Democrats Try to Stir Up Nolan Recall

In an unusual post-election attack, Carson’s Democratic Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd has sent 100,000 letters asking voters in Republican Assemblyman Pat Nolan’s Glendale-area district whether they would back a recall of the GOP lawmaker, who is a target of an FBI investigation into Capitol corruption.

Peter Kelly, state Democratic Party chairman, said Saturday that the party-financed letters were sent to counter a direct-mail campaign orchestrated by Assembly Republican Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra and five dissident Democrats known as the “Gang of Five.”

Johnson’s efforts are aimed, in part, at pressuring four other Democrats who won close elections last month in conservative and moderate districts to oppose Assemblyman Willie Brown’s reelection as Speaker when the Legislature reconvenes Monday.

Cost About $100,000

The mailers, sent out early last week at a cost of about $100,000, were highly critical of Brown and urged voters to tell their legislators to “pull the plug” on the San Francisco Democrat.

Kelly said the Republican direct-mail effort “is clearly an escalation of normal political battling in the state.” Democrats, he said, “can’t sit back and let people take shots without retaliating.”

Typically after the fall campaigns, there is a lull in partisan political activity. It is rare, if not unprecedented, for a personal attack to be mounted by an incumbent against a colleague, especially less than a month after the Nov. 8 election.

Floyd’s letter is the latest maneuver in the jockeying that has followed an election in which Republicans lost three Assembly seats, prompting Nolan to step down as GOP leader. The lineup in the 80-member Assembly is 46 Democrats and 33 Republicans with one vacancy.

Despite Republican losses in the election, the post-election warfare may mean that Brown clings to his speakership by a slim margin.

Floyd and Nolan have been at odds since 1986 when Nolan and others allegedly prepared phony endorsement letters from President Reagan and sent them out on behalf of six Republican Assembly candidates, including Floyd’s GOP challenger.

Charges Not Sought

In September, Sacramento County Dist. Atty. John Dougherty announced he would not seek criminal charges against Nolan. But Dougherty said Nolan had asked his staff to lie to White House officials about how the letters were prepared. Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp said last week that he is still reviewing the case--a process which could take several more months.

Meantime, Nolan has been among five elected officials who are targets of the FBI’s sting investigation into political corruption at the state Capitol.

Floyd, in his letter, noted that Nolan has “been making a lot of headlines lately” regarding the sting and the presidential endorsement letters. As a result, he said in the letter, there have been calls by voters “for Nolan to step down from his Assembly seat.”

Bob Haueter, a Nolan aide, said he is unaware of any recall movement, noting that Nolan won reelection last month with 58% of the vote in the heavily Republican 41st District.

“It’s obvious that this is Willie Brown reacting through Richard Floyd to the attempts of the Republican leadership to deny him the speakership on Monday,” Haueter said.

Johnson, through his press secretary, described the letter as “an incredible act of weakness and desperation for Willie.”

Reforms Urged

“Even if you assume Willie Brown’s best scenario, he’s hanging on by his fingernails, and there will be no peace until we get some reforms” in the way business is conducted in the Assembly, Johnson declared.

Kelly said that if Republicans continue to blast Democrats in campaign-style mailings, Democrats would step up the fight, including pursuing the Nolan recall or other actions against GOP lawmakers.

“We’ll leave it to them to figure out who’s going to be next,” Kelly said.