GOP IN RIGHT STATE OF MIND\Assembly's majority caucus may regret slew of conservative fringe\bills.

Byline: Mark Katches Daily News Sacramento Bureau

Fresh off the biggest week of his three-year legislative career, GOP Assemblyman W.J. "Pete" Knight of Palmdale stopped briefly a couple days ago to contemplate a future that until recently seemed unthinkable.

It would be a world where most adults could carry concealed firearms, where legally recognized homosexual marriages in other states would be void in California, and where renewed efforts to ban state-funded abortions might succeed.

"We're finally being able to move the Republican Party agenda through," Knight said. "We're now in the process of doing what the voters told us to do in November 1994. If the Democrats want to label us as moving to the right then so be it. My agenda is one of personal responsibility and I firmly believe in that."

Not long ago Knight, a 64-year-old former Air Force test pilot, wouldn't have turned many heads on either side of the aisle with that kind of talk.

But today there is enough reality to such proposals to make the Assembly's most conservative Republicans exult and dream. Moderate Republicans, meanwhile, cringe with apprehension as they fear either losing control of the agenda in Sacramento or being painted with an extremist brush.

Weakened Democrats, unable to stop the assault head on, are seizing on the most extreme bills - hoping that the radical legislation can be the Achilles' heel that brings down the GOP.

Knight's Assembly bills are among those under attack. His AB 638 would make it easier for most adults to carry a concealed firearm in California by eliminating the requirement to show a genuine need for the permit.

Another Knight bill, AB 1982, would bar the state from recognizing out-of-state, same-sex marriages.

Both bills passed the Assembly, as did legislation by another lawmaker to repeal the 4-year-old law requiring adult motorcycle riders to wear helmets.

Paddling of schoolchildren and graffiti vandals became topics of serious debate, though both were defeated.

GOP leaders acknowledge that by allowing those bills to come out of committee - with dozens of others - last week, they may have tarnished their first foray into power in 15 years and threatened the stability and focus of the Republican caucus.

"Stuff like the paddling bills, it probably shouldn't have been brought up on the floor. All it does is become divisive," said Assemblyman Brett Granlund, R-Yucaipa.

Said one prominent Assembly Republican, who didn't want his name used: "We're perceived as the party with all the wacky bills. That makes caricatures of us."

Claremont College political science Professor Sherry Bebitch Jeffe said the danger is that the Republican Party could alienate moderate voters.

"The prevailing image is that the Republican caucus in the Assembly has veered hard right and taken the Republican agenda with them," she said. "I don't see how that is going to be very good for them - not in this state and not in a general election year."

She added that Speaker Curt Pringle, R-Garden Grove, "doesn't have the kind of control that he is perceived to have in his own caucus."

Pringle said he would not dictate legislation to caucus members.

"I'm not in a position to tell any member of our caucus that under no circumstances can they take up certain bill," he said. "That's the prerogative of that member."

Democrats have put their own spin on the Republicans' fringe bills.

"They're right on course for their own self-destruction," said Assemblywoman Jackie Speier, D-South San Francisco. "What this is going to do is expose them for what they are. They are not representative of the population of this state. They are not representative of Republicans by and large, and they're going to have a real rude awakening unless they moderate their course."

Assemblyman Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga, said the caucus will become more focused, expressing some frustration that the bulk of the GOP's Assembly agenda largely has been overshadowed by what he called the fringe bills.

"We've passed historic welfare reform, tort reform and tax cuts," Brulte said. "That's the great news. The bad news is we haven't marketed that very well, so few people know we've done it."

In recent weeks there's been evidence of the leadership trying to control more conservative members.

Assemblyman Bruce Thompson, R-Temecula, one of the most conservative members in his caucus and an opponent to state-funded abortions, claims he was left off the influential Budget Committee by Pringle because of his views.

Pringle denied that he left Thompson off the panel because of his position on abortions.

Defining an agenda prompted a frank discussion among Republicans at a private caucus lunch Tuesday, where members questioned why the party was hell-bent on raising issues that were leaning heavily to the right, sources who attended said.

"You will see us put together clear packages on regulatory reform, tax reform and welfare reform that refocus our attention on what are priorities are," Pringle said.

But the Republican faction that wants to cut abortion funding and other relatively unpopular mainstream GOP proposals hasn't given up its vision, several said.

Political analysts, meanwhile, say the GOP has hurt itself by not defining its policy agenda earlier and in a more coherent form.

"The Republicans made some tactical errors essentially by not having a strategic plan," said former GOP Assembly aide Tony Quinn, a political consultant. "The problem they're facing now is they're not really delivering an agenda of items that the public can see will make their lives better."

Consolidating his party's power last week, Pringle slashed the Democratic caucus budget from $4.3 million to $2 million and gave most of the resources to Republican-held committee chairmanships, as well as $1 million to his own office.

The power the Republicans wield was evident on the floor last week, too.

Of the 199 bills flying out of the Assembly for either the Senate or the governor's desk last week, 153 were written by Republicans - about 77 percent, a review of the bills shows.

Just 43 of the successful bills were sponsored by the minority Democrats, or 22 percent. Assemblyman Dominic Cortese, the lone Reform Party member, wrote the other three bills.

Pringle held a news conference Friday to try to put the spotlight back on the bulk of the legislations, and away from gun and paddling bills.

He said the top priorities of the caucus are:

Tougher crime bills that impose stiffer sentences for felonies committed with a gun, call for the death penalty for gang-related homicides and ban conjugal visits in prison for the most serious criminals.

Business-friendly legislation that repeals the California Occupational Health and Safety minimum ergonomic standards that were designed to minimize repetitive motion injuries, ends overtime requirements for part-time workers, and limits the amount of damages that can be awarded in a civil lawsuit.

Tax-cut measures that reduce the corporate income tax rate to 7.5 percent and exempt 50 percent of any capital gains.

Welfare measures that put a two-year limit on Aid to Families with Dependent Children for able-bodied recipients and that place a cap on the amount they can receive.

As the bills move to the Democratic-controlled Senate, they face an uncertain future.

Because of the partisan split in the houses, some lawmakers are speculating that 1996 will be as unproductive as last year, when leadership fights paralyzed the Legislature.

"I don't think the governor is going to have a lot of bills to sign on his desk this year," Thompson said.