GOP Lawmakers’ Session of Discontent : Democrats have the governor’s office and majorities in the Assembly and Senate; Republicans have . . . very few bills with a chance.

Republican Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer of Newport Beach had little choice Wednesday but to sit on the dais at the Appropriations Committee meeting watching GOP-sponsored bills go by the wayside.

What few of them there were, that is.

Over in Senate Appropriations, the situation was even more grim. Most GOP members’ bills had long since been knocked out of contention. Of 473 bills that the committee heard last week on Monday and Wednesday, only 13 had Republican authors.

As the session enters its final week, the scant number of viable Republican bills shows the party is paying a steep price for its dismal showing at the polls last November when Democrats took greater control of both houses

and, for the first time in 16 years, took over the governor’s office.

Most of the GOP legislation, especially anything controversial, has been killed by Democrats, either in committee or in the first full house vote.

“If a Republican bill gets out of a Democrat Legislature, it probably isn’t the most earthshaking bill,” concedes Assemblyman Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park).

With Republicans in the governor’s office for so long, the GOP minority in the Legislature could count on a backstop--vetoes of Democratic bills the Republicans deemed too liberal. But with Gray Davis taking over as governor, that backstop is gone.

The situation means that the only time Republican votes are relevant is when a two-thirds majority vote is required.

Although GOP lawmakers expected the rout, it is painful nonetheless.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Brewer, vice chairwoman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Brewer has only two bills still alive, compared with 17 measures signed into law one year under Gov. Pete Wilson. “It’s just a totally different environment,” she said.

How different won’t be quantified until after Friday, the end of the first year of the session.

But agendas for the appropriations committees for the last few weeks show the scarcity of Republican lawmakers’ names on bills up for a vote.

The appropriations committees are gatekeepers for hundreds of bills this time of year that have passed one house and need approval from the other. As holders of the purse strings, the appropriations committee of either house can turn down legislation without explanation. Often, the reason is politics.

“Democrats are intoxicated with their power,” said Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), the Republican leader in the Assembly. “It’s unfortunate what they are doing with their unfettered control.”

GOP bills that have succeeded despite the odds were the product of strategic planning.

Rather than tilting at windmills, Campbell and some other GOP lawmakers have tailored their bill packages to reality by going for smaller, noncontroversial legislation that won’t raise the hackles of Democrats.

That might be why Campbell has four bills signed by Davis and another awaiting the governor’s decision.

One of Campbell’s successful bills, requested by Orange County Treasurer John M.W. Moorlach, gives counties more leeway to invest in short-term corporate notes issued by financially healthy corporations. Another gives community colleges that buy buildings at closed military bases five years to make the structures seismically safe.

Baugh fashioned a group of bills he thought would win favor from Democrats. But he set aside all but two of them for next year to concentrate on his leadership duties, the first of which is to raise money to get more Republicans elected to the Assembly.

His two bills have indeed been popular with Democrats and are still pending. One would allow a target of a grand jury probe to have a lawyer present during questioning. The other would allocate $880,000 to a man wrongly convicted of murder and imprisoned for 17 years before being cleared.

Assemblyman Dick Ackerman (R-Fullerton), a former civil attorney who carries a lot of bills for lawyer and business groups, has had seven bills signed by Davis.

But his most substantive bill signed into law so far made it a crime for voyeurs to use hidden video cameras to film under women’s skirts. Others were aimed at making it easier to do business in California.

As a newcomer to Sacramento, Assemblywoman Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel) didn’t expect to move mountains in Sacramento this year.

Still, Bates has four bills alive going into the session’s last week. One would bring more federal transportation dollars to Orange County and another would provide free specialized license plates for Pearl Harbor survivors and Medal of Valor winners.

With neither a backstop nor a fighting chance to push issues near and dear to them, Orange County Republicans might be expected to be bitter, but some are philosophical about their lot.

“That’s what life is all about,” said Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine), who leads Senate Republicans. “You choose up sides.”