Brown was extremely popular in San Francisco, but less so in the rest of the state. Nevertheless, he wielded great control over statewide legislative affairs and political appointments, making it difficult for his conservative opponents to thwart his power. Partially to remove Brown from his leadership position, a state constitutional amendment initiative was proposed and passed by the electorate in 1990, imposing term limits on state legislators. Brown became the focus of the initiative, and raised just under $1 million to defeat it. The California legislature challenged the law, but the courts upheld it. California Proposition 140 also cut the legislature's staff budget by 30 percent, causing Brown to reduce legislative staff by at least 600. Under the California term-limits law, no Speaker of the California State Assembly will be permitted to have a longer tenure than Brown's. After term limits forced Brown out of office, the Assembly restructured its rules to give most of the powers formerly held by the Speaker to a leadership committee made up of senior members of both major parties.