Fresno resident Stuart Weil, who owns a Madera County business that raises tropical fish, has been named to Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani's "California Business Leaders for Rudy."

The team is headed by Kim Quinones of Pacific Palisades and includes 18 other business people from around the state who will "help spread Rudy's commitment to fiscal discipline, ending wasteful government spending and cutting taxes," according to the Giuliani campaign.

With that charge, Weil should fit right in. He is a huge fan of the late Milton Friedman, a Nobel-winning economist and advocate of laissez-faire capitalism.

Still Weil, who has donated $1,050 to Giuliani, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, was blasé about the appointment. "It's just another meeting, is all it is," he said.

That's mainly because Weil already is active in Giuliani's campaign as a regional campaign chairman. In a primary campaign in which Republicans will award delegates on a winner-take-all basis by congressional district, Giuliani's campaign has organizations set up in each of those 53 districts.

Weil, in turn, oversees four Valley districts - the 18th (currently held by Merced Democrat Dennis Cardoza), 19th (Mariposa Republican George Radanovich), 20th (Fresno Democrat Jim Costa) and 21st (Visalia Republican Devin Nunes).

"I've been doing this for six months," Weil said. "I've never done a presidential campaign before on this level. It's a lot of work."

-- John Ellis