New Day Is Dawning for State Legislators : Capitol: The shift in power brought about by the November elections gets put into practice this morning as the Senate and Assembly open session.

A new, more conservative Legislature convenes today, bringing with it the likelihood that Willie Brown’s 14-year reign as Assembly Speaker will end, along with his role as a dominant figure in state government.

Republicans will control the selection of Speaker--probably their Assembly leader, Jim Brulte--for the first time in 25 years. Gov. Pete Wilson, buoyed by the new Republican majority in the Assembly and by gains in the Senate, already has conferred with GOP leaders about developing a legislative agenda, a sort of contract with California.

The Republicans pledge to pass more anti-crime bills and are talking about steps to further reduce welfare grants, tackle new education reforms and pare back environmental laws and regulations they deem bad for business.

Republicans also intend to attack Democrat-protected laws mandating affirmative action in hiring and say they will attempt to change the tort system by limiting the ability of injured people to collect damages in civil lawsuits.

When they were in the minority, Republicans called for general tax cuts. However, now that they face the prospect of taking the lead role in putting together a state budget, there have been no such promises.

Although several new lawmakers are so-called moral conservatives, and some predict moves to restrict abortions by requiring minors to obtain parental consent, veteran Republicans insist the GOP agenda will not include such issues.

“Those kinds of social issues,” said Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-Placentia), “are frankly less important to the great bulk of Californians than providing for public safety and an environment in which jobs are created, and for getting government off the backs of the honest, hard-working middle class.”

For the Democrats, with Brown’s power waning, Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer stands to emerge as the most influential party member in town. But the Democrats cling to a bare majority of 21 seats in the Senate, and Lockyer must contend with a Republican governor, a feisty new GOP majority in the Assembly and more conservatives in his house.

Some Democrats hold out hope that Brown, a veteran of past speakership wars, can somehow retain his post. But with their new majority of 41 seats in the 80-member lower house, Republicans are confident they can elect one of their own as Speaker.

“It is my expectation that (Brulte) will be the Speaker,” Wilson said.

The speakership brings with it the power to hand out choice offices and prime parking spaces for the majority party, as well as shape legislative agendas and make appointments to committees.

On their arrival in the Capitol today, the lawmakers will be sworn in, elect new leaders, then attend mixers--many are courtesy of lobbyists--where they will meet new colleagues, as well as lobbyists. Unless the speakership fight is drawn out, they will be gone in a day or two.

The new legislators will receive annual salaries of $72,000, thanks to a 37% pay increase granted them earlier this year by a commission created under a voter-approved ballot proposition.

The new Assembly will have a far different look from the one just departed. In the Assembly, 28 of the 80 members are new, and 61 have been elected since 1990. The turnover is due mainly to the 1990 voter-approved initiative limiting Assembly members to three terms.

Senators are limited to two four-year terms. Six of the seven new senators are moving up from the lower house. The 40-member Senate likely will be more conservative, with the loss of one Democratic seat, and the addition of former Assemblymen Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia) and Ray Haynes (R-Temecula).

Lockyer vowed that the Senate will get off to a fast start.

“We’ll be a little more expeditious, but I emphasize that the quality of work is more important than haste,” Lockyer said, adding that his approach will be “to try to maintain the civility and nonpartisan nature of the Senate.”

Committees will start taking up legislation when the session begins in January. One certainty is that the 1995 session will result in still more anti-crime bills, even though the 1994 Democrat-controlled Legislature approved 104 measures lengthening prison terms.

Wilson said some anti-crime measures stalled in the Assembly, adding: “The increased numbers of Republicans will make it much easier to pass those.”

Brown’s power in the Assembly was eroding even before the Nov. 8 election, largely because of turnover brought about by the term limit initiative. But unlike Brulte, he has fought for the speakership before and is not expected to go easily.

Brown won the job with Republican votes in 1980, emerging as the compromise candidate after a yearlong war between then-Speaker Leo McCarthy and then-Assemblyman Howard L. Berman.

Brown survived in 1987 when five dissident Democrats split from him and sought to form a coalition with 36 Republicans. But then-Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) helped Brown retain his post.

During his years as Speaker, Brown often used the trappings of his office to upstage even governors. He is renowned here for his wit, Brioni suits, Ferraris, taste for fine restaurants and his flashy fund-raisers.

He attends the Academy Awards and travels to the Kentucky Derby, often at the expense of special interests. Clint Eastwood and Barbra Streisand were at his 60th birthday party. All the while, he has carried on a law practice in San Francisco, guiding developers through the city’s maze-like permit process.

“For good or ill, his political skills shaped not only the course of legislation, but the debate,” said Johnson, a Republican rival who voted for Brown as Speaker in 1980. He called Brown “a consummate political actor (who) played the game as well as it has ever been played . . . and certainly raised political fund-raising to unimagined heights.”

Brulte, the likely new Speaker, is a 38-year-old career politician from the San Bernardino County suburb of Rancho Cucamonga whose main diversion seems to be going to movies. Brulte has worked overtime keeping Republicans in the fold, and assuaging potential Democratic supporters by assuring them he will be fair. Brulte insists he has the support of all 41 Republicans.

As the drama unfolds, one player to watch is Republican Assemblyman Paul Horcher of Diamond Bar. Entering his final Assembly term and having lost a run for the state Senate, Horcher’s career appears stalled.

While Horcher has said he may vote for himself as Speaker, Republicans insist Horcher is in Brulte’s tent. One reason for their confidence may be that Horcher is $280,000 in the red from his various campaigns. Horcher has been incommunicado for the past week.

Even if Brulte gets 41 votes today, his majority will be tenuous. Mountjoy was reelected to the Assembly in November, but also won a special election for a Senate seat. Mountjoy plans to stick around the lower house long enough to vote for Brulte as Speaker, then walk to the Senate, where he will be sworn in. During the months it will take for Mountjoy’s replacement to be elected, Brulte’s majority would be 40-39.

The GOP’s hold may be weakened further early in 1995 when Johnson and possibly Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) run for the Orange County Senate seat vacated by Marian Bergeson, who was elected to the Board of Supervisors there.

“The potential for legislative inaction is great,” said Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento).

Assemblyman Joe Baca, who like Brulte hails from San Bernardino County, is one of several moderate Democrats Brulte has called in search of support. Baca said he asked Brulte to make him chairman of the Utilities and Commerce Committee. “He wants my vote, but he is not willing to promise me anything,” Baca said. Unable to extract a commitment, Baca said he is undecided about his vote.

“Yes,” he said, “I play poker.”

Although Brown may be out as Speaker, he will remain an influential Democrat, particularly when it comes to the state budget.

Wilson needs to get two-thirds of the Assembly, or 54 votes, to win approval of his budget. Even if all 41 Republicans vote for a budget, itself unlikely, Brown would be called on to deliver 13 Democrats.

“How does Brulte get those 13 votes?” asked Tim Hodson, who directs the Center for California Studies at Cal State Sacramento. “He goes to Willie Brown and says, ‘Help.’ Willie Brown says, ‘Here’s my price.’ His price will be a budget that doesn’t destroy what he believes in.”

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