Already a Republican Outcast, Horcher Makes Break Official

Slamming his hand on his desk and shouting, “Brown!,” Republican Assemblyman Paul Horcher on Monday emphatically defected from his party by casting his vote for Assembly Speaker for Democrat Willie Brown.

The maverick lawmaker declared that he was becoming the Assembly’s only independent.

Horcher’s dramatic action triggered a 40-40 stalemate in California’s lower legislative house and once again propelled the trial lawyer from Diamond Bar into the spotlight.

“As an independent, I will be free of political party bosses and better able to fight for my constituents,” Horcher, 43, declared in a prepared statement. He said he had paid his dues, noting his support for Gov. Pete Wilson’s state budgets when many of his GOP colleagues abandoned the Republican governor. In 1991, Horcher cast the 54th and deciding vote for the budget.

But in the wake of that vote, Brown took good care of Horcher, naming him vice chairman of a key budget committee over objections by Assembly Republican Leader Jim Brulte. With the position, Horcher received additional staff.

As a consequence, Horcher, who criticized the rightward tilt among Assembly Republicans, turned into something of an outcast within his own caucus. He was criticized for favoring abortion rights and for aligning himself with the traditionally Democratic California Trial Lawyers Assn. The antipathy was heightened last year during an unsuccessful effort at the state Republican Party convention to censure Horcher for accepting his Ways and Means Committee position.

But the contempt for Horcher never broke into the open, as it did Monday when Republican Trice Harvey of Bakersfield in a floor speech called Horcher a “political whore.” Horcher said Assembly sergeants at arms escorted him off the floor at day’s end because of anonymous death threats received in his Capitol office.

A native of Texas, Horcher earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Cal Poly Pomona and graduated from La Verne University College of Law before passing the State Bar in 1978. He and his wife, Van Le, a refugee from Vietnam, have two daughters. He was first elected to the Assembly in 1990.

Considered a proud and independent lawmaker by his colleagues, Horcher has been on the political hot seat ever since the Nov. 8 election made it clear that Republicans would have a razor-thin majority in the Assembly. Initially, Horcher said he might run for Speaker and rally moderates.

But no such move was attempted Monday. Instead, Horcher, cast his lot with the controversial Brown and, according to Republicans, immediately became a possible recall target.