Seymour, Under Fire, to Resign as GOP Caucus Chief

State Sen. John Seymour of Anaheim on Monday dodged a possible threat to his job as chairman of the GOP caucus but said later that he plans to quit the Senate Republicans’ second-ranking leadership position within two months.

Seymour and minority leader James W. Nielsen of Rohnert Park came under criticism by other Senate Republicans in a private meeting Monday because Assemblyman Wayne Grisham, the GOP’s candidate in last week’s special election to fill the open 33rd District seat, failed to win what some party strategists thought would be a slam-dunk victory.

Nielsen emerged from the meeting with his leadership intact. But Seymour said he will quit his No. 2 post soon after the May 12 runoff election between Grisham and Democrat Cecil N. Green, who outpolled Grisham 48% to 44% in last week’s primary.

Seymour said he has planned since November to resign his leadership position but had hoped to keep his decision private until after the special election to fill the seat vacated when former Sen. Paul Carpenter was elected to the State Board of Equalization.

“By the time this special election is over, I will have put in just about four years as caucus chairman,” Seymour said in an interview. “We have won three (open) seats, and maybe four, and I think that’s enough. I didn’t take this job with the idea that I was going to be there for life.”

Seymour said he wants to spend more time on his own legislative load and intends to play a role in the reelection campaign of U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson. And Seymour, who figures he has helped raise more than $3 million in campaign contributions for fellow Republicans since 1984, said quitting the caucus job would give him more freedom to raise money for himself as he considers a bid for statewide office in 1990.

Only last month, Seymour was stripped of several powerful positions by Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who suspected that Seymour had participated with at least one Democrat in an attempt on Roberti’s leadership.

Seymour, who as caucus chairman controls the Republicans’ election machinery, said he told his party colleagues that he would be stepping down and asked them to support his efforts in the tough campaign between now and May 12.

“The only way we can win this is if I’ve got a totally unified caucus behind me,” Seymour said. “I can’t fight the Democrats on one hand and have grumbling and dissension of my own members on the other hand.”

Currently, Democrats control the Senate by a 23-15 margin, with one independent and one vacancy. The open seat is considered important to both parties as reapportionment approaches in the early 1990s. The party in power customarily draws the district lines that will give the greatest advantage to its candidates.

Sources, speaking on the condition that they not be identified, said Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), generally regarded as a moderate, wants to take over Nielsen’s post, while Sen. John Doolittle (R-Citrus Heights), one of the Legislature’s most conservative members, is eyeing Seymour’s job.

The sources said the election seemed to be the major cause of the dissension but that there were other reasons as well, including a failure by Nielsen and Seymour to involve more Senate Republicans in running election campaigns.

Meanwhile, Assembly Republican leader Pat Nolan of Glendale told The Times that the reason that Green received more votes than Grisham was that Democrats ran a much more sophisticated get-out-the-vote drive.

He noted that Democrats drove mini-vans with cellular telephones and voter profiles to pick up voters and take them to the polls on Election Day. He said Republicans were overconfident but have learned their lesson and will wage a more aggressive campaign in the runoff.

“Grisham was wounded and the Democrats smell blood,” he said.

Times staff writer Daniel M. Weintraub contributed to this story.