Schwarzenegger labor coaltion. In today’s Capitol Morning Report, Maviglio said his new job will consist of “pointing out elements of the Governor’s destructive agenda and keeping Karen Hanretty and Todd Harris awake at night.” Hanretty and Harris are spokespersons for the California Republican Party and the California Recovery Team, respectively. Serving as foil to Republicans should be nothing new to Maviglio, who served as press secretary for Gray Davis and regularly rebuts Republican charges for Nunez. Today he already sent out an e-mail with the first line, “You gotta wonder how the Arnold got out of bed this morning.”