Brown Restores 3 Members of ‘Gang of Five’

SACRAMENTO —  Assembly Speaker Willie Brown has restored to powerful positions three members of the “Gang of Five”--the band of dissidents who once threatened to end the San Francisco Democrat’s reign as the longest-tenured Assembly Speaker in the state’s history.

One year after they challenged his leadership of the Legislature’s lower house, Democratic Assemblymen Steve Peace of La Mesa, Rusty Areias of Los Banos and Gerald R. Eaves of Rialto have been named to influential committee posts by Brown, the best indication yet that they have returned fully to his graces.

Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon of Whittier, who was unsuccessful as the gang’s candidate to replace Brown as Speaker in December, 1988, plans to run for the state Senate and has not been granted any new powers. The fifth member of the splinter group, Gary A. Condit of Ceres, has moved on to Congress.

Peace, Areias and Eaves each were given one of the committee posts formerly held by Democrat Lucy Killea of San Diego, who was elected to the state Senate in December.

The former insurgents said they hope to remain independent of the Speaker. But Eaves, who won a spot on the influential Rules Committee, did concede bluntly that, for all practical purposes, the dissidents have returned to the fold.

“The fact is we lost,” Eaves said. “Willie is still the Speaker and we have to work within the system in an attempt to make the system better.”

Areias, who was appointed to the Transportation Committee, said the five rebels took their dissatisfaction to the extreme when they staged their revolt against the Assembly Democrats. But he said they still have not returned to the “other extreme” of party loyalty: following the Speaker “like mindless drones.”

“I’m going to agree with the Speaker at times and I am going to disagree with him at times,” Areias said. “We can contribute to this process. The Speaker is recognizing that by putting us on the committees where we have demonstrated in the past we could make the most significant contribution.”

Peace was appointed to the Ways and Means Committee, which handles all appropriations bills.

Brown stripped the dissidents of their committee posts in early 1988. Through his control of committee assignments, they had charged, Brown was making the Assembly’s positions on policy much more liberal than the state as a whole.

The five Democrats teamed with 36 Republicans and used amendments and parliamentary procedures to pass legislation, mostly criminal justice measures, that had been bottled up in committee. Although there was the potential to oust Brown from the speakership, the dissident five could never get the Assembly Republicans to vote to replace Brown with another Democrat.

When the Democrats gained three seats in the November, 1988, elections, increasing their majority to 47 in the 80-member Assembly, the five rebels were rendered irrelevant. Brown was reelected as Speaker and now seems destined to extend his record 10-year tenure at least through the end of 1992.

The rehabilitations demonstrate one of the secrets to Brown’s longevity: his ability to forgive and forget. By ending the dissidents’ isolation for good, Brown can minimize the chance that they will join with any other unhappy Democrats to challenge his leadership.

“He is the ultimate survivor,” Eaves said. “There is no doubt about that.”

Added Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles), a Brown ally: “Great institutional leaders are able to survive because they depend upon coalitions of support. He had five people defect from the Democratic caucus. If he had had no Republican friends he would not have been Speaker any more.”