‘Gang of Five’ Forces Vote on Death Penalty

In another apparent blow to Willie Brown’s embattled speakership, the “Gang of Five” dissident Democrats teamed up with Republicans on Monday to forcibly bring to the Assembly floor a bill to expand use of the death penalty for child murders.

The challenge succeeded on a 41-30 vote, the bare majority needed for passage, after the rebel Democrats and Assembly Republicans kept the session going into the night so that GOP Assemblywoman Marian La Follette of Northridge could return from a Miami vacation to cast the deciding vote.

First Time in 28 Years

Although a vote on the bill itself will not come until later in the week, it was the first time in 28 years that a bill had been successfully yanked from a committee and brought to the floor over the objections of the Assembly’s leadership.

One of the dissidents, Assemblyman Rusty Areias of Los Banos, called it “a historic shift” in the legislative environment.

But Brown denied that the action was a blow to his speakership.

“Not at all,” Brown said. “Only one thing determines if you are Speaker and that is if you’ve got 41 votes for that job.”

The challenge to Brown came during a session dominated by political game playing in which Brown was repeatedly accused by the dissidents of using his powers to bottle up major bills favored by Republicans and moderate Democrats.

The bill that was the subject of Monday’s debate would allow imposition of the death penalty on people who murder anyone under the age of 14. At present, the age of the victim is not included among the “special circumstances” that can be used to justify imposing the death penalty.

Like similar legislation before it, this bill had been scuttled by the Public Safety Committee, a panel that the dissident Democrats maintain is packed with liberal death-penalty opponents.

Once brought to the floor, however, the band of moderate Democrats who make up the “gang of five” believed that it would be politically untenable for most legislators to vote against the bill, particularly during an election year.

Tempers flared and both parties recessed into lengthy, closed-door caucuses as the dissidents’ strategy came to light.

Assemblyman Richard Floyd (D-Gardena), a strong Brown loyalist, publicly derided the rebel Democrats as “a bunch of little punks” bent on disrupting and embarrassing the Democratic caucus. Even Republicans who strongly support the death penalty bill found themselves walking a political tightrope, worried that they might end up looking like pawns in the dissidents’ attempts to further their own political ambitions.

“They’re just spraying in all directions,” GOP Floor Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale said.

But Nolan said that while he does not expect Republicans to join in a move to oust Brown, he said the GOP would team up with the dissidents on specific legislative matters.

The sharp rhetoric and the political jockeying came after the dissidents announced the formation of a “leadership council” to advise it on policy matters and to help raise money for the group.

Even as the announcement was being made, Speaker Brown was retaliating with a game of musical chairs: Three of the five dissidents returned to the Assembly from Easter recess to find that they had been moved to seats next to three of Brown’s top lieutenants.

Dissident Complains

“They can’t put us next to anyone who could possibly be persuaded by our way of thinking,” dissident Charles M. Calderon of Alhambra complained after being told of the move.

The death-penalty bill was one of several targeted by the Gang of Five, which, in addition to Calderon and Areias includes Assemblymen Gary A. Condit of Ceres, Steve Peace of Chula Vista and Gerald R. Eaves of Rialto. Their immediate goal is to push legislation they believe is popular among most voters but is routinely killed in the Assembly because of what the dissidents describe as the influence of a small group of “urban liberals” close to Brown.

Brown, however, sees the dissidents as a group of ambitious, young Democrats whose ultimate aim is to unseat him and substitute one of its own in the leadership.

Democrats now control the Assembly by a 43-36 margin. As a result, the dissidents have been able to use their five votes to upset the balance of power, joining with Republicans when it suits their purposes while maintaining that they are still loyal Democrats.

Focus on Another Bill

In recent weeks, they have succeeded in winning Assembly floor votes on legislation requiring prostitutes to undergo AIDS tests and banning pornographic materials from certain news stands. They are expected later this week to focus on another bill stalled in the Public Safety Committee that would allow police in California to place wire taps on phones of suspected drug dealers.

Brian Kidney, the Assembly’s chief clerk, said a quick check of records showed that a motion to pull a bill from committee had not succeeded in the Assembly since May, 1960, when Democrat Byron Rumford of Berkeley won a floor vote on legislation dealing with taxation of prescription drugs.

The last time the Public Safety Committee approved a major death-penalty bill was in 1986, when Condit and Calderon joined with GOP panel members to push through legislation designed to overturn several decisions of the Rose Elizabeth Bird Supreme Court. However, the bill later died in a two-house conference committee and Calderon was removed from the panel.

6-Year-Old’s Murder

The current bill, by Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-San Marcos), was introduced in response to the murder last year of a 6-year-old from San Diego who was tortured and killed in the back of a van as the child’s mother watched. The maximum sentence in this case was 25 years to life.

The dissident Democrats said they were counting on support, once the bill reached the floor, from liberals as well as conservative Democrats. Last year, 31 Democratic state office holders signed a letter distributed at the state Democratic convention stating their support for the death penalty in “appropriate cases.” Among those who signed the letter were all five dissidents, along with several liberals, including Assemblyman Tom Hayden of Santa Monica.

During Monday’s debate, Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) gave up his place at the podium where he was officiating to accuse the dissidents of giving in to “the worst instincts of demagoguery.”

‘Highly Suggestable’

The dissidents, Roos charged, are “trying to incite” Assembly members at a time when they are worried about winning reelection and thus are “highly incitable and highly suggestible.”

Peace, replying on behalf of the rebel Democrats, told the Assembly that it is easy for the public to determine “who is game-playing” and insisted that he was not trying to challenge the Speaker’s authority.

“The only issue before you is whether you believe we ought to have the opportunity to cast a vote of conscience by bringing a measure to the floor,” Peace said. “Doing that doesn’t violate anyone else’s conscience or any one else’s opportunity to vote.”