GOP Captures Control of State Assembly, 41-39 : Election: Long Beach race tips the balance in late vote counting. Democrats keep edge in Congress delegation.

With fewer than 23,000 absentee ballots to be tallied, Republicans have emerged as winners of 41 California Assembly seats, spelling the end of a 25-year reign of Democrats in the lower house, election officials reported Wednesday.

The late absentee count showed, however, that Democrats did manage to retain an edge in the California congressional delegation by a margin of 27 seats to 25, as Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills) eked out a victory over Republican Susan Brooks by fewer than 800 votes.

Caren Daniels-Meade, spokeswoman for the secretary of state, said no election results will change, although some ballots are still being counted in some counties.

“It’s done as far as we’re concerned,” Daniels-Meade said. “I can’t imagine anything changing now.”

More than 8.8 million people cast votes statewide in the Nov. 8 election. Turnout was 60.1%, the highest for a non-presidential election since 1982.

In Sacramento, Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown still is expected to try to hang onto the powerful speakership when the new Assembly returns Dec. 5. But with Democrats retaining only 39 seats, Brown appears destined to lose the post he has held for 14 years, longer than anyone in California history.

“Short of an act of God, there will be 41 Republicans in the state Assembly on Dec. 5,” said Phil Perry, spokesman for Republican Assembly Leader Jim Brulte, the front-runner to replace Brown as Speaker.

Before the election, Democrats held 47 Assembly seats to the Republicans’ 33. But spending more than $4 million on Assembly races statewide, Brulte and the Republicans swept five incumbent Assembly Democrats out of office and won four open seats previously held by Democrats.

One Democrat won a seat that was held by a Republican, giving the GOP a net gain of eight in the lower house. The Democrats stay in control of the state Senate, with 21 seats to 17 for Republicans and two independents.

The race that tipped the balance was in Long Beach, where incumbent Democrat Assemblywoman Betty Karnette lost to Republican Steve Kuykendall, a one-term Rancho Palos Verdes mayor. Kuykendall led by 539 votes late Wednesday. Los Angeles County election officials say they have 8,000 to 10,000 ballots left to tally countywide and were not certain how many came from the Long Beach district. Republicans and Democrats alike, however, are convinced that the outcome will not change.

Karnette has refused to concede, but Kuykendall was in Sacramento this week meeting with Brulte and sorting through resumes for an office staff.

Declaring victory “doesn’t make much difference,” Kuykendall said. “You know darn well my opponent won’t declare defeat.” California Democratic Party Chairman Bill Press attempted to add a sour note to Kuykendall’s victory, announcing this week that Democrats were considering mounting a recall campaign against him.

The issue, Press said, would be Kuykendall’s acceptance of a $125,000 donation from Philip Morris USA, the world’s largest tobacco company, on the weekend before the election.

At a time when the electorate was thrashing the Philip Morris-backed Proposition 188, voters were unaware that Kuykendall had taken such a large donation from the tobacco giant--an amount that apparently is a record lump sum from a single donor to an Assembly campaign.

The Democratic Party has complained to the Fair Political Practices Commission over the donation, contending that Brulte and Kuykendall failed to report it promptly.

Philip Morris reported the donation to the secretary of state on the day before the election. Kuykendall, who also was required to report it, did not send word of the contribution until the day after the balloting. But both Brulte and Kuykendall scoffed at the complaint, calling it frivolous.

“Obviously if (a recall) is the course they take, we will fight very aggressively. We will not sit back,” Kuykendall said. “. . . This is the dying, thrashing about that you have before guys say, ‘Hey, I’m whipped.’ ”

In the South Bay congressional district, Harman declared victory in her race against Rancho Palos Verdes Councilwoman Brooks, meaning that Democrats will return to Washington with an edge of 27 seats to 25 in the California congressional delegation--a net loss of three for the Democrats. She led by 766 votes late Wednesday.

“There was a national tide, but what is significant is this district resisted it,” Harman said, referring to the Republican takeover of Congress. “I’m a Democrat and I won here. Why did I win? I won because I believe my record, my style, my bipartisan support is what this district wants.”

Republican Brooks, who led after election night by 93 votes, was so confident of victory that she flew to Washington to be part of incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s transition team. She appeared at news conferences and was on network news broadcasts.

Although she has yet to concede, Brooks has vowed to run again in 1996, and plans to maintain contacts with GOP leaders, access she said would be denied to Harman.

“She will be stripped of any power at all,” Brooks said.

Morain reported from Sacramento and Johnson from Torrance.