Hurtt Delays His Challenge for State Senate Leadership Post

A wealthy freshman Republican from Orange County said Wednesday that he hopes to oust his party’s moderate leader in the state Senate, but not until January.

State Sen. Rob Hurtt, the Garden Grove industrialist who last winter financed his own special-election campaign on a platform of conservative Christian family values, said that with the Legislature days away from adjournment, the “timing is wrong” to make a bid to unseat GOP floor leader Ken Maddy.

“I think we’re waiting until later,” Hurtt told reporters, publicly confirming for the first time that he wants Maddy, a moderate Republican from Fresno, removed as the state Senate’s minority party leader.

The challenge to Maddy, though publicly downplayed by Hurtt in the past few weeks, has boiled privately in the state Senate as he and Maddy supported opposing candidates in a Northern California special Senate election held Tuesday.

Hurtt’s candidate, conservative businessman Maurice Johannessen, trounced moderate Bev Hansen, a former Assembly member supported by Maddy, in the GOP primary for a vacant seat. Johannessen faces a runoff Nov. 2 against candidates from other parties, but the convincing primary victory makes him a heavy favorite to capture the district, which straddles northern Sacramento Valley.

The outcome of the race had been perceived in some quarters as an indicator of whether Maddy could keep the leadership post he has held since 1987. Currently, the 14 state Senate Republicans are roughly split between moderates and conservatives, and the election of Johannessen would give the caucus a nudge to the ideological right.

Early Wednesday morning, Senate Republicans met behind closed doors at the Capitol for more than an hour, but the issue was not put to a vote or even discussed, sources said.

Hurtt said it was unwise to push the issue immediately because it would distract from legislative business during these final days of the session.

Hurtt has gained influence in both houses of the Legislature through generous campaign donations. In recent months, Hurtt has played a pivotal role in providing campaign help to Johannessen and Assemblywoman Barbara Alby (R-Sacramento), who won a special election last month to replace the late B.T. Collins.