Brown Holds Upper Hand in Duel With Wilson

“In the eyes of the people of California, Willie Brown epitomizes the greed and arrogance of a gridlocked, out-of-touch, partisan Legislature.”

--Dan Schnur, Gov. Pete Wilson’s chief spokesman, shortly before the election

“The election is past. A lot of the rhetoric and brinkmanship that characterized the election year is going to have to pass also. That’s going to take efforts from all quarters.”

-- Schnur, shortly after the election

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Willie Brown lives.

Only a few months ago, the veteran state lawmaker and powerful Speaker of the Assembly was all but written off for dead by the purveyors of conventional wisdom.

Outsmarted by Gov. Pete Wilson in the battle over new district boundaries, outlasted by Wilson on the state budget, Brown was supposed to see his big majority in the Assembly trimmed--and possibly eliminated--when voters expressed their anger and resentment on Election Day.

Led by Wilson, Republicans up and down the state took an old tactic to new heights--or depths--by seeking to smear their Democratic opponents as tools of the Assembly Speaker, potential lackeys all. GOP candidates were “Willie Brown’s worst nightmare.” Democrats were “Willie Brown’s best friend.”

The election, Wilson predicted, would be a “great referendum on a fundamental difference in philosophy.”

But California voters vented on George Bush, not Willie Brown. Wilson’s grand plan to take control of the Assembly and, with a ballot initiative, seize some budget powers from the Legislature, went down with the ship.

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Brown suggested in a post-election news conference that Wilson’s Nov. 3 debacle signaled the voters’ contempt for the governor and his policies. And he predicted that the Democrats would finish the job in two years, when Wilson is expected to run for a second term.

Echoing Democrats elsewhere who have said that they “took back the country” on Nov. 3 with the election of Bill Clinton, Brown said: “Now in 1994 we’ve got to take the state back and I think Pete Wilson. . . will find the people rejecting him.”

Brown’s Democrats hold a 48-32 majority in the Assembly, up one from their margin in the legislative session just ended and a mere six votes shy of the two-thirds needed to pass a budget or overturn a veto.

So Brown, if he wanted to, could make life miserable for Wilson.

He could, for example, block Wilson’s centrist proposals on health care and the environment. He could refuse to compromise on business and economic issues, such as an overhaul of the much maligned workers’ compensation system. And with the state budget heading for more disarray, Wilson may be sorry if he has to depend on Brown, as he did in 1991, to produce the votes to get a spending plan into law.

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In short, Brown could leave Wilson with even less to show for his four years as governor than Bush had at the end of his term as President.

“If the legislative Democrats decide that the best way to defeat Pete Wilson in 1994 is to make him look and be non-productive, they have every power to do that,” said Republican state Sen. Bill Leonard of Big Bear, a Wilson ally.

But Brown and his aides say it is one thing to wish the governor ill politically. It is another to deliberately block programs or proposals that members of both parties agree make sense and would benefit the state.

“It’s not a matter of a political win or loss with regard to Pete Wilson or us,” Michael Galizio, Brown’s chief of staff, said. “It’s a matter of getting down to the business of governing in a very tough situation for the state of California.”

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At a minimum, though, the tables have been turned. This year, Wilson had all the leverage, or so he thought. For the most part, he refused to compromise with legislators. If they wouldn’t change the laws the way he wanted them changed, the voters, he said, would change the lawmakers. But they didn’t, and now Wilson, if he wants to get anything done, will have to offer the majority Democrats something more than brute force.

“Nobody is going to be afraid of Pete Wilson criticizing them,” said Democratic Assemblyman Steve Peace of Chula Vista. “There’s no bully pulpit. He has to rebuild the credibility of the office and he has to work with the Legislature to do that.

“If he doesn’t do it, he will be irrelevant.”