Leadership--a Lost Concept in the Assembly

Willie Brown is packing and his longtime ally, Richard Katz, is plotting to take over as Assembly Democratic leader. Nobody, however, is quite sure what it means these days to be a “leader” of anything in the Assembly.

For decades, the speakership routinely was referred to as “the second most powerful office in the state.” That abruptly ended this year when Republican renegades Doris Allen of Cypress and Brian Setencich of Fresno got elected Speaker by selling out to Democrats and thus were unable to lead anybody--Democrats or their own irate GOP colleagues.

Brown’s “imperial speakership” is regularly vilified by Republicans and, privately, many Democrats. But there is no consensus on just how powerful a Speaker should be--or can be--in this emerging era of term limits, when short-timers develop fewer loyalties and are impatient to get theirs before the clock runs out.

“Members don’t want to be led,” says Assemblyman Louis Caldera (D-Los Angeles). “They’re independent contractors, 80 prima donnas. Few are willing to subjugate their own interests to the greater good. As soon as you try to lead, lots of people pull out the long knives.”

One Democratic strategist, who asks not to be identified, says: “Now, when I go into the Capitol I feel like I’m walking through a parking lot after a high school football game. All around, there are guys big enough to beat the crap out of you and stupid enough to do it for no reason.”

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All year, the Capitol has been a Machiavellian maze of mischief, and the scheming continues as the lawmakers prepare to reconvene Jan. 3.

Katz--the veteran Sylmar assemblyman and unsuccessful Los Angeles mayoral candidate in 1993--apparently has corralled the votes to succeed Brown as minority leader. Even some supporters of Katz’s only rival--Assemblyman Cruz Bustamante of Fresno--privately are conceding defeat. The Democratic Caucus could vote in San Francisco just before the Dec. 12 mayor’s election, which Brown is heavily favored to win.

Katz is a seasoned political warrior and adept fund-raiser, and strongly backed by Brown. But his best selling point for many new lawmakers is that, unlike Bustamante, he’ll be forced out by term limits after next year. So the leadership post would open up again for one of them.

The spotlight has been brighter on the GOP Caucus, which hasn’t been able to get its act together to elect a Speaker.

“People feel we’re the gang that can’t shoot straight,” acknowledges Assemblyman Jan Goldsmith (R-Poway). “The gang that circled the wagons and aimed our guns at each other.”

Setencich is trying to cling on as Speaker by appeasing both his patron Democrats and his alienated GOP colleagues, a strategy that seems doomed. To survive--and especially to “lead”--he’ll need to side with his own. Presumably they’re the Republicans. Most Republicans now support Majority Leader Curt Pringle of Garden Grove for Speaker.

“Republicans should get in and do a ‘scorched earth’--all [committee] chairs, all perks, leaving Democrats with very little,” says Tony Quinn, a legislative historian and occasional GOP strategist.

Says the anonymous Democratic strategist: “That’s what I’d do.”

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The fear of a “scorched earth” is one reason why Democrats united behind Allen and then Setencich. Another reason was to create havoc within the GOP and gridlock in the Assembly. “When your cherished programs are getting attacked,” notes the Democratic strategist, “there’s no dishonor in gridlock.”

But now Democrats are split over whether they should fight for their committee chairs, which number half the total. Republicans hold one-vote majorities anyway, mirroring their 41-39 house advantage. Many Democrats ask: Why not let Republicans be completely in charge--and easier targets in next year’s elections?

“If you’re going to be the majority party, then you ought to have the responsibility,” Katz says. “Democrats should say what we’re for and show distinctions from Republicans. Having Democratic chairs just confuses that.”

But Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) disagrees: “If you give up the committee chairs it looks like you’re a dog rolling over on its back.”

Regardless, many Assembly members now agree with Republican Bernie Richter of Chico, who says: “We’ve got to get some harmony in this house and stop being at each other’s throats. We’re sending a message to everyone in California that we’re a bunch of idiots--Democrats and Republicans.”

Adds Goldsmith, “We’ve got to develop confidence in people that we can lead.”

First somebody has to figure out how.