Capitol’s New Star Enjoys First Day in the Limelight : Speaker: Doris Allen faces well-wishers, job-seekers and favor-seekers. She also begins a learning process.

Doris Allen’s day began early, with a 6 a.m. phone call that roused her from a restless night’s sleep. On the line was a friend from Orange County, calling to wish her good luck in her new job.

Awake and in high spirits, Doris Allen rose, brewed a cup of coffee and read about herself in the morning paper. Then she donned a silk skirt and blouse, slipped into shiny black pumps and drove her red Jeep Cherokee to the state Capitol, where her new empire--the California Assembly--was anxiously waiting.

“Look at all these flowers!” Allen exclaimed upon spying the colorful thicket of bouquets crowding her office foyer Tuesday. “Isn’t this exciting?”

Day 1 in Doris Allen’s reign as California’s first woman Speaker was a frantic one. From dawn to dusk she was showered with evidence that her old life--as an obscure Republican lawmaker from Cypress--was over and a new one--as a leader expected to unify the badly fractured state Assembly--had begun.

The new life, said the Speaker, felt good.

Despite the bitter sneers of some fellow Republicans and the hard political realities that lie ahead, Allen marched through Tuesday with vigor and good humor, at times looking dazed by the turn of events but also appearing energized by the challenge before her.

“This is not a job that I sought, and I certainly feel some anxiety and apprehension,” Allen said. “But I can handle it. I’m up to it. . . . I see good days ahead.”

There were, however, lessons to be learned. The first one? Don’t talk so much. Time is a precious commodity, Allen’s chief of staff told her after one particularly long-winded meeting, and there is none in the schedule to waste.

“Take a minute to get comfortable with people, then focus, go through your agenda and move on,” the aide, Mark Powers, advised. “Otherwise, you’ll never get anything done.”

Indeed, it seemed Tuesday that everyone wanted Allen’s attention. From the moment her office door was unlocked to the moment it closed in the evening, a parade of lobbyists, Assembly members, friends, enemies and job-seekers jostled for a chunk of her time--and peppered her with questions, advice and demands.

The phone rang off the hook, bringing kudos--and condemnation--from far and near, and the fax machine buzzed.

The press swarmed all over Allen as well, inquiring about her intentions, her predictions, her agenda--even whom she planned to hire and fire.

One of the earliest interviews was with CNN, whose reporter was the first of several to ask Allen whether she thinks she is tough enough to be Speaker of the raucous Assembly. Allen replied calmly that she is, and vowed to handle whatever venom her bitter Republican colleagues might spew.

“I’m used to it,” Allen said. “They’ve called me every name in the book.”

At midmorning it was time to go calling. First stop was a get-acquainted chat with Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy. Along the route to Maddy’s ornate suite of offices, Allen’s new stature as a Capitol celebrity became clear. People from the elevator operator to a series of lobbyists paused to clap her on the back and wish her well.

As for Maddy, he was gracious as always, congratulating Allen and expressing hope that she could muster the necessary votes to adopt a budget this summer.

“Good luck with your pursuits,” Maddy said in closing their 15-minute meeting.

“My door is always open,” Allen replied with a warm smile.

Back upstairs, Allen’s office was beginning to smell like a funeral parlor. Flowers of every color and variety filled every available space, sent by constituents, friends, strangers and Assembly colleagues. Sen. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) sent something else--a fine bottle of Cordoniu Brut champagne.

After a staff briefing, Allen was off again--this time to the regularly scheduled Republican Caucus lunch. She was 30 minutes late, and her colleagues--still bristling from the defeat of their handpicked Speaker candidate, Jim Brulte, a day earlier--were more than a little surprised to see her.

“They never thought she’d have the courage to show up, and the tone was pretty ugly at the beginning,” said Powers, who escorted his boss to the affair. But Allen hung in there, Powers said, munching chicken fajitas and telling her GOP brethren to cool off.

“Her message was, ‘Let’s let the dust settle and then find common ground,’ ” Powers said. Before long, he predicted, “they’ll realize that she remains a good Republican and will be an independent, bipartisan Speaker--that it won’t be Willie Brown Inc. or Jim Brulte Inc.”

A short time later, there was evidence that Allen had made an impression, as a stream of Republican colleagues came courting. Several of the lawmakers even endured a lengthy wait amid the blooms outside Allen’s office before she invited them in for a chat.

Assemblyman Gary G. Miller (R-West Covina) said he came to see Allen in the “spirit of cooperation and with an open mind.”

“I wasn’t elected to be prideful and arrogant and close my door,” Miller said. “She’s the Speaker and that’s that. We need to move forward.”

Seven other Republican assemblymen dropped by, and several others telephoned to set up meetings for today.

There was another sort of visitor hovering around Allen on Tuesday--job-seekers with resumes in hand. Some applicants even came from the offices of other senior Republican members. Vilified on Monday, Allen suddenly was a hot commodity Tuesday--the power center, the place with the bucks.

“We’re going to grow from a staff of six to a staff of 25 or 50,” said Marc Burgat, a top aide to Allen. “There’s a lot of opportunity here. It’s like a corporate takeover.”

Aside from all the meeting and greeting, Allen had some decisions--minor and major--to contemplate. The major ones related to the structure of her speakership, to staffing and to who would hold key positions on certain committees.

The less weighty matters ranged from what sort of car she would like to use in Sacramento--one of Willie Brown’s Cadillacs or a different model?--to whom she might pick as her personal 24-hour sergeant-at-arms.

As Allen juggled those and more substantive questions, staff members began planning the big move to the Speaker’s office. This was a matter of great interest, as the Speaker’s digs--a palatial ensemble of rooms furnished with antiques--is quite a step up from Allen’s run-of-the mill office just down the hall from the sixth-floor cafeteria.

Another hot topic Tuesday was a bootleg flyer seen in the Capitol titled “The Top 10 Reasons Jim Brulte Lost the Speakership for the Second Time.” Reason No. 4 was particularly relevant for some Allen staffers, who contend that Brulte and his cohorts ganged up on Allen, prompting her renegade candidacy for Speaker.

It read: “Hasn’t figured out that you don’t mistreat members of your own caucus because it will come back and haunt you!”