A Master of Strategy Makes His Move

The big gavel was slammed down hard. Twice. “All right, members, listen up please,” Speaker Willie Brown said loudly, but matter-of-factly, as if he were announcing a recess for lunch. But Assembly members learned long ago that if Brown says “Listen up,” they better.

And this was, indeed, a good time to listen up.

Brown, in effect, announced his intention to resign as Speaker after 15 years on the job--longer than anyone previously and likely longer than anyone ever.

Of course, there was a caveat: Somebody would have to get 40 votes to replace him. But he wouldn’t fight it. There wouldn’t be a parliamentary battle over “vacating the chair,” as had been anticipated. Republicans wouldn’t have to boot him, he’d walk--as soon as they had a candidate with 40 votes.

Yes, 40--not 41 votes. Through parliamentary sleight-of-hand, Brown had gotten reelected in January with 40 votes, ruling that constituted a majority of the 80-member house, which then was down to 79. Now he was willing to surrender the chair to someone else with 40 votes. The house presently is down to 78 members--39 for each party--but Republicans expect to pick up a 40th seat on June 6 and a 41st on Sept. 12.

By September, Brown intends to be running hard for mayor of San Francisco, although he has not yet publicly announced that. Privately, Brown has told some people--including Assembly GOP Leader Jim Brulte in the Capitol garage Monday night and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen--that he will announce on June 3.

This new political ambition probably explains better than anything else why Brown suddenly decided Monday to declare from the Assembly rostrum that, in effect, he doesn’t need another speakership fight on his resume.

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Assembly members sat stunned as Brown delivered his brief FYI, unemotionally, at times smiling. Democrats--in control for 24 years--had known this hour would come, but now night really was falling. Some Republicans saw the devil incarnate cheating them of an execution.

Opening his remarks with “Please be advised,” Brown said he had “yielded” to his longtime friend, Assemblyman John Burton, the opportunity to run next year for a state Senate seat in San Francisco. So his options under term limits, Brown continued, essentially were to quit politics or run for mayor, and he’d decide “in the very near future. In the meantime, I would suggest . . . you begin immediately to seek someone else to hold the job as Speaker. And as soon as you’ve put together 40 votes for that purpose, I shall . . . welcome that new person. . . .

“So stop wondering whether the ruling is going to be ‘There is a vacancy’ or ‘There isn’t a vacancy.’ . . . You don’t need to do any of that. The minute you put together 40 voters, I will gladly put this house in the hands of the next person. . . .”

Then, being Willie Brown, he also slipped in a proviso that this next person should be someone “who has more than the next 18 months” to serve as Speaker before being rousted by term limits. That would leave out Brulte.

But although Brown may depart on his own terms, it’s unlikely even he--wily Willie--can dictate the terms of his succession.

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It’s now a cynics’ circus.

“I know what he’s doing,” said one veteran business lobbyist. “He knows the Republicans can’t tie their own shoelaces. He’s telling them exactly how to beat him and challenging them to pull it off. He knows they can’t because he can thwart them. He’s done that to me before. Willie just delights in the game.”

Others describe it as Brown lobbing a grenade into the Republican caucus.

He is calling their bluff. No question. Put up or look silly. Republicans may be capable of ousting him, but can they elect a replacement?

Brulte’s quandary is that one Republican, Assemblywoman Doris Allen of Cypress, refuses to vote for him. He represents “remnants of [GOP] leadership” she harbors old grievances against, Allen says. Therefore, she is a candidate for Speaker herself.

Brulte insists every other Republican will support him, but because of Allen’s rebellion he has been forced into something he’d wanted to avoid--bargaining for Democratic votes. Basically, he’s promising Democrats “no scorched earth,” the annihilation of Democratic staffs that many Republicans are clamoring for. He’s the good cop.

However, Brulte is about the last person most Democrats want as Speaker. “He’s the Republicans’ most effective election strategist and money-raiser,” one told me. “Why help them by making him Speaker.”

Brown already has achieved one of his goals when he asked colleagues to “listen up.” He no longer is the issue--Republican political acumen is.