Johnson Quits Top GOP Post

Sen. Ross Johnson of Irvine resigned Thursday as minority leader of the state Senate, explaining he must devote more time to care for ailing family members.

Johnson, 60, said he will continue to campaign for reelection to his Senate seat. “I’m healthy as a horse,” he said.

The man who has held the Republicans’ top post for two years was immediately replaced by Sen. Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga, chairman of the upper chamber’s 15-member GOP minority, the No. 2 official in the party hierarchy.

Brulte, 44, a former California cochairman of Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, said he plans no major changes under his leadership.

“This will be a seamless transition,” Brulte told reporters. Both are conservatives.

Brulte stressed that the resignation was voluntary and represented no dissatisfaction with Johnson’s performance.

“I cannot do justice to members of my family and meet the additional and demanding responsibilities” of the GOP floor leader, Johnson said. He added that it was “important to me to spend the time with my family.”

He declined to discuss the illnesses of his wife, Diane, or mother, Joyce Johnson. He said he also will care for a daughter, Susan, who is recovering from back surgery.

The shift in leadership occurred when Republicans interrupted a floor session and met privately in a Senate lounge where Johnson disclosed that he was stepping down.

A few minutes later, his resignation was formally announced to the full Senate, whose members, led by Democratic President Pro Tem John L. Burton, gave him a standing round of collegial applause.

In a house dominated by Democrats for nearly three decades, the powers of Republican minority leaders are limited. Some previous minority leaders have complained they have only a bit more influence in the selection of parking spaces in the Capitol garage than they do over state budget expenditures or tax cuts.

As a result, recruiting and electing Republicans has become a chief preoccupation, especially in this election year when 10 of the GOP’s 15 seats are at stake.

Johnson’s decision to relinquish the top GOP slot in the Legislature will likely have little impact on Orange County, said several observers.

“It isn’t a loss for Orange County because the post didn’t have any real power,” said Dick Rosengarten, who edits the California political news weekly CalPeek.

Others pointed out that an Orange County Republican, Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), remains Assembly minority leader and there are three Republican senators in the 15-member caucus, more than from any other county.

“I would say these three will continue to have a significant role in making Republican policy, working along with Jim Brulte,” said Orange County GOP Chairman Tom Fuentes.

Rosengarten praised Johnson, who was first elected to the Assembly in 1978 as a “Proposition 13 baby.”

“He knows what is going on and is definitely a key player,” he said. “Gov. [Pete] Wilson relied on him and I am sure that Gov. [Gray] Davis does to some extent to move the GOP caucus along on the budget, where you need Republican cooperation.”

Fuentes said he had heard of the decision Thursday morning and spoke with Johnson’s staff.

“To see a man put family before his own political career is very much the nature of Ross Johnson,” Fuentes said. “He is a genuine believer in family-valued decisions.”

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Times staff writer Peter M. Warren contributed to this report.