Telecom industry pumps millions into AB 2987.

On June 19, state Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez threw out the first pitch at a San Francisco Giants game in AT&T Park. In itself, it wouldn’t be a very newsworthy event—especially since the Democratic lawmaker from Los Angeles doesn’t have much of an arm. But many fear that his recent pitch to the Assembly on behalf of telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon may be a strike against city governments and community media across California.

Preaching the benefits of healthy competition, AT&T and Verizon have spent millions of dollars to encourage state lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow them to crack a lucrative cable television market. Under the direction of Núñez and co-author Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), AB 2987 easily passed the Assembly 77-0 last month. On June 29, the California Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications approved AB 2987.

“The change proposed by Sacramento is not right for local government and community media.”

Monterey City Councilman Jeff Haferman traveled to Sacramento to speak against the bill.

“All the television ads from the telephone people say it’s about improved competition,” Haferman says. “Most of us that work in cities think that this is an advertising gimmick. We’re all for competition, but it’s hard for me to understand how this bill will do it.”

What is easy to understand, however, is that the telecom industry is working overtime to push lawmakers to support AB 2987, providing them exposure and hefty campaign contributions.

Recent full-page ads in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers thanked Núñez for moving the bill. Last spring, AT&T sponsored a Núñez-headlined golf fundraiser at Pebble Beach, raising $1.7 million for the California Democratic Party. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has received $374,000 in campaign contributions from the telecommunications industry.

“Núñez is smart and young, but he’s a wheeler and dealer,” Haferman says. “He’s a politician. He’s powerful and he’s got Schwarzenegger behind him.”

Núñez did not return calls for comment.