Democrats are seemingly born with a genetic predisposition for playing politics, but Republicans tend to view it as a distasteful business in which they engage only out of necessity.

Ambitious young Democrats see politics as a vocation, and often get jobs on the staffs of elected officials and begin building skills and networks toward the day when they can seek office themselves. But Republicans more often seek their fortunes in non-political fields and turn to politics later in life as an avocation. Republican state Sen. William "Pete" Knight, who died last week, typified the GOP pattern; he spent more than three decades in the Air Force and set speed records as an X-15 test pilot before becoming involved in local politics and then running for the Legislature.

John Burton, the Senate president pro tem, is the archetypal Democratic politician, who evolved from college campus activism into careers in the Legislature, in Congress and back in the Legislature over a half-century. Burton, easily the most influential member of the Legislature, will be forced out this year by term limits, but his successor probably will be another careerist. His likely, although not certain, replacement is Don Perata, who was a legislative staffer before becoming an Alameda County supervisor and legislator.

As it happens, Burton's longtime Republican counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, is also being termed out of the Legislature this year and on Monday quietly turned over the leadership position to Richard Ackerman. Brulte is a notable exception to the career pattern of GOP politicians, while Ackerman - an Orange County lawyer before entering politics - embodies it.

Brulte came to the Legislature in 1990 as an assemblyman from San Bernardino County after spending his young adulthood in Washington as a senatorial and White House staffer, and with that experience quickly established himself in a GOP contingent full of term-limited newcomers with scant political experience. As Assembly GOP leader, he masterminded the historic 1994 election strategy that saw Republicans win - on paper at least - a bare, 41-seat majority of the Assembly's 80 seats for the first time in a quarter-century.

Brulte segued into the Senate in 1996 and took his rare-for-a-Republican political talents with him. And after he had become GOP leader, he and Burton forged an unusual but highly productive relationship that, in some respects, became a virtual partnership. They would often work out bipartisan deals on the budget and other matters and force them through the Assembly, where partisan passions are hotter.

The hinge point in the Burton-Brulte relationship has been the simple fact that both are professional politicians who may have had disparate ideological leanings and personalities - Burton a hot-tempered liberal and Brulte an even-tempered conservative - but who respect each other's needs and who understand and accept the practical side of the trade. It's doubtful whether Ackerman and whoever succeeds Burton as the top Senate Democrat will have the same relationship simply because Ackerman doesn't come from the same career orientation. It's even possible that the Capitol's emphasis will shift back to the Assembly, where Speaker Fabian Núñez and GOP leader Kevin McCarthy are both seasoned professionals despite their brief time in the Capitol.

Outside the Legislature, Brulte became a key - and early - California ally for George W. Bush and helped mastermind a takeover of the state Republican Party by pro-Bush pragmatists and professionals, much to the chagrin of doctrinaire conservatives.

Given his well-demonstrated political skills, political circles have buzzed with speculation about Brulte's post-legislative career since he's still relatively young. Rumors have had him becoming the White House liaison to California, assuming Bush is re-elected, or taking the helm of the state Republican Party as its first professional chairman.

Brulte says neither is on his personal horizon, that he'll probably work in the private sector for a couple of years and then run for the state Board of Equalization, a powerful if little-known tax agency, when a Republican-leaning seat opens up in 2006.

"I'll start thinking about it seriously this week," he said Monday.