GOP Poised to Renew Speakership Battle : Assembly: Although Republicans may gain a one-vote majority in June, infighting lessens their chances of an immediate takeover.

Buoyed by the recall of wayward Republican Assemblyman Paul Horcher, GOP leaders were preparing to try once again Wednesday to oust Speaker Willie Brown and seize control of the Assembly, but Republican infighting made an immediate takeover doubtful.

With Horcher replaced by Republican Diamond Bar City Councilman Gary Miller, the Assembly is now deadlocked with 39 Republicans and 39 Democrats. Republicans could gain a majority on June 6, when a special election is set to fill a seat in a Republican district previously held by state Sen. Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia).

GOP Assembly Leader Jim Brulte said that by June 7, Republicans will be poised to oust Brown, the San Francisco Democrat who is in his 15th year as leader of California’s lower house, and install a Republican--probably Brulte himself.

“Once Republicans have a majority, we have a clear responsibility to move to vacate the chair and replace Willie Brown,” Brulte said.

But Brulte’s prediction may be premature. The GOP ranks remain divided in the Assembly, and in June, the GOP will have at most a majority of one vote. Brown made clear Wednesday that he will not step down as Speaker without a fight.

“If I were the Republicans, I would just give me a no-cut contract and then I would go on about my business,” Brown said. “But as long as they keep screwing around with me, I am going to keep making them look like eunuchs.”

Brown, who is edging ever closer to running for San Francisco mayor later this year, decried Horcher’s recall, saying the tool should be used only when a lawmaker is corrupt. Horcher incurred the GOP’s wrath, from Gov. Pete Wilson on down, after he bolted his party in December and voted to keep Brown as Speaker.

Brown said he anticipates that the Republicans will make a move to seize the speakership in June--the month when the Legislature usually is preoccupied with approving the annual state budget.

That raises the possibility of a replay of the 1992 debacle in which the budget was not approved until two months past the constitutional deadline and the state was forced to issue IOUs to pay its bills.

On Wednesday, few Assembly members, staffers or lobbyists were concerned with weighty policy issues such as California’s $53-billion budget. Instead, attention was on political control of the Assembly, which has preoccupied much of the lower house this year.

“I think it means more of the same, the really good legislation is getting bottled up,” said Assemblywoman Martha M. Escutia (D-Huntington Park), who has put all her bills on hold for the year.

The exact timing of the GOP’s expected move on the speakership fight is vital to Escutia, who, like almost all other Democrats, is a solid vote for Brown. Escutia no longer flies on commercial airlines because she is due to deliver her baby on June 16. She vowed, however, that she would show up whenever she is needed.

“Nothing will stop me, not even a baby, even if it means I have to rent an air ambulance,” Escutia said.

Republican staffers removed Horcher nameplates from outside his door and from Capitol directories before most employees arrived for work Wednesday morning.

Horcher, seeing poll results showing him heading to defeat, packed up his Sacramento office last week, a staffer for the former assemblyman said. The polling numbers proved accurate, as Horcher lost the recall Tuesday when almost 63% of the people who cast ballots voted to end his Assembly career, and make him the first California legislator since 1914 to be recalled.

A total of 34,014 votes were lodged against Horcher, or 62.5%, versus 20,361 votes, or 37.5%, for him. Miller led the list of replacements with 18,304 votes, or 39.5% of the vote. His nearest rival was Rio Hondo Community College Trustee Barbara Stone, who garnered 14,951 votes, or 32.3%.

In Diamond Bar, Miller said he expected to arrive in Sacramento for today’s floor session. “The first order of business we’re going to focus on is leadership,” he said, “to vote in a Republican Speaker.”

Brulte endorsed Miller and raised money for him. “Right now, Brulte is the Republican leader and I intend to vote for Jim Brulte,” said Miller, a developer who loaned his campaign $300,000 from his personal holdings.

The speakership war broke out when Republicans gained eight seats in November and held a majority of 41 members in the 80-member house. But when Horcher, a maverick who tangled often with Republicans during his years in the Assembly, voted for Brown in December, the Assembly was plunged into a 40-40 deadlock.

Brown regained the speakership in January by orchestrating the ouster of Mountjoy, who was elected in November to both the Assembly and the state Senate as a result of a special election to fill a vacant Senate seat. Brown and the Democrats gave him a choice: leave the Assembly, or renounce his Senate seat. He chose to move to the Senate, which allowed Brown to win the speakership on a 40-39 vote.

Despite months of battling Democrats for control of the lower house, Republicans are still not united. Chico Republican Bernie Richter, who tried to become Speaker with Democratic support earlier this year, could attempt to revive his candidacy. But for now, the one Republican who is openly challenging Brulte is Doris Allen (R-Cypress), a moderate who could line up Democratic votes.

Allen shocked the Capitol last week by announcing that she intended to seek the speakership. Some conservatives immediately began to speculate that Allen had struck a deal with Brown.

Allen says she has pledged to join her GOP colleagues in trying to force Brown out of the speakership. She has also promised not to back any Democrat for the Assembly’s top post.

Allen’s drive may be based as much on pay-back as personal ambition. She makes no bones of her irritation with Brulte and his top lieutenants, whom she blames for allowing the Republican caucus to wage internal warfare.

Her biggest gripe is that most of the Assembly’s Republicans sided against her when she lost to former Assemblyman Ross Johnson in the race for a vacant state Senate seat in Orange County earlier this year.

Times staff writers Rick Holguin in the San Gabriel Valley and Eric Bailey in Sacramento contributed to this story.