COLUMN ONE : Revenge of a Spurned Legislator : After election setbacks, Democrats crafted a plan to keep a hold on power. After years of friction with fellow Republicans, Doris Allen was ready to listen. Together, they won her the speakership.

The long, slow march that led to the coronation of Doris Allen as California’s first Republican Assembly Speaker in a quarter-century began one gloomy day last winter.

Amid a drawn-out power struggle for control of the Legislature’s lower house, Democrats made serious entreaties to the disgruntled Orange County Republican to come over to their side.

Allen was called to the back of the chamber to confer with education activist Alice Huffman, one of the closest allies of Democratic Assemblyman Willie Brown and long the keeper of the huge California Teachers Assn. campaign fund. Huffman pressed Allen to consider casting her lot with the Democrats to help reelect Brown as Speaker.

It didn’t work; in fact, Allen later made an impassioned speech behind closed doors in a Republican caucus meeting, telling her colleagues to stick together.

But the Democrats’ slow seduction of Allen had started. It would be a romance, chaperoned by Brown, that showed how personal politics can triumph over partisanship. It also demonstrated again Brown’s mastery of the house he has dominated since 1980 and his ability to exploit the political miscalculations of Assembly Republicans.

When a cavalcade of GOP colleagues backed Placentia Assemblyman Ross Johnson as he whipped Allen in a March special election for a state Senate seat, it was a rebuke she couldn’t stomach. It was a slight that stood in sharp juxtaposition to her semper fidelis speech.

Rejected by her peers, the angry Cypress lawmaker soon discovered the perfect revenge. When the Democrats came calling again a few weeks after the election, Allen was ready. She had announced that she would be a candidate for Speaker, challenging Republican Assembly Leader Jim Brulte and the GOP Establishment.

In private, Republicans snickered. But it was Allen who had the last laugh.

With the GOP about to seize narrow control of the house, Democrats wanted a bedrock power-sharing plan and a promise that Republican activists would drop a recall of Stockton-area Democrat Mike Machado. When Brulte couldn’t deliver, Democrats said there was nowhere else to turn.

Brown’s personal ambition, his decision to run for mayor of San Francisco, added to the Democrats’ urgency. They were considering several candidates for Speaker and spoke to at least five. But Allen was the most likely.

And so it was that the obscure self-described conservative was hoisted to the Assembly throne Monday on the shoulders of all 39 Democrats.

It was a moment rife with significance. She is the first woman to ever hold the post, the first Republican since Assembly Speaker Bob Monagan back in 1970. But those milestones were mere backdrop to the rags-to-riches tale of how the upstart Allen grabbed the Assembly’s highest post and prelude to a still unfolding political drama.

Republicans have vowed to recall Allen, and talk angrily of her as a puppet of Brown, who held the post for 14 1/2 years and has been granted the status of Speaker emeritus, a new title in a body that has no trouble remaking itself when the mood hits.

For her part, Allen rejects any notion that she will be controlled by Brown or the Democrats. On Monday, she chided Republicans for suggesting that she would not treat them fairly. She promised to usher in an era of fairness to both parties instead of a rerun of the “imperial speakership” that Brown had practiced so adroitly.

It was Brown’s adept use of the spoils system that helped lay the groundwork for Monday’s historic events. For years, he has been called a “members’ Speaker” for his willingness to fulfill the wishes of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. He had seized the speakership in 1980 with the help of Republicans, but then turned around and solidified his Democratic base by offering perks and privileges. Whether it was a prime parking spot or an office with a better view, the practice softened foes and rewarded allies.

So it was with Allen. Brown cultivated a solid relationship with her soon after she joined the Assembly 13 years ago. The most pointed example came in 1992, when she had to fight two other GOP incumbents in a redrawn district.

Allen won a narrow victory fueled largely by $100,000 in contributions from a political action committee backed by teachers and labor, groups that do not normally give to Republicans. Most insiders traced the support to Brown, who is credited with having a strong say in how the groups make contributions.

Allen said Tuesday that she was never interested in leadership until recently, preferring to focus on “issues and policy.” The speakership is “not something I sought. It wasn’t in my playbook.”

In the end, it was the Republicans as much as anyone who seemed to seal her bold decision to brush past the GOP elite. For years, Democrats suggest, she has been treated shabbily by her peers.

“It was an accumulation, the dealings over the years,” said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), a top Brown lieutenant. “They don’t treat some people in their own party with respect. They are very in your face. I think she figured these guys pushed her around long enough.”

Republicans say they were plenty nice. “Nobody knows how to make peace with Doris,” said Assemblyman Trice Harvey (R-Bakersfield), a Brulte loyalist. “You go down the list. The caucus has been real good to Doris Allen. . . . I don’t know where all the anger comes from.”

