Assembly Leader Treats Old Foe Hayden Like a Lame Duck : Politics: Brown strips him of Higher Education Committee chairmanship and fires committee staff.

SACRAMENTO —  Assemblyman Tom Hayden has three months left in office, but he’s already been shown the door.

Earlier this month, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown stripped the Santa Monica Democrat of the chairmanship of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, fired the committee staff and moved the lawmaker’s Capitol office to smaller quarters.

In a Sept. 4 letter to Hayden, Brown thanked the onetime student protest leader for his hard work on the education panel but said he was immediately relieving him of the chairman’s duties.

Hayden was taken by surprise.

“I’m the only outgoing chair of a policy committee . . . to have his staff given their unemployment notices in this manner and to have their office repossessed in this manner,” said Hayden, who is favored to win a state Senate seat in the Nov. 3 election.

Hayden said he did not know the reason for Brown’s action, but he termed it abrupt, especially for the six fired staff members. With the Legislature adjourned until December, the staff was preparing hearings on the impact of increased student fees at public colleges. The hearings were to take place this fall, before the new legislative session convenes.

Brown acknowledged that the timing was unusual, saying that during his 12 years as speaker he typically has waited until the start of a legislative session to name new committee chairmen.

But he said that this year he wants to give committee chairmen a head start, partly because the fall election will bring a bumper crop of new members unfamiliar with the legislative process.

Brown (D-San Francisco) told reporters last week that “the Hayden move was the first of the many moves that I intend to make” in replacing a handful of departing committee chairmen.

Hayden’s successor is Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles), a onetime Brown aide and former member of the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees.

Jim Lewis, Brown’s spokesman, said “she’s eminently qualified,” citing her academic credentials, including a Ph.D. in higher education administration.

Hayden has been a persistent thorn in Brown’s side, but he would not speculate on whether the Speaker’s action was the latest manifestation of the feud between them.