Legislator’s Frequent ‘No’ Votes Threaten His Own Bills : Senate Draws a Bead on Assemblyman

In the second such action in a week, an angry Senate has drawn a bead on another assemblyman, targeting his legislation for defeat.

The latest victim is Dennis Brown, a third-term Signal Hill Republican who has acquired a reputation for routinely voting against virtually all spending bills--even those championed by fellow conservative Republicans.

Frustrated by all of Brown’s “no” votes, the Senate subtly signaled its determination that Brown’s bills, like those by Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista), will not get approved during the waning days of the current session.

Peace became persona non grata in the Senate for hurling insults at powerful Appropriations Committee Chairman Alfred Alquist (D-San Jose) early in the week. Brown has fallen out of grace with senators because of his propensity to vote against their spending bills and for vocally attacking the legislation in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

One-Upmanship Games

Traditionally, as the legislative session grinds to an end, tempers flare and each house engages in games of one-upmanship. But long-time Capitol hands could recall no previous case where a legislator’s entire pending program had been targeted for destruction by the other house.

The Senate began rebuffing Brown on Thursday when it refused to approve a noncontroversial trucking industry-backed bill that he carried.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), floor manager of the measure, salvaged it on Friday by eliminating Brown’s name as the author and substituting that of Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress). It is expected to win easy approval on Monday.

Seymour termed the turn of events “unfortunate . . . game playing.”

‘This Is What He Gets’

“Mr. Brown seems to think that everything that comes out of this house is a bad idea,” said one high-level Senate assistant. “This is what he gets.”

“When you vote ‘no’ on everything and then you stand up to present your bill and ask for an ‘aye’ vote, it stings a bit,” Allen acknowledged.

Brown, 36, first elected in 1978, is a close ally of Assembly GOP Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale. Seymour said Nolan was his first choice as a substitute author when Sen. Paul B. Carpenter of Cypress, Democratic caucus chairman, told him that Brown was unacceptable.

“But they said that Nolan was unacceptable, too,” he said.

Open hostility toward Brown surfaced last month when the Senate Education Committee killed one of his bills to increase funds for a small high school on Santa Catalina Island, which is in his district.

Torres Chides Brown

“That guy wouldn’t appropriate money (to fight) bubonic plague,” state Sen. Art Torres chided at the time, recalling that several years ago, Brown shocked fellow lawmakers by voting against a rat-eradication bill that was aimed at a problem in his own district.

Unlike Peace, a prolific bill writer who has 19 of his bills stranded in the Senate with only a week left in the legislative session, Brown only has two. Unless an accord is reached, chances appear slim for Brown’s second bill, pertaining to supplemental property taxes, and for all of Peace’s proposed legislation.

Peace conceded Thursday that as a result of his public, obscenity-laced quarrel with Alquist, at least some of his bills had no chance for passage in the current legislative session. But he indicated that the heated feelings between himself and the 77-year-old senator were cooling off.

Speaking to reporters in his Chula Vista office, Peace said that he has since met privately with Alquist and has apologized to him. According to Peace, Alquist admitted initiating an angry exchange of words on Tuesday after the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is chaired by Alquist, killed a measure proposed by Peace to spend $3 million for school buses for handicapped passengers. Peace said that during their private meeting, Alquist put his arm around Peace’s shoulder and said, “I have a short fuse.”

Should Have Left

For his part, Peace said that in hindsight he should have walked away when Alquist started shouting.

“I regret having had a confrontation with the senator. . . . I should have let him attack me, hurled invectives and walked away. I’ve also applied for sainthood,” Peace said.

He said that Alquist has agreed to meet with him on Monday to settle their differences.

Peace described himself as the latest victim of “a yearly ritual” against legislators who fight back against Alquist’s wishes, and he said he is “still angry. . . . Retribution is not appropriate in legislative policy.”

H. G. Reza in San Diego contributed to this story.