Former Speaker Setencich Loses Assembly Seat

SACRAMENTO — Assemblyman Brian Setencich, the rookie GOP lawmaker who was elected Assembly speaker last year after siding with the Democrats, was the only incumbent to lose a bid for reelection.

His brief political career was cut short after the state Republican Party and other activists targeted him for defeat in Tuesday’s primary after Setencich made what a fellow GOP lawmaker called a “deal with the devil.”

Setencich, 33, of Fresno, a Republican who rose to the Assembly speakership for less than four months before being deposed by Republicans in January, lost his primary election battle by only a few hundred votes to a virtual unknown.

Massive infusions of cash in the final two weeks of the Central Valley campaign swung the election to Robert Prenter Jr., a medical instruments salesman with no political background.

Support for Prenter came from numerous Republican sources--the party, a personal letter to voters by the state party chief, Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, and one of the state’s richest political funding sources, the conservative California Independent Business PAC, which pumped thousands of dollars into the campaign.

Prenter is a nephew of the PAC’s co-founder and principal backer, religious radio network owner Edward G. Atsinger III.

Setencich said he was barely aware of his opponent until the final two weeks of campaigning. He said he was stunned by the “vileness of the campaign” that accused him of voting against the death penalty for carjackers, against welfare “reform” and making “public attacks on Christians,” all of which he denied.

“I didn’t think they’d succeed” with extremely negative campaigning, Setencich said, and was surprised by the outcome.

The result leaves a clear field for Prenter’s election in November. No Democrat entered the 30th Assembly District primary.

An independent candidate could challenge Prenter, but it could not be Setencich unless he ran a write-in campaign. He said he is not interested in being a write-in candidate but said he is “willing to talk to anybody” about supporting other challengers.

The GOP turning on one of its own follows the pattern established last year by Republican-engineered recall elections, first of Assemblyman Paul Horcher of Diamond Bar, then Assemblywoman Doris Allen of Cypress. The two Republicans angered colleagues by siding with Democrats and allowing former longtime Speaker Willie Brown to wield power even with the GOP holding an Assembly majority.

Allen, who was speaker for almost four months last spring and summer, and Horcher, who cast a crucial vote for Brown, were recalled from office after being targeted by heavy Republican campaigning.

With Setencich’s defeat, said Assemblyman Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga), all three “made a deal with the devil and paid a significant price.”