2nd Legislator Finds His Bills Being Scuttled

Angry senators, who last week began derailing the bills of an assemblyman who hurled insults at one of the Legislature’s most influential members, are now directing their wrath at another assemblyman.

The newest victim is Dennis Brown, 36, a third-term Signal Hill Republican who has acquired a reputation for routinely voting against virtually all spending bills--even those championed by fellow conservatives.

After years of being on the receiving end of Brown’s continual “no” votes, the Senate on Thursday finally vented its frustration by refusing to approve a non-controversial trucking fuel tax bill carried by Brown.

The signal seemed clear: Bills with Brown’s name on them would not be approved during the waning days of the current session.

But on Monday, the trucking fuel tax bill was passed unanimously after Brown’s name was removed as author and that of Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) was substituted.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), floor manager of the measure, said on the floor that the Senate last week had “found no problem with the bill, but with the author.”

Several senators said they had become frustrated by Brown’s “knee-jerk” negative votes and wanted to signal that his bills, like those of Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista), might not receive Senate approval.

Peace became persona non grata in the Senate for shouting insults at powerful Appropriations Committee Chairman Alfred Alquist (D-San Jose) early last week. As a result, Peace’s legislation suddenly became untouchable in the Senate with no senators stepping forward to carry Peace’s bills.

Traditionally, as the legislative session grinds to an end, tempers often flare and each house engages in various games of one-upmanship. But longtime Capitol hands could recall no previous case where two legislators’ programs had been targeted for destruction by the other house.

Seen as Justified

“Mr. Brown seems to think that everything that comes out of this house is a bad idea,” said one high-level Senate assistant who asked not to be named. “This is what he gets.”

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

“I hate to see it boil down to this sort of thing,” echoed Brown, who said his reputation for automatically opposing spending bills is undeserved. Insisting that he votes according to his conscience, Brown said, “I don’t vote for bills unless I think they are going to be good law. . . . I don’t ask if it is by a liberal Democrat or a conservative Republican,” he added.

But Allen acknowledged, “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.”

Unlike Peace, a prolific bill-writer who has 19 of his bills stranded in the Senate with only four days left in the legislative session, Brown has only one other proposal pending.

Other Bill’s Fate

Sen. Paul Carpenter (D-Cypress), who began the retaliation against Brown, said Monday that senators might allow Brown’s other bill, a technical measure dealing with supplemental tax rolls, to pass with Brown’s name on it.

Brown was first elected in 1978 from a district that covers coastal areas of Orange and Los Angeles counties. Open hostility toward him surfaced in July 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.

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