In the wake of news stories about the multi-million dollar consulting contract of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Speaker of the Assembly has sought to clarify that he no longer accepts outside income.

This past spring, Speaker Fabian Nunez came under fire for previous work with the Voter Improvement Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing voter turnout, and a group which has often been linked with labor unions. Nunez was reportedly being paid some $35,000 a year.

Today, Nunez's advisers said that the Speaker has severed his ties to the organization, and does not plan to do any more work for them in upcoming elections. "He's done," according to Nunez deputy chief of staff Steve Maviglio.

When Nunez was questioned about the outside income a few months ago, he told reporters he was willing to consider an effort to ban lawmakers from having side jobs.

Meantime, there's plenty of talk among Capitol insiders about two days of news reports on the governor's $5,000.000-$8,000,000 consulting job with two muscle magazines. And while one campaign watchdog group has suggested formal hearings to get to the bottom of the issue, for now the issue is mainly one of public perception.