‘Gang of Five’ Turmoil Slows Lungren Vote, Brown Asserts

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown said Tuesday that if a vote were taken now, there would not be enough Democratic opponents in the Assembly to block Gov. George Deukmejian’s nomination of Republican Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach) as state treasurer.

But while predicting that as many as 10 Assembly Democrats will not vote to reject Lungren, Brown conceded that a rebellion within the Democratic ranks by a dissident “gang of five” has stalled action on Lungren’s confirmation. And the Speaker suggested that the longer the splintered Democratic caucus delays a vote, the more likely the opposition will grow.

“The whole process has just gotten paralyzed,” Brown said at his first formal press conference since the dissidents began openly challenging his leadership.

In a swipe at the Democratic challengers, Brown also said he stripped members of the “gang of five” of their leadership posts and relegated them to small offices because they “began to operate like cowboys” and were an “irritation” to the majority of Democrats--not because they represented a real threat to his power.

Not a Twister

Later, questioned about the dissidents’ claims that the Speaker had twisted arms to push his liberal agenda on moderate Democrats, Brown flashed with anger and declared: “You can’t remember when I have in any manner twisted anybody’s arm or leg or gouged their eyes out to get them to cast a vote.”

The Assembly originally had expected to vote on the Lungren appointment by the end of January, well before hearings were scheduled to begin in the Senate, where Democratic opposition to Lungren is stronger.

But Brown said he was unable to focus on the issue in large part because his attention was distracted by the dissidents’ efforts to defy him.

In the last several weeks, these Democrats joined with Republicans to pry loose the contents of bills that had been pigeonholed in committee--a procedure widely viewed as a direct assault on Brown’s leadership of the Assembly.

“Some of us had to focus our attention in other places rather than in completing the process of Dan Lungren,” Brown conceded.

As if to emphasize the continuing stalemate, Democrats caucused for more than an hour immediately after Brown’s press conference and were not able to agree on a schedule for moving ahead with the Lungren confirmation.

But Brown, emerging from the closed meeting, said it was the “sentiment of the caucus” to delay a vote on Lungren until after the Senate conducts its confirmation hearings, now scheduled for Feb. 16-18.

That means Senate investigators will have more time to complete their detailed reviews of Lungren’s background and voting record and opponents in the Assembly will have additional opportunities to attack Lungren’s conservative stance on issues ranging from civil rights to the environment.

Two Houses or One?

Under a ruling by Democratic Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, the confirmation can be denied if only one house votes to reject Lungren before March 1. Democratic leaders of both houses share that view. But Deukmejian’s interpretation of a 1976 state constitutional amendment being used for the first time with this appointment is that Lungren can take office unless both houses deny his confirmation.

The issue has become even more murky as the result of a second legal opinion by the Legislature’s lawyer, Bion M. Gregory.

Gregory asserts that Lungren would be prevented from taking office if a motion to approve his nomination fails to gain majority approval in either house.

But Deukmejian contends that the only way Lungren could be defeated would be for a motion to reject him to gain majority approval in both houses.

Since Assembly Democrats are divided on the Lungren issue while Assembly Republicans are solidly in support of him, it would be very difficult to get such a motion through the lower house.