Nolan Resigns as GOP Leader : Assembly Minority Chief Damaged by Voters, FBI Probe

Assembly Minority Leader Pat Nolan, damaged by the continuing FBI investigation and the loss of three seats in the election, resigned today as Republican leader, his press secretary said.

Assemblyman Ross Johnson of La Habra has the votes to take over as minority leader, Nolan press secretary Anne Richards said.

“Pat has resigned,” Richards said. “I know he’d rather not resign, but he could not stand to see the caucus pull itself apart over the unresolved FBI question.

“There would certainly have been more questions if he stayed on as leader. In the interest of party unity, he felt the caucus ought to make a choice as to who they wanted for leader.”

Richards was quoted in today’s editions of the Glendale News-Press, Nolan’s hometown paper.

Another Term for Brown

The Democrats’ gain of up to three Assembly seats in Tuesday’s election apparently also means another term as Assembly Speaker for Willie Brown.

With a new cushion against an in-house revolt by five dissident Democrats, Brown (D-San Francisco) emerged from a closed-door party caucus Wednesday and announced the “unanimous” renomination of his leadership team. Confirmation should be little more than a formality when the Legislature reconvenes Dec. 5.

With two Republican incumbents losing and a third, Wayne Grisham of Norwalk, trailing by 87 votes with all precincts reporting, the GOP will have as few as 33 seats in the 80-member house.

Assemblyman Bill Jones (R-Fresno), a leader of a party faction that had criticized Nolan, said he will try for the top job at the caucus today.

‘Lies and Distortions’

“A number of us were left out of these elections except to provide money . . . and we end up with the results we have today,” Jones said in an interview Wednesday.

Nolan had scheduled a post-election news conference Wednesday, but canceled it abruptly and issued a statement blasting Democrats’ election tactics.

“Through a campaign of lies and distortions, the Democrats have brought down two honorable men and placed a third in jeopardy,” he said. “The Assembly Republicans were overwhelmed by massive infusions of money from the national Democratic leadership.”

But Brown attributed the Democrats’ success in part to a get-out-the-vote drive that was “the best that anybody’s ever seen in the nation,” with 25,000 people ringing doorbells.

In one race, freshman Republican William P. Duplissea of San Carlos was beaten by attorney Ted Lempert of San Mateo. In another, Paul E. Zeltner, a first-term Republican from Lakewood, was beaten by Democrat Willard Murray of Compton, a former aide to Rep. Mervyn Dymally (D-Los Angeles).