True, Allen rarely seemed on the side of her mostly male colleagues, particularly the conservative, tight-knit klatch from Orange County. The day-to-day dealings caused much of the friction. Many Assembly Republicans found her to be a testy loner.

As for Allen, she was not only irked by her colleagues’ backing of Johnson, she also was convinced that Brulte had helped dry up her fund-raising base. She had expected the teachers to give more than $100,000, but she got a fraction of that.

A week after her defeat in the Senate race, Allen talked openly of bolting the party, but quickly backed down. A month later, she crossed swords with senior Republicans over their unwillingness to refer a slate of bills to the Health Committee she chairs. Even after the GOP leaders relented, Allen wasn’t mollified. She announced her candidacy for Speaker last month.

Brown assigned three Assembly Democrats who have served with Allen for years to act as emissaries: Phil Isenberg of Sacramento, one of Brown’s oldest friends; Byron Sher, a Stanford law professor who has worked with her on environmental law reforms, and Dominic Cortese, a San Jose moderate.

The first question the Democrats asked was crucial: Would she vote for herself as Speaker? Allen said she would, a quantum leap given that other Republicans had refused to take such a step without at least some backing from party brethren.

After they met, the Democrats returned to their caucus with their report. Later, each conferred with Brown.

“We wanted to make sure he was on board,” Cortese said. “It wasn’t the easiest thing for him, no matter what anybody says. It was a big step for him. We point-blank asked, ‘Are you ready for this?’ It was like a doctor asking a patient if he was prepared for surgery.”

Brown, said Cortese, “did some real reflection, some real musing. He said he thought he had done his very best these past five months. But he was ready to get on with the work.”

Back in January, Cortese had suggested naming Brown to be Speaker emeritus. At the time, Brown derided the idea, and Cortese promised not to raise it again. But by the time the deal was nearly done, Brown had decided he liked the suggestion, and the title was written into the rules.

The trio also worked with Allen on new rules to ensure she had the authority to bring Republicans to heel with her power of appointment.

Even as the Democrats negotiated with Allen, they continued to extend an olive branch to Brulte and his GOP cadre. Last Thursday, Brulte and two other Republicans met with Katz and two other Democrats in the office of Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) to discuss the speakership, post-Brown.

“They basically said we had to be willing to let them operate as a Republican majority, control all policy and fiscal matters,” said one Democrat who attended.

Brulte insisted, the Democrat said, that he was not involved in the attempt to recall Machado, but could stop it. Democrats were not convinced.

“That is sort of a big leap of faith,” Katz said. “In terms of a contract, the performance was all on our side upfront, and their side down the road. We had to trust him to deliver.”

Brulte, meanwhile, had been speaking to state Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove) about the Machado recall effort, which Hurtt has been helping to finance. In an interview, Hurtt said he would have pulled out of the recall bid if Brulte had requested it. “I talked to him about it and said, ‘I can’t see any reason to waste money if this works out and you’re the leader,’ ” Hurtt said.

A month ago, he added, Brulte appeared to be convinced that Allen was “a good Republican and she is going to stay with us. . . . That was a month ago. Then 10 days ago, she started popping off. I think it surprised him.”

The real sticking point was former Assemblyman Dean Andal, a fast-rising conservative from Machado’s San Joaquin Valley district and the main force behind the recall effort. Andal, who left the Assembly to assume a seat on the State Board of Equalization, rejected any notion of dropping the campaign, in which Republicans claim Machado had implied last fall that he would vote against Brown for Speaker and then didn’t.

With no deal, the Democrats were left with Allen.

“The thing that made it fall into place, the difference between her and Brulte, is that she could be trusted,” Cortese said. “She had been through a lot. She had been on the short end. She knew realistically what she was heading for, and she bolstered herself and thought she could handle it.”

As late as Monday, Brulte was trying to line up Democratic votes, something he failed to do throughout the speakership fight. He went to Democrats he thought would be receptive, including Machado and Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame). But so long as the recall remained active, none would budge.

“We are not going to empower [as Speaker] the architect of their campaign victories who is still waging a recall election against one of our members,” said Assemblyman Louis Caldera (D-Los Angeles).

But even Monday morning, some Democrats were voicing reservations about Allen. Their argument was that the election of Brulte would salve friction between the parties. But during a morning caucus meeting they were persuaded to unite behind Allen.

“She came across as being a trustworthy woman who had a track record and with a little bolstering could do it,” Cortese said. “Brulte came across as having a personal agenda. . . . He’s a little more intimidating.”

* LAWSUIT THREATENED: GOP may challenge new Assembly rules in court. A3