Wilson Piles Up Funds for Governor’s Race

Whatever problems Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson may face in seeking the California governorship next year, money will apparently not be one of them.

Wilson raised $1.2 million at one dinner Wednesday night in Los Angeles, an event that looked more like a presidential fund-raiser in its size and cash take.

Wilson advisers say he will have more than $2 million on hand when the current fund-raising cycle ends this month, and he can save it all to go after the Democrats since he has no primary opposition next year.

Honing his “message” for the 1990 campaign, though, could prove tougher for Wilson than the fund raising, as his remarks Wednesday showed.

Speaking to the 1,300 people attending the sold-out event at the Century Plaza, Wilson tried to position himself as a crime fighter in the mold of Gov. George Deukmejian while emphasizing his own interest in so-called quality-of-life issues--better child care and programs to help ghetto youths resist drugs and gangs.

It was a speech with a split personality.

For half of it, Wilson talked tough:

“The law of California must be changed to favor the citizen and not the criminal,” he shouted. “I swear to you I will not have the people of California under siege by thugs or rapists or sellers of crack cocaine.”

Wilson urged the passage of a ballot initiative next June that would speed up criminal trials and impose stiffer penalties for crimes involving torture.

And then he turned gentle, lowering his voice:

“But how much better to prevent crimes than to punish them. How much better to provide adequate prenatal care. . . . How much better to prevent learning disorders than to try to correct them. . . . And in the name of God and simple decency, how infinitely better to prevent child abuse than to suffer certain creation of the next generation of child abusers and residents of Death Row.”

Wilson’s advisers say privately that while they think voters are still preoccupied with crime in California, Wilson believes he will give up valuable ground to the Democrats in next year’s gubernatorial campaign if he does not address ways to improve the quality of life in the state.