Another kind of earthquake in California.

• Author: Weintraub, Daniel M.

Willie Brown, dean of the California Assembly and speaker for the past 14 years, was on the verge of losing his leadership post after the Nov. 8 elections left Republicans poised to take control of the state's lower house for the first time in a generation.

Brown's Democratic caucus lost seven seats on election day, leaving each party with 40 seats in the 80-member house. But at press time, Democratic Assemblywoman Betty Karnette was leading by only 64 votes in her Long Beach district with more than 2,000 absentee votes to be counted, and political experts expected the seat to fall to the Republicans.

For Brown, considered the state's second most powerful politician and one of the most recognizable African American leaders in the country, the impending loss of his speakership came as a shock. The Democrats went into the elections with a 47-33 majority and expected to lose a few seats. Instead, many of their candidates were swept away in the Republican tide that swamped Democrats from coast to coast.

In addition to Karnette, three freshmen Democrats--Julie Bornstein, Margaret Snyder and Tom Connolly--lost their seats, as did veteran Assemblyman Bob Epple. Republicans also picked up four open seats that had been held by Democrats and lost just one. For the most part, Republicans campaigned on a platform of smaller government, tougher crime laws and support of Proposition 187, California's anti-immigration initiative. Many challengers also used a recent legislative pay raise--granted by an independent commission--to attack incumbents.

Brown's own San Francisco district elected him to his 16th term, his last under the term limits California enacted in 1990. Brown's longtime Senate counterpart, David A. Roberti, already was forced out by term limits and...