SACRAMENTO — Scarcely an update on California's budget situation is reported without mentioning Republican Jim Brulte and his promise to campaign against any GOP legislator who accepts tax increases as a part of this year's spending plan.

The move by the state Senate Minority Leader from Rancho Cucamonga triggered protests from California's largest labor union, visits by prominent Democrats to his district aimed at turning public opinion against him and the ire of newspaper editorial boards, one of which said Brulte should change his name to "Brute" and suggested his tactics were more fit for Iraq.

But Brulte finds such objections largely irrelevant.

California is headed downhill, and the senator isn't interested in compromising on its future -- even though the GOP's minority status in Sacramento provides him with the political cover to do so.

"I could sit here and say: "Hey, I'm not in charge, the Democrats own the state. If they want to keep over-spending, so be it.' But that's not the way I view my job. I have a responsibility to the people who elected me," Brulte said in an interview in his Capitol office.

As minority leader, Brulte's strong card is California's two-thirds vote requirement for budget passage. If he can keep Republicans in line, Brulte can pressure the dominant Democrats to balance the budget with the spending cuts they hate, rather than the tax hikes Republicans hate.

California faces a projected deficit of $38.2 billion for fiscal year 2003-04. Though Democrats run the Legislature, they need the votes of six GOP Assembly members and two senators to pass a budget bill.

So far, the Republicans are following their leader.

"I think Sen. Brulte realized that he, given his political stature, was in the best position to draw the line and save this state from absolutely cutting off its nose to spite its face," said Rob Stutzman, a political strategist and spokesman for the California Republican Party.

The senator would be hard-pressed to disagree with that assessment. But that begs the question: Why did Brulte, a confidant of President Bush described by many as one of Sacramento's most shrewd and cautious operators, pick this fight this year, and in this way?

Because, Brulte explained, vital government services and highway construction particularly needed in the burgeoning Inland Empire are threatened by a Democratic fiscal policy that has bankrupted this state -- and because the senator felt he could win.

"I think I just had had it," Brulte said, explaining his frustration. "And like the guy in the movie "Network,' I wasn't going to take it anymore."

But it was not just the Democrats, who control both houses of the Legislature and every statewide office, Brulte was fed up with. It was fellow Republicans who voted with Democrats on budgets that led California to its present position: operating completely on borrowed money and holder of the worst credit rating of any state in the country.

Despite Brulte's unhappiness with the choices made by legislative Democrats and Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, he understands that Democrats and Republicans hold deep philosophical differences on most issues.

What incites Brulte are the Republicans who gave Democrats the votes they needed to secure a two-thirds majority and pass the last three budgets, none of which he voted to approve. Most notably, former Sen. K. Maurice Johannessen, a Republican of Redding -- Brulte's former leadership deputy in the caucus -- voted last year with Senate Democrats to increase taxes.

As only one Republican was needed in the Senate last year to achieve such a majority, that vote sent Brulte home on June 29 and left the 2002-03 budget in the hands of the Assembly. Johannessen was later appointed as Davis' secretary of veterans affairs.

"You can't convince Democrats not to overspend, because they have some gene that's inherent in their DNA. But I could let other Republicans know that if they're compliant in continuing to bankrupt the state, I was willing to see to it that they had to account to the voters of their district."

Brulte passed on making such a move in 2002 and the year before because the conditions were unfavorable.

Last year, four Republican assemblymen and one senator were needed for a two-thirds vote. Brulte believes Johannessen was angling for the cabinet position he eventually received, and noted that one of the four GOP assemblymen who ultimately voted for the 2002-03 budget was not running for re-election while two others lost in the March 2002 Republican primary.

"When you're in the minority, you don't have an opportunity to win that often. You need to make sure you pick the right fight. And not only do you pick the right fight, but you have to pick it at the right time," Brulte said.

This year, coming off an election that saw the GOP pick up one Senate and two Assembly seats, Brulte knew both caucuses were basically unified and thus saw the perfect opportunity to indirectly inform leading Democrats that any budget deal would have to be negotiated with the Republican leadership.

Had Brulte tried the same thing last year and failed, the chances for success this year would have been slim, he said.

Since the budget impasse officially began on July 1, Brulte has been negotiating with his counterpart, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco. This week, the upper house could vote on a budget that -- as Brulte has insisted on all along -- has no tax increases.

It is likely that any plan that passes the Senate with the help of Republican votes will assume Davis' tripling of vehicle registration fees. But Brulte underscored that this was an administrative action he did not support and could not control, and added that it will be litigated.

The "no tax increases" mantra may dominate the headlines, but what Brulte wants is a budget that begins to address California's rough economic climate and cures the ailing business environment; generating the jobs and tax revenues the state so desperately needs.

"The California that we grew up in is not going to be here a decade from now if we don't significantly reverse some of the trends that are occurring as a result of actions by this Legislature and this governor."