Lewis Retains 1 Key Post, Then Loses 1 : Politics: House colleagues name the lawmaker GOP conference chairman. But he is dropped from an assignments committee.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Highland) was reelected Monday as third-ranking House Republican leader, but suffered an embarrassing setback hours later when the California GOP delegation narrowly ousted him from another coveted post.

Lewis’ topsy-turvy day began with a strong show of support from Republican colleagues nationwide. They voted 98 to 64 to grant him a second term as GOP conference chairman. He turned back Rep. Carl D. Pursell (R-Mich.), who had criticized Lewis for supporting a White House-endorsed budget package in October.

Later in the day, however, Lewis was narrowly rejected by California Republicans in his attempt to remain the California representative on the House Committee on Committees, which handles the sensitive task of assigning GOP members to various policy panels. Lewis was defeated by Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) for the post he had held since 1983.

The 11-8 vote was part of a broad victory by state GOP conservatives, led by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) and the rest of the Orange County delegation, to fill the dozen or so positions as officers of the delegation and representatives to other House and Republican Party committees.

Dannemeyer, Packard and others maintained that the jobs had been held for too long by too few and should be rotated. GOP moderates, including Lewis and Rep. William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield), said the split had more to do with ideology and personality.

“It just didn’t occur to them that the slaves would rise up,” one Orange County lawmaker said. “They have always thought of us as the Three Stooges.”

Lewis, whose 35th District includes half of Palmdale, was undone by the 11th-hour switch of key votes, said a congressional ally who requested anonymity. The lawmaker said Reps. David Dreier (R-La Verne) and Wally Herger (R-Rio Oso)--who Lewis believed were committed to him--told him shortly before the vote that they would support Packard.

Thomas, whose 20th District includes Lancaster, was also among those replaced. He was succeeded by Dreier, whose 33rd District includes Pearblossom, Littlerock and a sliver of Palmdale, as the delegation’s chief representative on the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Thomas reportedly also was unsuccessful in attempts to win positions as liaison to the state Republican Party and chairman of the reapportionment committee.

Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) was reelected dean of the delegation, a post that generally goes to the member who has served the longest. Moorhead, 68, recently won his 10th congressional term.

Lewis and Thomas both sought to downplay the significance of the delegation’s actions.

“I have other things to do,” Lewis said shortly after leaving the nearly two-hour session in Moorhead’s Rayburn Building office. “I did not make an impassioned plea.”

Thomas said the NRCC position, which he held for six years, required “a lot of time and energy. . . . It wasn’t worth it--not with all the other things I’m doing.”

Thomas said he had been assured by Rep. Guy Vander Jagt (R-Mich.), who was reelected NRCC chairman Monday, that he would continue to play an important role in redistricting. Thomas had been NRCC vice chairman for redistricting.