Brown Rewards Friends and Punishes His Foes : No Republican, Dissident Democrat Gets Assembly Committee Chairmanship

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, rewarding his friends and punishing his foes, unveiled his committee assignments for the new legislative session on Wednesday.

No Republican nor any member of the dissident Democratic “Gang of Five” was named by the San Francisco liberal to chair any of the 24 committees.

GOP Leader Not Surprised

Assembly Republican Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra said he was neither surprised nor disappointed by Brown’s choices of committee chairmen. Pointing out that all of the 24 standing committees have solid Democratic majorities, he said, “I can’t imagine why a Republican would want to be chairman.”

A GOP source said the Speaker did not automatically accept a list of preferred committee assignments presented to him by Johnson, as he had previously with lists submitted by former GOP Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale. Nolan, who had a comfortable relationship with Brown, resigned his leadership post under fire in November in response to the continuing FBI investigation of political corruption that has included him as one of the targets.

Actually, several of the members of the “Gang of Five”--who last year tried to topple Brown from the speakership--did relatively well in their new committee assignments.

For example, Assemblyman Gary A. Condit (D-Ceres) became a member of the Public Safety Committee. This will give him a visible forum to push for passage of law-and-order bills, one of his greatest interests.

Speakership Fight

Another member of the rebel group, Assemblyman Gerald R. Eaves (D-Rialto), got a seat on the Governmental Organization Committee.

Last year, Brown stripped all five gang members from prestigious committee slots when the speakership fight was running hot. But he later returned some of them to less important positions.

Assemblyman Elihu M. Harris (D-Oakland) was named as new chairman of the Public Safety Committee, replacing former Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego), who moved to the Senate.

Assemblyman Bruce Bronzan (D-Fresno) was named to head the Health Committee to replace the late Assemblyman Curtis R. Tucker (D-Inglewood), who died of cancer last October.

Brown abolished two committees: Veterans Affairs and International Trade and Intergovernmental Relations. They were downgraded to subcommittees because neither panel considered many bills, Brown said.

The Speaker earlier had said he would revise the membership of the powerful Finance and Insurance Committee by removing some members he perceived to be too responsive to the wishes of the insurance industry.

Removed from the committee were GOP Leader Johnson; Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge); Phillip D. Wyman (R-Tehachapi); Steve Clute (D-Riverside) and Teresa P. Hughes (D-Los Angeles). Sen. Stirling also was a member last session. They were replaced by former GOP Leader Nolan, Charles Bader (R-Pomona); Stan Statham (R-Oakland); Bob Epple (D-Norwalk); Richard E. Floyd (D-Hawthorne) and Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles).