Speaker Hopes for Encore as Houdini : Politics: Republicans are itching to oust longtime Democratic Assembly leader Willie Brown, but he is mustering all his legendary savvy to stay in power.

Ecstatic Republicans in the state Assembly are rejoicing over their crushing victories in last Tuesday’s election and are ready to hand Willie Brown--the wily veteran lawmaker and symbol of longtime Democratic preeminence--his walking papers.

But they just might be moving too fast.

Brown didn’t become the state’s longest-reigning Speaker or one of the nation’s top African American officials by happenstance. Ever the consummate politician, Brown is at his best when his own political survival is at stake, as it is now.

Conservative GOP Assemblyman Richard Mountjoy, long a thorn in Brown’s side, knows Brown as a master political magician and tactician whose acumen and instincts make him a formidable opponent. He is one step ahead of his political enemies, and what you see is not necessarily what’s there.

Brown, Mountjoy cracked, has gotten out of more boxes than Harry Houdini.

As the longest-serving member of the Assembly, Brown, 60, has an encyclopedic knowledge of the lower house’s rules and how to manipulate them to his best advantage. What he knows perhaps better than anyone is what motivates members on both sides of the aisle--greed, ambition or power.

He keeps members of the Assembly happy--even intervening, as he did a few years ago, to help a Republican assemblywoman whose daughter had received a number of traffic tickets.

Though a liberal, he is not an ideologue or a policy wonk. Keeping the speakership, and its clout and its prestige, is what seemingly drives Brown most of all.

“He’s not going to let this go without a fight,” acknowledged Phil Perry, spokesman for Assembly Republican Leader Jim Brulte, 38, who was first elected to the lower house in 1990. “He’ll try every trick that’s available to him.”

The Brulte-led GOP scored major advances on Election Day, gaining at least seven seats and, at minimum, deadlocking the 80-member Assembly 40-40. But it takes 41 votes to elect a new Speaker.

When absentee ballots are counted, Brulte expects to pick up one seat now held by Democrats in the Long Beach area and possibly another close race in Stockton. Democrats still believe they have an outside chance to capture two Monterey-area seats where their candidates trailed.

While Democratic Assembly employees scurry to compile resumes for job-hunting, Brown is showing no signs of cracking. In fact, he seems to be relishing the fight, bantering with reporters and asserting that, when all is said and done and the votes are counted Dec. 5 when the new Legislature convenes, he will remain Speaker.

“I don’t think anyone else has 41 (votes),” he declared late last week.

Emerging from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Brown, the glib and flamboyant lawyer, the product of a segregated childhood in Texas, has become a towering figure in California politics. As Speaker since 1980, he has adroitly wielded the power of the office to raise tens of millions of dollars from special interests on behalf of Democratic candidates, who then pledge their loyalty to him.

Indeed, former Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale secretly complained to the FBI about Brown’s fund-raising practices, according to documents made available to The Times earlier this year. In six conversations in the mid-1980s, Nolan told agents that Brown manipulated the system to raise campaign money. But Brown was never charged with wrongdoing in the lengthy federal probe of corruption in the Capitol, while, ironically, Nolan earlier this year pleaded guilty to political corruption charges and is now in prison.

As Speaker, Brown has not enforced a strict liberal ideology on his members, more often working out compromises between his caucus and Republicans. During his 14-year reign, Brown has sought to allow his members to take credit for major bills. His own legislative credits have been, in comparison, more modest, limited to pushing a mandatory seat belt law and, in recent years, collaborating with Republican Gov. Pete Wilson to help businesses and to hammer out state budget deals.

Earlier in his legislative career that began in 1964, Brown helped push through a bill to decriminalize marijuana use in small amounts and a “sexual bill of rights” that legalized all forms of sex between consenting adults.

In the past, some colleagues maintained that behind the scenes Brown mostly acted as a “groundskeeper” focusing on holding his Democratic majority together, while not taking strong stands that would split his caucus.

But in the Election Day Republican tidal wave, Brown’s campaign machine uncharacteristically sputtered and failed to get out the Democratic vote, leaving his colleagues feeling as if they just survived the St. Valentine’s Day massacre.

Even if Brown holds on to the Speakership, Democrats predict he will need to take a new tack. Citing the closely balanced power in the house between Republicans and Democrats, Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Venice) said that “regardless of who’s Speaker, there’s going to have to be closer bipartisan cooperation.”

