Eminentoes/King of the Juice

...T he Gang of Five, as the upstarts 1 have been dubbed by Sacramento Bee political columnist Dan Walters, represent the growing number of middle-of-the-road California Democrats that have emerged over the past ten years in central and southern California...

...Today, Brown cuts quite a different Edward McFadden is The American Spectator's editorial intern...

...Sacramento insiders say the Republican leader is gambling on gaining majority control of the Assembly in the upcoming election and taking the seat for himself...

...Asa result, Brown's parachute seems to have turned to lead...

...But no longer...

...When the Five were with him, Brown possessed a 44-36 Democratic majority...

...Brown was publicly taken to the woodshed, and no longer serves the campaign in any active capacity...

...Our opportunity is here...

...After working his way through college and law school, he fashioned a career as a brash, radical attorney, drawing his clients from the sediment of San Francisco: whores, pimps, petty thieves...

...Moreover, the Five claim that the ideological dynamics of their caucus has changed during the past several years, evolving from a 1960s left-wing approach on social and environmental issues, represented by Brown, to the more "moderate" brand of Democratic policy seen during the Reagan years...

...Gang members say they grew weary of Brown's use of the "juice" for political gain, a distraction that has kept the Speaker from establishing a clear Democratic blueprint and advanced the perception that the party is merely out to cadge a buck...

...Polls give a mixed picture, but it's unlikely that Nolan's gamble will pay off...

...over the past year, five moderate Democrats have been waging an open rebellion against Brown and the foundation of his power...

...Under the tutelage of such prominent state Democrats as the late Speaker of the Assembly Jesse "Big Daddy" Unruh, the late Congressman Phil Burton, Assemblyman John Burton, and the late San Francisco mayor George Moscone, Brown moderated his views enough to parlay their connections, expertise, and money into a political machine that eventually reached into the state capitol, San Francisco City Hall, and congressional offices in Washington, D.C...

...no longer will Brown raise big money as easily as the two million dollars he raked in over an eight-month period since November, and no longer will he be able to fatten his favorites' purses with transfers...

...When a Brown loyalist tried to gut one of the bills with an amendment, the Speaker warned, "That takes 41 votes...

...As Brown's power grew, his law firm's clientele improved...

...If we traded Willie Brown for a Tom Hayden, it would belike rearranging the deck of the Titanic," said a Republican assemblyman...

...Brown used this financial assistance program to cement the symbiotic relationship within his caucus that has enabled him to control the Assembly since 1980...

...Former California Speaker of the Assembly Jesse Unruh Growing up in the segregated town of Mineola, Texas, forty years ago, Willie Brown shined shoes in the local barbershop...

...But Brown endures thanks to a split in the GOP caucus over how to approach the conflict—a split Brown has understandably encouraged...

...The rebellion began with little fanfare in September 1987...

...Still, Brown gained stature, influence, and prestige on the national level with his work for Jackson—particularly his fund-raising work...

...Since last fall the coalition has removed three bills—dealing with the death penalty, AIDS testing, and drug enforcement—from committee graveyards where Brown and left-wing allies had buried them, and seen all pass...

...Since the reapportionment battle of 1980—when the liberal factions in Sacramento gerrymandered the state to lock in Democratic dominance for a decade—the Republicans and conservative wing of the Democratic party have made deep inroads into southern and central California...

...But the Speaker faces a more im- mediate problem...

...But after twenty-four years as asupernova, his state career seems to be guttering out, a victim of an internal rebellion in his statehouse, national political machinations, and what in California is called the "juice...

...In that case Brown will no longer need the Gang of Five, nor the Republicans, to stay in business...

...Without them the Speaker can only count on 39 votes in a house which needs a majority of 41 to pass any type of motion...

...In 1984, running for re-election against a political neophyte, Brown amassed a campaign fund of $4,079,037, including a single donation of $124,753 from the California Trial Lawyers Association...

...since January, with selected Republican support, they have chipped away at the Speaker's power...

...Brown also helped arrange the political summit earlier this year in Washington between Jackson and Democratic party elders...

...The amendment, which mirrors federal election campaign laws, will undoubtedly slow the juice...

...When the Speaker of the U.S...

...Brown publicly insists that he will remain Speaker for years to come...

...Nolan defends his actions by swearing that a fellow Democrat will not replace Brown in the Speaker's chair...

...To the folks at home, "it looks like the Republicans are propping him [Brown] up," said Assemblyman Trice Harvey...

...He no longer defends the owners of "nude-encounter" parlors...

...It's been embarrassing to me to see five [Democrats] stand up against the Speaker...

...85 percent of the donors were firms, corporations, businesses, and coalitions...

...Unlike leaders in many other statehouses whose power has been eroded by "reform," the California speaker has been a near despot, with sole responsibility for determining committee memberships, appointing committee chairmen, and setting the legislative agenda...

...The Speaker considers keeping the Democratic majority in the house anintegral part of his job, and as political campaigns in California have become increasingly expensive to run (an average of $250,000), Brown has been forced to raise ever larger sums of money to keep his party in power...

...His customers would flip Brown's quarter gratuity into the spittoon in the corner of the shop, laughing as the boy groped through the muck to retrieve his pay...

...in time the department store magnate Carter Hawley Hale, THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1988 31 Southern Pacific Development Company, the Federal Reserve Bank, and many others in need of counsel recognized Brown's lawyerly gifts—to the extent that this part-time attorney now makes, by some estimates, nearly a quarter of a million dollars yearly in fees...

...Eric Ueland assisted in the research and preparation of this article...

...In those early years, his politics approached the violent radicalism of the Black Panther movement...

...Brown, they say, has turned to a small group of twelve to fifteen liberal cronies, most prominently Maxine"Mama Doc" Waters and Tom Hayden, to push a legislative agenda out of step with California Democrats...

