Stalled Assembly Recesses With No Solution in Sight : Politics: Legislators won’t reconvene until Jan. 4, but dueling leaders will meet next week in bid to end stalemate.

The state Assembly recessed Friday, agreeing to reconvene Jan. 4 but with no solution in sight to the speakership debacle that has left the house in a state of paralysis.

The two leaders fighting for the job, longtime Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Republican leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga, have agreed to meet in private next week.

The two are scheduled to hold their first meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. Monday at an undisclosed location in an attempt to find an agreeable plan they can sell to their caucuses.

Until the Assembly can select a Speaker, the law prohibits the lower house from conducting business. So far, the options available have been for either Brown or Brulte to obtain 41 votes in the 80-member chamber, a feat neither could achieve when the Assembly met this week. Among other possibilities mentioned has been a joint leadership compromise.

The two men are tied with 40 speakership votes each, even though the Republicans held the edge in Assembly membership, 41 to 39, after the Nov. 8 elections.

In the vote for Speaker on Monday, Assemblyman Paul Horcher (R-Diamond Bar) evened the score for the Democrats by bolting the GOP ranks, becoming an independent, and voting for Brown as Speaker, producing the 40-40 stalemate.

For the last three days, the Assembly has convened briefly only to call the roll and immediately recess until the next day, following the provisions of internal house rules.

On Wednesday, five Democratic members showed up, the next day two, and on Friday only Assemblyman Joe Baca (D-San Bernardino) appeared on the floor.

Under an obscure rule, Baca said, the lower house can now legally be in recess until Jan. 4.

Rank-and-file Assembly members are continuing to collect their $72,000 salaries during the deadlock, but only those legislators who actually come to the Capitol to work can apply for the additional $101-a-day per diem to cover living expenses.