Time for Legislator to Make Her Moves

It is the ultimate in office politics. Forget the ideological fights, the political bickering, the policy flaps. The fiercest battles in our state’s Capitol are over who gets a room with a view.

Now into that tussle over office space wades Orange County Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer. The Irvine Republican has gotten the somewhat dubious honor of heading a subcommittee that will hand out the office assignments for the coming year.

It’s the sort of job few would embrace, what with the potential for alienating fellow lawmakers--even those of your own party--who don’t get quite the spot they had hoped for.

But the irrepressible Brewer, who grew enormously in political stature during her first year in office, has seized the posting as high priestess of office assignments with characteristic verve.

She promises to introduce a new system for office assignments that will fairly mete out space to members of both parties and, she hopes, become a model for the future, whichever party is in power.

“My goal is to set up a master plan that will supersede partisanship and live on, no matter who controls this house,” Brewer said one recent afternoon in her own sixth-floor office. “I believe in the decorum and dignity of this house, and I hope this plan reflects it.”

Democrats, who lost control of the lower house--and its office space--for the first time in a quarter century, have already begun to voice concerns about the plans of Brewer and the Republicans.

Brewer, however, says they should hold off any criticisms until they see her full plan, which is likely to be unveiled during the coming week. It will base the assignments on seniority and could result in some longtime Democratic lawmakers getting better office spots than Republicans.

She also hopes the plan will eliminate the incessant movement of offices, particularly for Assembly policy committees, thus cutting the cost to taxpayers for remodeling. Brewer suggests that the office plan will cause a flurry of initial moves in the next few weeks, but that the only remodeling needed will be to open up a doorway here and there.

“In the past, the size and location of your office has been a badge of honor around here,” Brewer said. “But it is the institution that is important, not the office you occupy.”

*

Brewer cut her teeth for this latest assignment during a freshman year that saw the moderate Republican repeatedly come to the defense of more conservative colleagues during their battles with former Speaker Doris Allen, who was recalled from office last November after striking a deal with the Democrats to gain the Assembly’s top post.

When Democrats contended that sexism was at the heart of Republican criticisms of Allen, it was Brewer who repeatedly offered the most potent counterarguments. In doing so, the businesswoman and onetime aide to former Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley was embraced by colleagues who had once viewed her as a political liability.

Those initial qualms date back to Brewer’s run for office in 1994. Two factions of the Republican Party backed a pair of conservative candidates. Brewer, whose stance as a supporter of abortion rights made her suspect to the conservatives, slipped between the two to eke out a narrow victory.

Since arriving at the Capitol, though, Brewer has convinced her fellow Republicans from Orange County and in the GOP caucus that, aside from the abortion issue, she is every bit a die-hard conservative, taking strong stands on fiscal and business issues. New GOP Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, for one, has become a staunch Brewer fan.

“Marilyn is viewed as a leader in the caucus,” said Jeff Flint, Pringle’s deputy chief of staff. And her new assignment on office selections isn’t being taken lightly, Flint added. “I think she’s had more than a few visits from folks who are curious where they’re going to end up.”