Hurtt Steps Down as State Senate GOP Leader

State Sen. Rob Hurtt, the conservative Orange County industrialist who shook up California politics by freely spending his wealth to elect Republican candidates, including himself, stepped down Monday as Senate GOP leader to devote more time to his family and business.

With the election season fast approaching, Senate Republicans acted quickly to name another Orange County lawmaker, veteran legislator Ross Johnson of Irvine, to succeed Hurtt as leader. Johnson, in turn, named Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga) to the No. 2 post.

Hurtt’s announcement caught most colleagues by surprise, but was not entirely unexpected.

During much of last year, critics accused Hurtt of appearing disengaged from his leadership responsibilities. At one point he admitted to being frustrated and bored with a legislative process that was far more ponderous than his fast-paced business life.

The lawmaker, who still plans to seek reelection this year to his Senate seat, decided to scale back his involvement because of a desire to spend more time with his family, including increasingly frail parents in their 80s and a sister who suffered a stroke, as well as running his Garden Grove manufacturing firm.

Hurtt, who ascended to Senate GOP leader in 1995, also has had nagging problems with high blood pressure.

“There was not any one big thing, just a lot of little pieces,” said Hurtt, 53. “I know what it takes to do this job right in an election year: hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of hours. I just got back up here and realized I wasn’t going to be able to spend the time I needed to be effective.”

Hurtt made his mark in state politics in the early 1990s by joining three other wealthy Southern California businessmen to form a conservative organization that became one of the most aggressive political outfits in the state, outspending nearly all other special-interest groups.

Since 1992, Hurtt and the group he helped found, the California Independent Business PAC, have spent more than $10 million on conservative candidates and causes.

After helping get several Republican candidates elected to the Legislature in 1992, Hurtt decided to run for office the next year, spending $300,000 of his own money on his successful campaign. He quickly became a target for Democrats, who accused Hurtt--an evangelical Christian--of plotting to reshape California as a religious state.

Hurtt eventually broke from his wealthy partners in 1995 after state campaign watchdogs raised legal concerns about the lawmaker’s conflicting role as a director of the campaign organization while also serving in the Senate.

He continued to give to politics extravagantly, tapping his company and his bank accounts to spend $1.3 million before the 1996 elections.

In his new, more limited role, Hurtt said he plans to continue to give generously, but will have more independence to choose the recipients.

Hurtt said his own Senate seat is in something of a political “danger zone” because Democrats are expected to pour in money to support Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s bid for reelection in an overlapping congressional district. Any spillover into the Senate race could harm Hurtt’s chances.

Running against Hurtt is Democrat Joe Dunn, an attorney from Santa Ana. Dunn, who repeated Monday that he has campaign pledges of $1 million, said he did not expect “Hurtt to roll over and play dead” despite all the talk of his disillusionment with Sacramento. “Rob Hurtt will fight for that seat,” he said.

In Sacramento, Democrats said they didn’t expect many changes in the Senate with Johnson and Brulte running the show for the Republicans.

“The Republican Party in California is dominated by Orange County money and philosophy,” said Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward). “It is still an Orange County point of view” under Johnson.

Senate Leader John Burton, a San Francisco Democrat, said it appeared that Hurtt had simply burned out and decided to hand the helm to a fresh crew.

“I don’t read anything into it other than he [Hurtt] got tired,” Burton said. “I would assume that Rob stepped down and wasn’t bumped out.”

Johnson, who served a short stint as Republican leader while in the Assembly, said the Senate GOP would play the role of “loyal opposition” in the minority, but wage an aggressive fight to gain ground in November’s election. With many more Democrats than Republicans leaving office this year, Johnson said, “we do have some excellent opportunities to pick up seats.”

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Times political writer Peter M. Warren contributed to this report from Orange County.