Dismissal of Top GOP Aide Urged : Extortion: Official admits soliciting $12,500 for her bosses. Although she is cooperating with investigators, she could be relieved of her job as early as today.

Several embarrassed Republican Assembly members called Thursday for the dismissal of a top GOP aide who has admitted extorting $12,500 for her bosses and is cooperating with a federal investigation of Capitol corruption.

The aide, Karin Watson, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of extortion, remained on the state payroll on Thursday. But there were indications that she might be fired as early as today as Republicans, rebounding from the latest jolt to their troubled caucus, urged that she be let go.

“I don’t see how the Republican Caucus can possibly keep her employed and have any credibility,” declared Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach).

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) said the guilty plea “indicates a need for some very serious housecleaning. If she is on the staff right now, I’d say that not enough has been done.”

Watson repeatedly has turned down requests for news interviews. She was reported on sick leave Thursday.

Republicans seeking to oust Watson gained a key ally on Thursday when Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Van Nuys), chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, said the GOP aide should be fired. “Any person who gets themselves involved in extortion does not belong on the state payroll,” Bane said.

Bane’s committee, which oversees hiring and firing of Assembly staffers, is scheduled to meet today to discuss the Watson controversy.

Assembly GOP Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra said he planned to meet with Watson today, but a source close to Johnson said the GOP leader is leaning toward firing Watson.

On Tuesday, Watson, 42, agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in their continuing political corruption investigation in exchange for reduced charges and a recommendation of leniency in sentencing. Watson earns $58,428 a year as a legislative consultant in the GOP Caucus.

The names of the Republican legislators who received the money solicited by Watson were not disclosed. However, the amount and timing of the payments described in court documents correspond to $10,000 in campaign contributions that former Assembly GOP Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale reported receiving June 29, 1988, and a $2,500 honorarium that Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier) reported accepting on June 27, 1988.

The Watson controversy is the latest in a string of problems to hit the Assembly Republican Caucus since the November, 1988, elections, in which three incumbent GOP lawmakers lost their seats. The party had hoped to gain several seats in that election as part of a strategy to seize control of the Assembly by 1990.

Two days after the election, Nolan, a subject of the FBI’s investigation into Capitol corruption, was replaced by Johnson as GOP leader.

Three months later, Assemblyman John R. Lewis of Orange, the chief plotter of the party’s campaign strategies, was indicted on one felony count of forgery for his role in mailing thousands of 1986 campaign letters bearing the phony signature of then-President Ronald Reagan.

In August, several conservative GOP lawmakers abandoned their party’s nominee, Tricia Hunter, to fill a San Diego-area Assembly seat, choosing instead to remain neutral or support the write-in campaign of another Republican who had lost in the primary. Hunter, who bucked party leaders by taking a pro-choice stand on abortion, won the special election anyway.

Last month, Ferguson and Hill created another source of tension within the caucus when they both jumped into the race to succeed Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), who announced his retirement effective early next year.

“Obviously we would prefer that these things hadn’t happened,” GOP Leader Johnson acknowledged, downplaying the impact of the problems on the caucus. “But I think throughout the year the caucus has worked well together.”

However, one Assembly Republican, who asked not to be identified, said Watson’s cooperation with the investigation, and the danger that portends for Nolan and Hill, can only distract Republicans on the campaign trail in 1990.

“We’re going into another election cycle and here it (another problem) is again,” the member said. “There has to be some concern regarding that. What will her testimony really be? Will there be more implications for people already involved?”