A Calm Before Expected Assembly Storm : Conciliation: Lame-duck session votes to be sure bills and salaries are still paid in the event of a fight over Speaker’s post.

Keeping relations outwardly conciliatory, Assembly Democrats and Republicans, meeting in an unprecedented lame-duck session Thursday, approved a bipartisan housekeeping resolution as they sought to mask what is shaping up to be an intense battle over Willie Brown’s continued speakership.

The resolution, passed on a unanimous vote, will allow the house to pay staff salaries and other bills in the event that neither party can elect a Speaker next month when new members are seated.

Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga confidently predicted that he will unseat Democrat Brown as Speaker when the new Legislature convenes Dec. 5. His GOP colleagues dismissed the need for Thursday’s action, saying the emergency operating rules would not be binding on the new Assembly.

Still, facing the prospect of a period of protracted instability, they chose not to dispute the issue. Instead, they joined Democrats to vote 66-0 to allow Rules Committee Chief Administrative Officer Bob Connelly to pay bills in the event of a 40-40 deadlock. Fourteen members either did not vote or were absent.

When all the absentee ballots are counted, it appears Republicans will gain either a 41-39 majority or a 40-40 split, depending on the outcome of a Long Beach-area race. In the contest, first-term Democratic Assemblywoman Betty Karnette is narrowly trailing Republican Steve Kuykendall as election officials are still tallying absentee ballots.

Democrats currently outnumber Republicans, 47 to 33, but the Nov. 8 election dramatically shifted power, as some Democratic incumbents were dumped and the GOP picked up seats previously held by Democrats.

As they gathered in the Assembly chamber for the first time since Aug. 31, legislators on both sides of the aisle warmly greeted one other and compared rumors about which legislators might bolt their parties, and whether Democrats would immediately seek to recall Kuykendall, who accepted a $125,000 donation from tobacco giant Philip Morris shortly before the election.

Brown, considered the state’s second-most-powerful official after the governor, said neither side has 41 votes to take control of the Assembly and scoffed at a question about whether he is nervous.

“Joe Montana (Kansas City Chiefs quarterback) is never nervous,” said a smiling Brown. “With two minutes to go and his team behind, he simply does his job and wins the game.”

Brown, who has held the speakership a record 14 years, said Philip Morris pumped $125,000 into Kuykendall’s campaign on the eve of the election “to get a more favorable Legislature to cigarette interests.” Brown has been showered with hundreds of thousands of dollars from tobacco interests. But he denied he was a friend of the industry, saying he merely had acted fairly toward them.

Karnette said she had heard rumors about a move to recall Kuykendall even before the GOP newcomer is sworn into office, but did not comment on whether she would be a candidate in a recall election.

Kuykendall told The Times he was amazed anyone would consider recalling him and said he had not heard any criticism of the contribution. But Ruth Holton of Common Cause, a Sacramento-based public interest group, said the donation “may be a record from one contributor at one time” in the Assembly.

One possible swing legislator in a speakership fight, Assemblyman Paul Horcher (R-Diamond Bar), did not attend the session. Horcher, a lawyer, said he had legal business and could not be in Sacramento.

Horcher’s campaign spending reports show his campaigns are $274,565 in debt, evidently all in loans to himself. Although some Republicans suggested that Brulte would help pay off the debt and even urge Gov. Pete Wilson to give Horcher a judicial appointment, Horcher denied that any deal was in the works to secure his support for a GOP Speaker.

“I don’t make deals for my vote,” Horcher said, adding that Wilson had called him earlier in the week to urge him to “stand with the Republicans.” Horcher has said he might be a candidate for Speaker.

One Republican Assembly member said Brulte is working at making Horcher’s vote irrelevant by lining up three or more Democrats.

Times staff writers Jerry Gillam in Sacramento and Ted Johnson in Torrance contributed to this story.