When Fabian Núñez became speaker of the state Assembly a few weeks ago, he pledged to reduce the size of committees so that members would be "free to examine issues in greater depth."
By that standard, Ken Maddox may be spending a lot of time inside bars, casinos and horse racing tracks during the remaining eight months of his legislative career.

Maddox, a Republican assemblyman from Orange County, was stripped of four of his five committees assignments this week when Núñez announced his new committee lineup, including slots on two of the Assembly's most desired "juice committees" - so dubbed because their members are traditionally showered with special interest campaign contributions. Maddox was left with just one committee assignment, Governmental Organization, a juice committee that oversees liquor and gambling legislation.

Could Núñez, under the guise of streamlining the bloated committee process in the Assembly, also be parceling out some political punishment? If so, Maddox would be a likely target. He's a termed-out minority party assemblyman who has worked his way into the Republican doghouse for challenging a fellow GOP assemblyman, John Campbell, for a state Senate seat this year and losing. Campbell is a Republican insider who's especially close with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maddox committed the added heresy of being supported by public employee unions.

Maddox isn't complaining about losing 80 percent of his committee assignments. "I think it's one of the things that happened," he said. "This is one of those rare times when I think there was no grand design behind it." Nevertheless, his being dropped from four committees, including Appropriations and Insurance, stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb when lobbyists for interest groups started analyzing the impact of the changes.

Núñez's declared goal of reducing the size of Assembly committees is a worthy one, certainly. His predecessor speakers succumbed to intense pressure to expand committees - especially those that can squeeze juice out of interest groups. Some much-desired committees, such as Appropriations and Governmental Organization, grew so large that they counted more than a quarter of the Assembly as members. At the same time, for various political reasons, speakers formed many new committees, thereby creating new chairmanships for allies and expanding political staffs. There are now 29 standing committees, plus numerous subcommittees and special committees.

The result has been near-chaos, with committee members running from hearing room to hearing room, often just poking their heads in long enough to vote on bills after not listening to a second of testimony on their provisions. The proliferation of committee slots has contributed to the evident deterioration of the legislative product over the last couple of decades, although it's not the only culprit.

Núñez's reductions were modest. He decreased Appropriations - which passes judgment on almost every bill moving through the Assembly - from 25 to 21 members and Governmental Organization from 26 to 24. Insurance, another juicy committee, dropped from 19 to 17, and Budget was reduced from 31 to 30.

"This is an important first step in changing how we do business in California," Núñez said in a statement that accompanied his new committee lineup. He pegged the overall reduction in committee assignments at 13 percent and said he will consider changes in the makeup of committees after the legislative session has ended.

Núñez's reconfiguration also strengthened the already overwhelming Democratic voting margins on major committees. While Democrats hold 60 percent of the Assembly's 80 seats, Núñez's new lineup increases the party's control of Appropriations from 72 percent to 76 percent, for example. The one-member Budget Committee reduction was a Republican. "I've got a real problem with this," said GOP leader Kevin McCarthy. "It's so disproportionate to what the electorate voted for."

Núñez spokesman Gabriel Sanchez insisted that the changes were designed "to make the house more efficient and more manageable," not increase Democratic control.