GOP in Mood to Fight--With One Another

Politicians, like a lot of people, can occasionally be childish, vindictive, masochistic and ineffective. But when they are, it can affect everybody in the state.

Assembly Republicans, while waving the banner of loyalty and discipline, are engaged in a nasty internal fight that embodies all of these darker tendencies of human nature. It is not about anything illegal, only stubborn silliness.

It involves legislators being distracted from their main business--which is to help the voters who elected them--while engaging in a feud with Machiavellian subplots that has no relevance to anything of importance to average citizens. And it does not bode well for the ability of Assembly Republicans to help resolve the latest state budget crisis when crunch time comes for the Legislature.

Given the code of politics, there are few “rights” and “wrongs” in this tale, just mostly gray areas. There are no real heroes and hardly any names the public would recognize--the chief exception being Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco). The other main characters include Assembly Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga, and GOP Assemblymen Paul Horcher of Diamond Bar and Dean Andal of Stockton.

Perhaps it is only a coincidence that the three Republicans are term-limit babies. They are of the legislative class whose Sacramento careers were immediately cut short by Proposition 140, and they are an impatient group rushing to make a mark before being forced to move on. In this instance, some tripped all over themselves.

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Here are the basics:

The saga began last fall when Andal, 33, a favorite of conservatives, lined up enough votes among his colleagues to become minority leader in the next term. But after Nov. 3, Andal’s reelection remained in doubt. It took several days of counting absentee ballots before he was declared the narrow winner in a heavily Democratic district.

By then, the minority leadership had been given to Brulte, 36, an affable former White House advance man with ties to both party wings. As a consolation prize, Brulte designated Andal to be vice chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the budget and other money bills.

But only the Speaker has power to appoint committee members and their leaders. And Willie Brown was in a sour mood. Republicans and Gov. Pete Wilson had gone all out in redistricting and during the election to wrest control of the Assembly, including personal attacks on the Speaker. They had failed, and now Brown was stronger then ever.

At a key meeting between the seasoned Speaker and the rookie minority leader, the atmosphere grew more tense when Brulte for openers told Brown that Republicans would not give him a courtesy vote for Speaker. When Brulte then asked Brown to accept his recommendation for Ways and Means vice chairman--as the Speaker had for past minority leaders--plus his suggestions for other GOP committee assignments and Assembly floor seating, the answer was an emphatic no. Brown accused Brulte of trying to orchestrate a “co-speakership.”

Brown also knew that Democrats would target Andal in the 1994 election and, as vice chairman of Ways and Means, he would have been in position to raise big campaign contributions from special interests.

Then the real trouble began for Republicans. “They began eating their own,” is the most common description in the Capitol.

All Assembly Republicans but one signed a pledge not to accept the committee vice chairmanship if Brown offered it. The lone exception was Horcher, 39, a moderate who had broken GOP ranks before to, among other things, vote for Wilson’s unpopular budget package in 1991.

Despite the governor’s urging, Horcher accepted Brown’s offer of the vice chairmanship. If he hadn’t, Horcher explained, it would have gone to a Democrat. No matter, said the other Republicans, Horcher broke the code of party unity and undermined Brulte.

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Since then, Horcher has been hazed in the manner of a shunned boy in a prep school clique. He is barely spoken to. He is ignored. There was an effort to boot him out of the GOP caucus. Brulte blocked it. There was a move last weekend to censure him at the Republican State Convention. It narrowly failed.

Andal, although not a member of Ways and Means, has been named the Republican “point person” for the budget. Assemblyman Pat Nolan of Glendale has been designated the “lead Republican” on Ways and Means. Horcher’s committee staff prepares analyses of money bills while these efforts are duplicated by a rival GOP caucus staff. It is difficult to see how any of this can work.

“It will take better people than them to run me out of town,” Horcher says. But it is the type of gridlock-contributing episode that causes many voters to want all legislators run out of town.