In late November, as the subprime mortgage collapse became more widespread, Assembly Democrats gathered to call on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to convene a special session to address the issue.
"If you look at where the foreclosures are happening, this is clearly neither a Democratic issue nor a Republican issue," Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said in a statement. "Given the hole this could blow in the state budget, we simply don’t have the luxury of partisanship."
The Democrats rolled out a package of proposals to ease rising interest rates that are causing foreclosures across the state.
Turns out, there is a personal history to the speaker's interest in the mortgage crisis.
In a profile today by the San Francisco Chronicle's Matthew Yi, Núñez revealed that he had his bout with unaffordable rising interest rates pre-speakership days.
The following passage is about Núñez and his wife Maria Robles.
Many of their troubles had to do with the couple's finances. Robles found steady income as a registered nurse, but Núñez spent the bulk of his time working as a volunteer for an immigrant advocacy group in Pomona and later in a paid position with the same organization.
He also had to work odd jobs, including a stint as a security guard in Los Angeles, selling security systems and working briefly for a mortgage broker.
In 1989 they saved enough money to buy a house in Upland, but after the real estate market tanked in the early 1990s and their adjustable-rate mortgage skyrocketed, they filed for bankruptcy in 1994.
The financial ruin pushed Núñez and Robles into a divorce.
"We were so young and green ... . We had no clue," Robles said of the house purchase and the eventual bankruptcy. "It was one of the darkest times of our lives."
They (obviously) eventually recovered as Núñez has risen to become, in the view of some around Sacramento, the second most powerful politician in the state, behind only Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And if you are wondering, the speaker now lives in a "$1.2 million home in a woodsy East Sacramento neighborhood."
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