Wilson Supports Party Tickets on Ballots in State

U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, said Monday he would support changing the California Constitution to require that the governor and lieutenant governor be elected as a ticket from the same party.

But Wilson conveyed that his month-old candidacy is not far enough along for him to be precise about terms of such a change in election law--or for him to speak authoritatively on other matters that are likely to be contested in the 1990 campaign, issues as commonplace as gun control or as complex as today’s growth of governance by ballot initiative.

The senator was reelected in November to a second six-year term, and then in February declared he would run for governor next year. An hourlong breakfast session Monday was his first long question-and-answer session with journalists since entering the gubernatorial race.

Relaxed and seeming in good humor, Wilson chose to stay out of the line of fire, even if doing so meant raising questions about his rationale for seeking to govern the state.

Split Tickets

He came closest to specifics on the matter of a governor-lieutenant governor ticket. In the last three gubernatorial election years--1978, ’82 and ‘86--voters chose a governor and lieutenant governor from different parties. Wilson said some voters enjoy this ticket-splitting as fun and as a grass-roots check on the power of politicians.

But, he added, “we have created . . . quite enough in the way of checks and balances” in government already.

“You hear a great deal about leadership, about wanting effective leadership. . . . I think the state would do well to emulate the federal system, certainly in having the governor and lieutenant governor run as a team, as a ticket,” Wilson said.

The federal system, of course, allows a presidential nominee to select a running mate with approval of the party’s political nominating convention. Wilson said he would be happy with that opportunity, or, in the alternative, to run as a ticket with the winner of his party’s primary election for lieutenant governor.

A proposed constitutional amendment calling for a new ticket system of electing the governor and lieutenant governor is pending in the Legislature but faces an uphill battle. In one statewide public opinion poll, Californians said they favor leaving the current system intact.

So does incumbent Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, a Democrat who has announced he will run for reelection in 1990. Supporters of change hope to break through the opposition and put the question on the June, 1990, ballot so that it could affect the November general election.

Not Ready for Battle

On other subjects, in question after question, the senator indicated he was not ready for battle.

He said he probably would sign a ban on sales of assault rifles as proposed in the state Assembly, a ban that would specify by make and model each unlawful weapon. But then again, he added, maybe there is validity to arguments that rural Californians, far from police, need AK-47s or Uzis for personal protection.

Wilson said he shares the concern of rank-and-file voters that too much law is the result of ballot initiatives. But the senator indicated at the same time that he is interested in two or perhaps more initiative campaigns now being discussed in GOP circles.

One being considered in various forms would strip from the Legislature the power to redraw legislative and congressional district boundaries to adjust for population change. Another is an idea to restructure government and eliminate the many layers of spending priorities now on the books in order to allow the next governor and Legislature more leeway in budgeting.

“I’m very interested--but what role I take will, using the words of Jerry Brown, will evolve,” Wilson said.

Names Priorities

His announcement speech Feb. 18 was implicitly critical of the Deukmejian Administration--at least as far as Wilson’s willingness to increase GOP priorities for environmental protection, methods of alternative transportation, health care for the elderly, and research into cures for AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease and breast cancer.

But Monday, Wilson chose instead to emphasize points of similarity. He said Californians could look forward to continuity between Wilson and Deukmejian on “fiscal stewardship” and in handling “the problems of crime and drug abuse.”

Asked how his governorship might make a difference in Sacramento, Wilson attacked the partisan nature of today’s Capitol politics. “I think the public is sick to death of it,” he said.

What would he do?

“Well in a nonpartisan way I’d try to bring in a Republican majority,” he cracked, but offered nothing else.