Wright Repulsing GOP Push to Oust Her From Panel

An attempt by Republican lawmakers to oust Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) from the Assembly’s influential Rules Committee appears destined to fail.

A defiant Wright said Friday that she has no intention of stepping down, as other Republicans have done when a majority of the GOP Assembly caucus voted to replace them on the Rules Committee. This happened to Wright on Thursday.

And a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) said Friday that the Democrats do not intend to supply the votes that would be needed to replace Wright in a showdown on the Assembly floor.

The Republican caucus narrowly voted Thursday to rescind Wright’s appointment to the Rules Committee in retribution for her much-criticized failure to vote the party line position for Assembly Speaker last month. The tally to replace her was 17 to 15.

2 Hurdles

But the anti-Wright Republicans still face two hurdles: They have to muster a majority of the caucus’s votes for a replacement, which they failed to do Thursday, and the action must go to the floor of the 80-member Assembly, where support from the Democratic majority will be necessary to reach 41 votes.

Until now, the Democrats have always permitted the Republicans to choose their own Rules Committee members. But they have never been asked to replace a Republican on the floor. Brown and Rules Committee Chairman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) say they do not plan to do so.

“The Speaker said he didn’t like the way they were going about it and didn’t understand why there was any need to remove her,” said Brown’s press secretary, Susan Jetton. “I don’t think they can get 41 votes to replace her.”

“It’s their problem,” Bane said of the Republicans. He called Wright “a very fine member of Rules, one of the hardest-working members.”

Highly Valued Appointment

Appointment to the Rules Committee is highly valued because its nine members steer bills to the various Assembly policy committees. The choice of which committee handles a proposed law may determine whether the measure ever reaches the Assembly floor. This clout also gives committee members leverage to attract special-interest campaign contributions.

The divisive GOP conflict over the Rules appointment comes at a time when recently elected Minority Leader Ross Johnson (R-La Habra) is seeking to unify the 33 caucus members. Johnson, whom Wright supported for caucus leader, abstained in the vote to rescind her appointment. But the GOP minority would suffer an embarrassing, precedent-setting defeat if Wright hangs on.

“If Cathie refuses to respect the wishes of the caucus and Willie Brown protects her, that would be a source of profound friction in the Assembly,” said a Republican lawmaker who voted to replace Wright but requested that he not be named.

Johnson was not discussing the matter, his spokeswoman said Friday.

Round 2 is expected to occur Monday, when the Republican caucus votes again on a replacement for Wright. Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge), who spearheaded the move to oust Wright, predicted that she herself will win the 17 votes necessary. La Follette received 14 in the first ballot vote Thursday, Republicans said.

Assemblymen Phillip D. Wyman (R-Tehachapi) and Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) are also vying for the post. Wyman reportedly received eight votes and Ferguson three. Some members departed before casting ballots.

Wright expressed surprise and bitterness at Thursday’s action, calling it a betrayal by her colleagues after she had loyally served the caucus for eight years. Vowing to withstand any pressure to step aside, she said, “I have to do what I have to do.”

Ironically, Wright got into hot water with her party for refusing to back a Democrat. Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Alhambra), one of five Democrats who had challenged Brown’s leadership, received 29 Republican votes for Speaker last month. Wright was the lone Republican to abstain. She maintained that she had vowed to her constituents that she would never back a Democrat for Speaker.

Three other Republicans voted for Johnson. But, Wright said, she followed Johnson’s instructions to the caucus not to support him for Speaker.

La Follette’s View

La Follette, who has long had cool relations with her legislative neighbor, said Wright’s transgression wasn’t the vote itself; rather, she maintained, it was Wright’s failure to announce her intention to break with the Republicans during discussions before the tally.

The reason this was crucial is that the appointment to Rules--which is considered a post for staunch party loyalists--was made after the caucus discussions but before the speakership vote, La Follette said. Had Wright made her intentions known, she would not have been reappointed to Rules, she said.

“We wouldn’t have felt like we nominated her for the Rules Committee under false pretenses,” La Follette said. “Wright was not forthright.”

Wright said she had been torn and did not decide to abstain until the vote itself. But she called the entire issue a pretense; she said those who voted to remove her were punishing her for her loyalty to Johnson’s predecessor, Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale). La Follette, she said, created the entire flap out of a selfish desire to replace her on Rules.

Not so, La Follette said. She pointed out that the motion to rescind Wright’s appointment was made by Assemblyman Dennis Brown (R-Signal Hill), a Nolan loyalist.

Wright’s action sparked bitterness among some in the GOP caucus because it appeared that she was reluctant to cross Brown by supporting Calderon, several Republicans said.

This was exacerbated in the vote’s aftermath, when Brown reappointed Wright to coveted committees, including Finance and Insurance. He also gave her a spot on the influential Ways and Means Committee, a post Wright said she had sought for eight years. Meanwhile, other GOP Assembly members who backed Calderon were removed from desirable committees.

‘Playing the Game’

“She has all these great committee appointments,” La Follette said. “It seems like she has decided that playing the game with Willie is the way to get what she wants.”

Wright denied that her abstention was intended to win legislative plums from Brown. She said she had voted for Nolan for Speaker last year and would vote for other Republicans again.

Jetton also said Brown was not rewarding Wright for her abstention with committee appointments or by keeping her on Rules. “There’s no quid pro quo,” the Speaker’s spokeswoman added.

The flap over the Rules Committee is only the latest chapter in a complex relationship between the conservative Wright and the liberal Brown. She never misses a chance to criticize him publicly but is among those Republicans who occasionally attend his fund-raisers. Recently, she acknowledged that she went to him for the name of an attorney to represent her daughter, who has received numerous speeding tickets in recent years.

“What does that have to do with the Legislature?” Wright said. “When you’re in the political arena, there are a lot of people you are critical of because of their philosophy, but that doesn’t mean you hate them.”

Assembly Democrats, meanwhile, were finding political capital in the internecine Republican skirmish.

“This unmasks the hypocrisy of what the Republicans have been doing,” said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), a Brown lieutenant. “Johnson has been criticizing the dictatorial powers of the Speaker. Now his caucus is trying to punish Wright for not doing what they told her to do.”