He Jabs Willie Brown but Gets New Digs : Politics: Assemblyman Bowler, a frequent critic of the Speaker, is moved from his tiny office to more spacious quarters in the Capitol.

The lawmaker with the smallest office in the state Capitol got lucky last week. Assembly Speaker Willie Brown gave him a new office, this time with windows, some elbowroom and even access to an outdoor patio.

During an interview earlier this month inside freshman Assemblyman Larry Bowler’s former office you could smell the bacon and eggs frying next door in the state cafeteria. He could not open a window because there was not one. People called his sixth-floor office a broom closet.

The assignment of office space is not among the weightiest matters facing California’s elected officials, but it says something about how petty politics can become in the Capitol of the largest state.

Bowler is a 30-year Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department veteran who is perhaps Brown’s most irritating Republican critic in the Legislature, regularly calling him a dictator and master manipulator. In his campaign for office he promised to try to oust Brown, but lacking the clout to do that he keeps sniping, to no obvious avail.

“I told him during the campaign and since that I would be his worst nightmare and I have lived up to that,” said Bowler, of Elk Grove.

The Democratic Speaker is no stranger to GOP arrows, but taking shots at Brown carries a certain amount of risk. Among the Speaker’s powers is the authority to assign Assembly office space. Large offices go to Brown’s allies, smaller ones to his political foes. And the smallest of the small went to political outcast No. 1, Bowler the Bombastic.

On Wednesday, Brown moved Bowler to a new office on the third floor. The new office was occupied by the late Assemblyman B. T. Collins (R-Carmichael), who died March 20.

Bowler believes the unexpected--and unrequested--switch occurred because The Times made inquiries about why he had the smallest legislative office in Sacramento.

Asked why the Speaker decided to move Bowler, Brown’s press secretary, Darolyn Davis, said she did not believe that it had anything to do with The Times’ inquiries. “I think he (Brown) is just feeling good,” Davis said. “He scored a great victory in making the state budget happen. He’s into the spirit of cooperation.”

Bowler guarantees that he did nothing in return for the new office. He noted that he voted no on the budget and all of the essential trailer bills, which Brown supported. “I gave Willie nothing,” Bowler said.

As it happens, Brown often dropped in alone for breakfast at the sixth-floor cafeteria, next door to the office he gave Bowler. Recently, as he ate a bowl of cornflakes and a banana, Brown was asked why he gave Bowler such a tiny office.

Because, Brown replied, “I didn’t have anything smaller.”

Was he mad at Bowler for the attacks against him during the campaign and continuing criticism? “Not at all. I didn’t even notice it,” Brown said.

Well, then, how does he get in touch with Bowler if he wants to talk to him about legislative matters? “I call the chef in the cafeteria and ask him to take a message,” the Speaker said with a laugh.

Bowler’s sixth-floor digs were so far removed from the Speaker’s large and ornate office just off the Assembly floor that calling, Brown chuckled, required dialing another area code.

What does Brown think of Bowler the lawmaker?

“I think he’s OK,” the Speaker said. “He’s learning his way around. He makes a good presentation on the floor, he follows the dress code, and he shows up for work on time every day.”

For his part, Bowler said the small office did not bother him, although it was a tight squeeze for the two employees who make up his Capitol staff.

“There are three people in what is basically a one-person office,” he said. “I opened the door too fast one day and hit a lady right in the hind end and really hurt her. That’s why we put up that sign that says: ‘Please open the door slowly . . . small office.’ ”

As for the smell of cafeteria food, Bowler said: “You get used to that. And you develop real close relationships with the people over in the cafeteria.”

Then, turning serious, the Northern California Assemblyman said: “He (Brown) asked me the other day if there was anything I wanted while I was here at the Capitol.

“Now an old bass fisherman like me recognizes the cast of a lure, and I could see that lure wriggle right by me.

“I said: ‘Willie, there’s only two things that I want to do while I’m here. I have no preconceived agenda. I am here to represent 370,000 people and to be your loyal opposition.’ ”

What did Brown do? “He just laughed in his very charming manner,” Bowler said.