Arambula, Núñez need to make peace and get on with business.

Fresno Assembly Member Juan Arambula and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez engaged in a political spat recently. Both have made their points, and now it's time to patch things up. There are some big issues looming in the state Legislature, and both men will need each other to get through the heavy lifting.

Arambula's refusal to vote on four bond measures proposed by the governor and endorsed by the Democrats who control the Legislature set off Núñez, who stripped the Fresno representative of a major committee chairmanship and exiled him to a tiny office called "the doghouse."

That sparked a flood of complaints directed at Núñez and much support for Arambula -- at least hereabouts; the story went utterly unreported outside the central San Joaquin Valley.

Arambula was making a statement about the fact that the bond measures include no money for a dam in the Temperance Flat area, a proposal that has wide support in the Valley. He is right to remind those in the Capitol -- again -- of their long neglect of Valley issues and needs, but the infrastructure measures do include much that's good for this region, including $1 billion for repairs along Highway 99.

Núñez now faces the task of shepherding a budget through the Assembly, and he'll need Arambula's vote for that. Arambula is a moderate Democrat, and a useful counterweight to the more liberal members of the majority party in the Assembly, and Núñez will need that, too.

Núñez should restore Arambula to the chair of the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy, where he was beginning a useful effort to assess the effectiveness of the state's enterprise zone program for economic development.

For his part, Arambula needs to be back in the speaker's good graces if he hopes to achieve any part of his own significant legislative agenda.

No one should be surprised that Núñez came down hard on Arambula. The vote on the infrastructure bond measures was an important one, and legislative leaders will always insist on party loyalty at such times. That's the nature of politics. 

Even under the best of conditions, politics and governing are going to have their moments of contention and anger. We've just had such a moment. Now let's get over it.