The Assembly: Gridlock in the Trenches

Chaos. Mistrust. Stalemate. “Leaders” looking like deer in headlights. Maybe we’ll have to get used to it.

The present mess in the state Assembly--its inability to elect a Speaker and organize for the new legislative session--may be less an aberration than a new reality.

We’re seeing the unintended consequences of term limits and an honest reapportionment. Legislators aren’t sure how to deal with either.

Term limits have accelerated turnover, as the voters wanted, and handed Republicans their first opportunity in 24 years to seize control from old-guard Democrats, namely Assemblyman Willie Brown.

But the GOP newcomers have not shown the political skills--normally acquired through tutelage and/or years of legislative combat--that are needed to capture the speakership. Republican Leader Jim Brulte was first elected only four years ago with the 1990 class of “term limit babies.” Of the 40 Republicans, 36 have been in the Legislature four years or less. Eighteen were elected in November.

Legislative veterans know that to become Speaker, you need 41 votes plus “a couple for the double-cross.” When the double-cross came--when Assemblyman Paul Horcher of Diamond Bar deserted the GOP, became an independent and voted for “the real slick Willie,” as President Clinton once called Brown--Brulte had no backup votes. He had failed to make a deal with any Democrats.

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To be fair, Brulte was up against a combat-savvy veteran whose 30 years of legislative experience never again will be matched under term limits. So, perhaps it will be easier to elect future Speakers when all combatants are equally untested. But probably not much.

The 1991 redistricting by the state Supreme Court--a task it accepted after the Democratic Legislature and the Republican governor couldn’t agree on a plan--was politically neutral. Previous reapportionments had favored the party in power. But this one, good until the election of 2002, basically guarantees closely divided houses.

Experts feel it is unlikely that either party will attain more than 44 of the 80 Assembly seats well into the next decade. Divisions of, say, 42-38 will be common.

Right now there are 40 Republicans, 39 Democrats and one independent. And it’s even closer than that because one Republican, Richard L. Mountjoy of Arcadia, also has been elected to the Senate and is eager to go there.

But Mountjoy says he’ll remain an assemblyman until he is assured Brown cannot be reelected Speaker--even if that means forfeiting the Senate seat and running for it later in a special election. “I’m going to stay in the Assembly until we change leadership,” he vows.

Turmoil seems in the Assembly’s immediate future, meaning gridlock and delay of the people’s business.

The odds are Horcher will be recalled and replaced by another Republican next spring. The GOP also is threatening recalls of rookie Democrats who implied to voters they wouldn’t support Brown, then did. Two GOP Assembly members, Ross Johnson of Placentia and Doris Allen of Cypress, have indicated they’ll run for the Senate seat being vacated by Supervisor-elect Marian Bergeson.

After all the stabbing and shuffling, the Assembly probably will revert to 41-39 Republican, the same as it was before Horcher defected. But that will take many months.

And, as Brulte learned, this is not a safe margin anyway. Nor is it likely to improve much under term limits and honest redistricting.

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Two solutions are needed: one for the short-term problem of electing a Speaker; the other for the long-term dilemma of legislating in a house split almost down the middle politically, especially when so many important bills require 54 votes.

Politicians will fight for the speakership until nobody’s left standing as long as it is the second most powerful job in state government. So it should be weakened, obviously to get the Legislature through 1995, but also to deal with the new reality. The Assembly must become more bipartisan with increased power sharing.

That doesn’t mean a co-speakership, the impractical suggestion of some people. But it does mean divvying up the committees and other house offices between the parties, at least next year and perhaps beyond. More power probably should be given to the Rules Committee, as in the Senate.

In the future, the number of Assembly terms and/or their length should be expanded.

Right now, however, Republicans are thinking just one thing: Getting back their 41st vote and outlasting Willie Brown. They can do that, but without sharing power it will mean much more chaos and stalemate.