Brulte Sees No Quick End to Impasse : Assembly: Republican leader says stalemate over speakership may last several more weeks. He says Mountjoy plans to renounce Senate seat.

In another round in the struggle for Speaker of the state Assembly, Republican leader Jim Brulte said Tuesday that his impasse with Democrat Willie Brown may last several more weeks--and predicted that hardly anyone outside Sacramento will pay attention.

The Assembly reconvenes Jan. 4, but Brulte said it will be so early in the new session that there will not be much real legislative work to do, and that the Assembly will continue to function without a Speaker.

“It is a mistake to believe that if we do not organize on Jan. 4, the world as we know it will come to an end,” Brulte said at a Capitol news conference. He and Brown are tied for the post with 40 votes each.

Traditionally, the Assembly conducts little serious business in January and February as it organizes itself into committees that will hold hearings on new bills, which are still being introduced. “I know it. Willie Brown knows it. You in the media know it,” the Rancho Cucamonga Republican told reporters.

A key GOP supporter of Brulte is Richard Mountjoy of Arcadia, who was reelected to the Assembly the same day he won a state Senate seat in a special election. Brulte says Mountjoy has told him he will renounce his Senate seat and remain in the Assembly, giving Brulte the vote he needs to deny Brown the speakership.

Both Brulte and Brown have courted members of the opposition party in an effort to break the impasse. Each has promised that if he becomes Speaker, he will usher in a new era of bipartisanship in conducting Assembly business, and both have proposed various forms of power-sharing. So far, the entreaties have gone nowhere.

Since the dramatic tie vote on Dec. 5, Brown has initiated private contacts with Republicans and hit the radio talk show, newspaper and television interview circuit in an unusual public bid to rally support for himself.

Brulte, in contrast, has waged a behind-the-scenes effort to win over potential Democratic defectors. But on Tuesday, he took a more public stance and served notice that a resolution of the standoff may be weeks away.

At his first formal news conference in two weeks, Brulte told reporters that hard-won Republican gains at the polls that shifted the power in the Assembly would not be abandoned. Having turned out Brown from the speakership, GOP members “are not about to make Willie Brown Speaker of the Assembly,” he said. Brown, of San Francisco, has served as Speaker a record 14 years.

On Election Day, 41 Republicans and 39 Democrats were sent to the Assembly, giving the GOP its first majority in 25 years. But Brulte’s ascension to Speaker was scuttled by one vote when Republican Paul Horcher of Diamond Bar bolted and sided with Brown.

Infuriated Republicans, supported by Gov. Pete Wilson, have since started a recall against Horcher, who has declared himself independent of any party.

Brown and the Democrats feel they can win the speakership fight by expelling the veteran Mountjoy and forcing him to take his Senate seat. It was just this strategy that led the Assembly’s GOP to walk out of the Capitol en masse Dec. 6 rather than face a vote on Mountjoy’s qualifications.

But Brulte asserted Tuesday that Mountjoy has told him he intends to remain in the Assembly. “Richard Mountjoy has said that he is not going to accept his Senate seat. . . . He’s going to stay in the Assembly,” Brulte said. Mountjoy could not be reached for comment.

In response to Brulte’s remarks Tuesday about the power struggle, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), Brown’s designated spokesman, accused the Republican leader of being “afraid of sitting down and negotiating” a compromise with Brown.

“I think we could resolve this probably in a matter of days if he would talk to us,” Katz said. He also accused Brulte of hypocrisy for talking of bipartisanship even as Republicans are organizing costly recalls against four Assembly Democrats, an effort Brulte says does not involve the Assembly’s Republican caucus.