Panel Will Urge Reprimand for Frank : Ethics: Massachusetts Democrat had been hoping for a milder rebuke for his past relationship with a male prostitute.

WASHINGTON —  The House Ethics Committee, breaking a long partisan stalemate, voted without dissent Thursday to recommend that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) be formally reprimanded for his past relationship with a male prostitute, according to a source familiar with the secretive proceedings.

The decision means that the case will go before the full House. The Massachusetts Democrat had been hoping that the committee would give him a milder rebuke in the form of a “letter of reproval,” which does not require a ruling by the full House.

None of the ethics panel’s 12 members--evenly divided between six Democrats and six Republicans--would comment on or even confirm the vote, which ended 11 months of highly secretive deliberations over the allegations against Frank.

“The committee has adjourned for the day and will not meet tomorrow (Friday). I have no further comment or statement,” said Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles), the panel’s chairman.

However, a source familiar with the proceedings said that the decision, which is expected to be announced today, was unanimous among the 11 members of the committee who were present for the vote.

One member, Rep. Larry E. Craig (R-Ida.), was not in Washington when the vote was taken but he is expected to endorse it.

Frank likewise refused to comment. A spokesman for Frank’s office said the congressman intended to “respond fully to the committee’s report after the results are announced, but not before.” The spokesman said that, as of Thursday evening, Frank had not been formally notified of the committee’s vote.

While none of the committee members would comment on the case, it was understood that the recommended reprimand involved actions Frank allegedly took on behalf of Stephen L. Gobie, a male prostitute who worked as a driver for Frank and who has acknowledged running a prostitution ring out of the congressman’s home.

Frank, who requested the Ethics Committee inquiry after his relationship with Gobie was disclosed by the Washington Times, has confirmed that he paid Gobie for sex in 1985 and then hired him with personal funds as a household aide.

However, Frank has denied Gobie’s allegations that the lawmaker knew about the prostitution ring. And he said that he fired Gobie as soon as he learned of it.

The decision to recommend a reprimand was the second most severe of four possible steps that the Ethics Committee, which has been investigating the Frank case since last September, could have taken.

One source characterized it as a compromise between the lesser sanction of reproval favored by the panel’s Democrats and the harsher sanctions sought by the Republican members.

Divided for days over their final decision, the Democrats apparently agreed to recommend a reprimand to head off what could have been a politically bruising and embarrassing floor fight.

Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) had served notice that he plans to raise the matter on the floor in a motion to seek Frank’s expulsion from the House. But one source noted that a recommendation accepted unanimously by both the Democrats and Republicans on the Ethics Committee will be difficult to overturn on the floor.

The more serious options the committee could have recommended were censure and expulsion.

Frank is one of two House members--the other is fellow Massachusetts Democrat Gerry E. Studds--who have acknowledged publicly that they are homosexuals.

The revelations and charges about Frank’s relationship with Gobie are not expected to seriously affect Frank’s reelection bid this year for a sixth term in the House, where he is considered one of the brightest and ablest liberal Democrats in Congress.