Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named roughly 20 new gubernatorial appointments on Wednesday, including placing a top donor on the panel overseeing the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Rick Caruso, a Los Angeles Republican who flirted with running for mayor, has donated more than $470,000 to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his favored ballot committees since 2005. Schwarzenegger appointed Caruso to the unpaid position on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, which is a property some in the Legislature have said should be put up for sale.
Caruso is also a trustee for the University of Southern California, which plays its football games at the historic stadium.
The other appointee to the commission named Wednesday was David Israel, a screenwriter and TV producer who served as director of the office of President Peter Ueberroth's Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1984. He is also a member of the California Horse Racing Board.
Other Schwarzenegger appointments included Bill Ainsworth, the former long-time reporter with the San Diego Union-Tribune, to the post of deputy director of corporate communications for the California State Lottery. He'll earn $91,000 in the job.
Alex Traverso, the communications director for Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, is also headed to the state lottery, as assistant deputy director of the corporate communications. He'll earn $74,800 in that gig.
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