Without collaboration, she said, “nothing will get done, and that’s not what regular people want.”

In fact, Brown was elevated in 1980 to the Speakership with the help of conservative Republicans. He emerged on top after a protracted fight between two others, Democratic Assemblymen Leo T. McCarthy of San Francisco, who was Speaker, and Howard A. Berman of Los Angeles. After striking a deal with the Republican leadership, Brown defeated Berman.

Eight years later, Brown beat back a prolonged challenge by five rebel Democrats known as the Gang of Five. Brown again won by seeking out Republicans, courting and persuading a handful not to vote against him.

But the rules of the game changed dramatically in 1990, when voters approved term limits. Political longevity was outlawed and with it much of the carrot-and-stick approach traditionally used by legislative leaders to keep lawmakers in line.

It’s now unclear whether Democrats elected under term limits will put up with parliamentary maneuvers to keep Brown in power. They too, after all, are lame ducks. The Capitol is rife with speculation about Brown’s plans. In typical Brown fashion when a major political problem is afoot, he has been silent about what he intends to do next.

Some Democrats speculate that he will try to reconvene the old Assembly, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 47-33 margin, to change the house rules for his benefit and delay a Speakership vote until next year.

Others suggest that he will pull out an old weapon and strike a deal with one or two Republicans, including Assemblyman Paul Horcher (R-Diamond Bar), getting them to defect from the GOP ranks. Over Republican objections, Brown in the past put Horcher in a key committee vice chairmanship, allowing the maverick Republican to have extra staff and prestige.

As a last-ditch measure to salvage his Speakership, his allies suggest, Brown might propose a power-sharing arrangement with the GOP under which he would remain Speaker but would split the house staff evenly.

Willie Brown’s Career (Southland Edition, A17)

Assemblyman Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) has been Speaker of the Assembly for a record 14 years. He is now fighting a serious Republican challenge to retain the post. One of the most colorful and controversial figures in California political history, Brown is generally considered second only to the governor in political power. He is the longest-serving member of the Assembly, his career encompassing parts of four decades. Here is Brown’s political career at a glance.

* Born: March 20, 1934, in Mineola, Tex. As a boy, shined shoes for dimes and quarters that white customers would throw into spittoons when he was finished.

* Education: Bachelor of arts degree in political science from San Francisco State University in 1955, and law doctorate from Hastings College of Law, University of California, in 1958.

* Occupation: Attorney.

* Family: Separated; three grown children and one grandchild.

POLITICAL CHRONOLOGY

* 1964: First elected to Assembly from San Francisco.

* 1965: Named the Legislature’s most effective freshman lawmaker.

* 1969: Begins climb to leadership position with selection as Assembly minority whip.

* 1971: Appointed chairman of Ways and Means Committee, the youngest in the history of the Legislature and the only African American chairman ever.

* 1972: Steps onto national stage by way of a fiery nomination speech at the Democratic National Convention that helps clinch presidential nomination for George McGovern.

* 1974: Makes his first run at Assembly Speaker, but fails after misjudging his supporters’ votes. He is criticized privately by one top Democrat for miscounting.

* 1975: Authors bill that becomes law legalizing all forms of sex acts between consenting adults.

* 1980: Elected Assembly Speaker, first African American to hold the post, by bringing together a coalition of Republicans and Democrats. Referring to his failure in 1974, Brown says, “Now this little black kid can count.”

* 1980-1994: Expands on fund-raising apparatus initiated by former Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh and raises unprecedented millions of dollars from special interests for Democratic Assembly campaigns, leading critics to call for campaign finance reform.

* 1985: Authors law requiring mandatory use of automobile seat belts.

* 1986: Authors law requiring high school students to maintain a C average to participate in extracurricular activities.

* 1988: Survives first serious threat to his reign as five rebel Democrats know as the “Gang of Five” join with Republicans in repeated attempts to oust him. He beats back the challenge by persuading a handful of Republicans to support him. Named national chairman of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign.

* 1992: Becomes part owner of an Oakland radio station.

* 1993: Successfully mediates labor dispute between teachers and the Los Angeles Unified School District to prevent a strike.

* 1994: Stars in new television political talk show based in Sacramento that producers hope to syndicate; show is pulled off the air after several weeks because of low ratings. Merges his San Francisco law practice with the Los Angeles law firm of Christensen, White, Miller, Fink & Jacobs.