From the Matier and Ross column of the San Francisco Chronicle: Just hours before being sworn in to his historic fourth term, Gov. Jerry Brown raised the stakes in his budget battle with University of California President Janet Napolitano by appointing his legislative affairs secretary to the UC Board of Regents. The appointment of Gareth Elliott, 44, comes just weeks after the regents, with backing from Napolitano, approved a plan to raise tuition 5 percent a year for the next five years if UC doesn’t get more money from the state. Those who know him say Elliott brings more than just loyalty to Brown to the table. Elliott, who also worked with former state Sens. Don Perata and Alex Padilla, is considered to have real legislative smarts. Brown still doesn’t hold majority sway with the 26-member Board of Regents. But the appointment of Elliott and his earlier naming of former Assembly Speaker John Pérez to the board signal the governor is bracing for a longer political struggle that eventually could determine whether Napolitano keeps her job.
“That’s the biggest hammer of all,” one regent in Brown’s corner told us privately...
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