Keeping the grip on power.

• Author: Weintraub, Daniel M.
• Position: California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown

Willie Brown is about to leave the California Assembly, but his clout is as great as ever.

California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown stepped aside last month after nearly 15 years as leader of the Legislature's lower house, then stunned opposition Republicans by hand-picking his successor - from within their ranks - and installing her as the first woman speaker in the state's history.

Brown's choice for the job, Assemblywoman Doris Allen of Orange County, used her vote and those of 39 Democrats to take the post despite the bitter objections of her 38 Republican colleagues, who all supported Republican Leader Jim Brulte. As part of the deal, Allen voted with Democrats on a series of rule changes designed to bolster Brown's power even as Democrats lost their majority status for the first time in a quarter century. Brown became minority leader with the newly created, but so far ceremonial, title of speaker emeritus.

Allen's gambit shocked Republicans across the state. Some in her own district immediately launched an attempt to recall her from office. Fellow Republicans in the Assembly vowed "war" against her. Republican Governor Pete Wilson, whose forceful stand on the 1991 redistricting led to the GOP takeover, declined to congratulate Allen on her victory.

But by the end of her first week at the helm, Allen, 59, a former real estate broker, appeared to be consolidating her grip on the job. She banished Brulte from the leadership, announced plans to punish a handful of other rivals and began courting a few Republicans who decided that it would be better to accept her status and try to work with her than to seek to undercut her.

Allen's ascension was the latest twist in a convoluted plot that has unfolded since November when Republicans gained a majority in the Assembly for the first time since 1970. Since November, one Republican member - Paul Horcher - has defected to the Democrats and was later recalled from office, while another - Richard Mountjoy - was thrown out of the Assembly by Democrats in a bold power play that preserved Brown's speakership for another few months. The evenly divided house has been operating under a power-sharing agreement, implemented unilaterally by Democrats, that divides committee membership, chairmanships and resources down the middle.

Much of this tumult is a product of term limits adopted by voters in 1990 and scheduled to take full effect next year. Though no Assembly member has been forced out yet by the...