He Arrives Today Amid Fears He Hasn’t Challenged Bush on Key Issues : Dukakis’ Effort in State Causing Party Concern

As Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis arrives today to campaign and raise money in California, some party officials and political professionals fear he is letting the race get away from him in a state crucial to his election.

The crux of their criticism is that Republican nominee George Bush, guided by people who know the state, has fashioned an emotional message and has been allowed to deliver it with little challenge.

Dukakis, meanwhile, has focused on legal arguments in one case and simply restated his positions in two others. Also, his advisers seem determined to run the California campaign from the national headquarters in Boston.

‘It Takes Forever’

One Dukakis adviser in California complained that “it takes forever to get a decision” out of campaign headquarters in Los Angeles because top Dukakis officials in Boston must be consulted.

“Michael Dukakis has to regain the emotional ground in this campaign,” said Santa Monica media consultant Kam Kuwata, who became concerned last week as Bush traveled the state hammering Dukakis on the Pledge of Allegiance and such issues as gun control and capital punishment.

He recalled the huge, emotional rally that greeted Dukakis in Modesto the day after the Democratic National Convention in July.

Kuwata, who helped engineer U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston’s reelection in 1986, was the only Democrat who would speak for attribution in criticizing Dukakis, but his concern was voiced by others, including some elected officials.

Patriotism Questioned

One Democrat noted that Dukakis’ response on the Pledge of Allegiance issue was to say it is unconstitutional to force teachers to lead the pledge in their classrooms. Bush, by contrast, seized the symbolism of the pledge and used it to question Dukakis’ patriotism.

“At the moment, the Republican message is simpler and more clear than ours,” lamented California Democratic Chairman Peter Kelly.

On issues such as gun control and capital punishment, Dukakis has repeated his positions without flair. He noted, for example, that he does not oppose rifles for sportsmen but wants to restrict small, concealable handguns. And he argues that his state, which does not have capital punishment, has the lowest homicide rate in the nation.

These issues carry significant weight with the kinds of swing voters Dukakis must recapture from the Republicans if he is to win the state’s 47 electoral votes.

Explanations Urged

Several Democrats said they do not expect Dukakis to change his positions, but they believe he could help himself by explaining his positions in terms the average person can relate to.

“Dukakis is for gun control, that’s true,” said one Democrat. “But he has to point out that we’re not talking here about taking away duck guns and deer rifles, which is what Bush implies. We’re talking about Uzis (machine guns) and pistols in the hands of children and hardened criminals.”

This Democrat said he was amazed that when Bush held a rally in Sacramento last week and blasted Dukakis on gun control, there was no Dukakis defender ready to hold an immediate press conference and give the Dukakis side.

Campaign Never Called

Democratic Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, a veteran of California campaigns, could see the Bush attack on gun control coming. He was ready to rebut, but his chief deputy, Barbara Johnson, said Tuesday that the Dukakis campaign never called.

Dukakis’ state director, Anthony Podesta, acknowledged in an interview Tuesday that the campaign could have done a better job in blunting the Bush attacks in California.

“We need to say it louder,” Podesta said. “In an ideal world we would have had our office and our staff and been ready to go.”

But he was dubious about whether Dukakis would attempt to match Bush’s appeal to emotional issues in California.

“Michael Dukakis is not going to change the way in which he engages these issues,” Podesta said.

Oil Drilling Issue

The Dukakis campaign now wishes it had responded more strongly to a recent Bush contradiction on offshore oil drilling--always a big issue in California.

Last spring, Bush finally heeded advice from Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson and broke with the Reagan Administration over plans to lease new oil plots off the coast of California. He said he wanted more environmental studies.

But last Friday in East Texas, Bush said: “There is no security for the United States in this ever-increasing dependence on foreign oil, and I will turn it around. My opponent opposes offshore drilling and I support it.”

Cranston Letter

Podesta said the Dukakis campaign had Cranston write a letter to Bush to challenge the contradiction. Then Podesta thought a moment about how that sounded and added:

“We’re not going to sit around and have George Bush say he is in favor of offshore drilling there and opposed to it here. I think we will do it (respond) more vigorously, more actively and more directly.”

But in the long run, Podesta argued, the Dukakis campaign is not in trouble in California.

“I don’t think anyone is paying attention now,” he said. “The playing field is level and we’ll be there to engage in the debate with George Bush and Dan Quayle. . . . We have spent the last month getting organized, and we’ll be ready the day after Labor Day.”

Already Under Way

But Mervin Field, founder of the California Poll, said in an interview that the campaign is already well under way.

“The idea that presidential campaigns start after Labor Day is an old notion,” he said. “It has changed. Huge sums are raised early now and it burns a hole in the pockets. The campaigns don’t wait.”

That is the view often expressed by two of California’s most experienced consultants, Stuart K. Spencer and Kenneth L. Khachigian, who are advising Bush and his running mate, Indiana Sen. Quayle.

In the past, Khachigian and Spencer have helped President Reagan and Gov. George Deukmejian win big in California, and it was their idea to run against Dukakis as though he were a liberal candidate for governor.

They urged Bush to focus on gun control, rejected by voters in 1982, and capital punishment, approved overwhelmingly twice in the last decade.

Sees Role as Liaison

Podesta, a Washington resident and former president of People for the American Way, does not pretend to be a California expert. He said Tuesday that he saw his role mainly as being a liaison with Dukakis’ Boston headquarters.

He has hired a number of Californians as his deputies, including Vern Watkins of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Kathy Garmezy, director of development for the AFL-CIO’s Labor Institute of Public Affairs.

Also advising Podesta is Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. John Emerson, who engineered Gary Hart’s primary victory here in 1984.

“The reason the Bush attacks on Dukakis won’t stick is that once we have the debates, people will see that Dukakis is a tough, solid leader,” Emerson said. “It will be the reverse of what happened in 1980, when (President Jimmy) Carter had led people to believe Ronald Reagan was a lunatic who would blow us all up. Reagan looked solid and reasonable in the debates and Carter’s charges had no credibility after that. The race was over from that point on.”