...He chose Jesse Jackson as his new Greyhound bus to 32 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1988 the national stage, signing up in November 1987 as Jesse's national campaign chairman, and raising over one million dollars for Jackson's California campaign...

...Choosing an issue the GOP could support, a Gang of Five/Republican caucus coalition defied Brown and the California Trial Lawyers, steering a tort reform bill out of committee onto the floor of the house, where it passed overwhelmingly...

...Much of this money goes to loyal associates in need of funds for their own campaigns...

...a less-colorful Democrat would mean less money...

...One would suppose that the infighting within the Democratic caucus should have the Republicans seizing their chance to dump a man they regularly vilify in campaign literature...

...For that reason, political insiders like the Bee's Walters think Brown will preempt any move to oust him from the Speakership by jumping at the opportunity only the National Democratic Committee can provide, becoming a "West Coast Robert Strauss...

...Brown's ability to attract attention and deftly play party politics is often offset by his political ambitions and inability to control his own candor...

...No one is doubting that Brown can make it in the national political arena...

...In the June primary, California voters took away Brown's "juice" by passing a constitutional amendment limiting the amount of contributions a person or group can make to any one candidate, and forbidding the transfer of such funds from one campaign to another...

...Today he is Willie L. Brown, Speaker of the California Assembly...

...He began a "Jackson for Vice President" push immediately after the Pennsylvania primary in late April, while the candidate was still running hard for the top spot, and appeared to be putting his own political career before the Leader's when he spoke to the national press about who would "cut the cards" at the National Convention, and the necessity of "Jackson-like" (i.e., Willie Brown-like) speakers in Atlanta...

...With more than $3 million expected this year, Brown will easily break the $4 million mark...

...But can "The King of the Juice" successfully make the transition without the power that gave him all he today surveys...

...More likely, the Democrats will snag three additional seats from the Republicans this fall...

...Juice lobbyists prowl the halls of the state capitol with briefcases full of checks made out to various re-election campaigns...

...The more prestigious a member's committee assignments, of course, the more money an assemblyman can expect in his campaign coffers...

...I don't want to demonstrate too often that I don't have 41 votes anymore...

...If you can't wear it, drive it, or make love to it, I don't want it," he says...

...Brown, who last year received $35,000 from the Trial Lawyers, then attempted to quell the insurrection by stripping the Five of their committee assignments and staff, and moving them into ridiculously small office space...

...Running against the Speaker has netted them millions since 1980...

...Steve Peace, Rusty Areias, Gary Condit, Charles Calderon, and Gerald Eaves are young Democrats who a year ago were considered trusted members of the Democratic caucus, and Brown rewarded them appropriately with superior office space, larger staffs, and choice committee assignments...

...In 1980, through a coalition of Democratic and Republican support, Brown gained the Speakership of the Assembly...

...In a state where star power, if harnessed, could light the city of Burbank, Willie Brown has been the lone luminary in an otherwise dim political scene...

...Brown's total control of such assignments thus allows him regulatory privileges over the flow of the juice, a privilege other members of the Assembly would like to possess...

...In a state of volatile politics, Brown has managed to retain his position a record seven-and-a-half years...

...Under Brown, Republican leader Patrick Nolan has enjoyed an unprecedented degree of influence in the Assembly, with input in committee assignments, chairmanships, and bill schedulings, and he now returns the favor by refusing to support the Gang of Five in their attempts to replace the Speaker with a more moderate Democrat...

...Nolan yearns for the political spotlight as well...

...In response, Brown has attempted to construct a golden parachute...

...In 1987, a non-election year, Brown saved his pennies and had $1.6 million in his kitty by the end of the year...

...But there is more to Brown's power than constitutional prerogative—there is also the "juice," provided by the "third house" of the California legislature, the lobbying organizations...

...I n 1951 Brown left Mineola on a 1 Greyhound bus bound for San Francisco...

...Jesse was not pleased...

...Of late, though, there have been signs that the program hasn't exempted Brown from the traditional political machinations of the statehouse...

...He flaunts it—with fire and brimstone speeches on the floor of the house, legendary parties, rock video cameo appearances, regular mentions in California gossip columns, and patented arm-twisting as the self-styled "Ayatollah of the Assembly...

...The juice lobby has become the easiest form of financial support in the state capital...

...Within the paradoxes of San Francisco liberalism, such a law practice is a good way to build stature, and in 1964 Brown won the only elective office he has ever held, representing California's 17th District, a political quiltwork that today ranges from the wealthy matrons of Pacific Heights to by Edward McFadden the homosexuals of the Castro district...

...Since April, therefore, motions to remove Brown from the Speakership have failed to win approval from the Republican caucus...

...My body would reject a Plymouth...

...On a practical level, the state GOP leadership likes Willie Brown because of what his antics in the Assembly do for their own fund-raising...

...Rather than back down, the Five publicly declared their defiance of the Speaker...

...Media wanna-be Democratic presidential candidate Mario Cuomo has already sought Brown's assistance in fund-raising in California...

...House of Representatives, Jim Wright, recently spoke in the California State Capitol, Nolan staged a Republican walk-out, embarrassing Brown and garnering Nolan national press coverage...

...He faces increasing difficulties at home—a San Francisco radio call-in poll recently named Brown the "most loathsome" man in public life and even the city's largest gay political club, a Brown mainstay, refused to endorse him in the June primary...

...Nolan's perceived protection of Brown has not won him points within his own caucus, whose many members are beginning to feel the wrath of their constituents...

...figure on the streets of Sacramento, California, wearing $1,500 Brioni suits, cruising in his $100,000 Ferrari, or escorting beautiful women to one of the tony dining spots he favors...