Horcher Rebuffs Fellow Republicans

On the Outside: Assemblyman Paul V. Horcher (R-Diamond Bar) seems determined to chart an independent course in Sacramento.

He won his first term in 1990 with the help of a last-minute endorsement from Sen. Frank Hill (R-Whittier) and then quickly alienated Hill, who said Horcher couldn’t be counted on to keep his word. Now, Horcher has won the vice chairmanship of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, which writes the Assembly version of the state budget, and has alienated the Assembly’s Republican leadership in the process.

No matter, said Horcher, who was in Sacramento on Tuesday preparing to hire staff members for the committee. Horcher was given the vice chairmanship by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) after Brown rejected the choice submitted by Assembly minority leader Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga). Other Republicans had agreed to refuse the vice chairmanship if it was offered by Brown independent of the Republican leadership.

Horcher said he has done nothing wrong, even if the move leaves him in bad standing with Brulte. “If I hadn’t taken this job, it would have gone to a Democrat,” Horcher said. Besides, he said, he will be able to advance the San Gabriel Valley’s interests in the state budget.

Brulte said the vice chairman normally represents the minority party in budget negotiations, but Republicans won’t allow Horcher to represent them. Any budget negotiated by Horcher, he said, will be turned down by the 31 other Republicans in the Assembly.

“We’re clearly disappointed in Paul Horcher,” Brulte said. “He chose to stand with Willie Brown rather than the Assembly Republican caucus.”

Brulte said he has heard that Horcher is hiring “political hacks” rather than budget analysts to work on the Ways and Means Committee. Horcher said Tuesday he had not hired anyone and wasn’t sure how many positions he would have to fill, but that the resumes of the people he was interviewing were stronger than the resumes forwarded by Brulte and his staff.

Low-Cost Alternative: The Pomona Valley chapter of the California Republican Assembly, a staunchly conservative volunteer group, is trying to change the organization’s view of immigration.

The chapter has asked the state board of directors to repeal a resolution adopted in October calling for federal authorities to stem the flow of illegal immigration. Jonathan Cohn, president of the 40-member Pomona chapter, said the actions advocated by the state organization--and many Republican candidates in recent campaigns--are conducive to a police state.

The Pomona Valley group’s complex position is outlined in a seven-page resolution. Essentially, the argument is that the immigrants who are already here, even if they arrived illegally, add to the economy and social fabric of the country and are not the enormous tax burden depicted by some.

In addition, the chapter’s resolution says that the low-cost labor of illegal immigrants keeps prices down. Besides, the resolution says: “Illegal immigrants, especially those from Mexico, display a unique portion of the American virtues of thrift and industry in their ability not only to live off of their meager wages but also to save up most of those wages and send them home to their families in their native country. . . .”

Instead of trying to seal the borders through police state measures, the resolution says, the U.S. should repeal the minimum wage law and other government measures that attract immigrants, and then offer everyone here illegally the option of going home or starting on the path to citizenship.