Feinstein Cites Ethics as Key Theme in Campaign

Enumerating the ethical misfortunes of some of her fellow Democrats, former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein chose Friday to make clean government a central theme of her campaign to become the Democratic nominee for governor.

Feinstein, the only potential gubernatorial candidate who is not mow holding office, criticized both federal and state officeholders for having created a “cloud of suspicion” over government in their zeal to collect honorariums, campaign contributions and free trips.

“Increasingly there is a public perception, a perception whether it’s right or not right, that elected officials trade their integrity for honorariums and that some--and I say some--would abandon their principles for profits,” she said.

Quoting heavily from newspaper accounts of political misdeeds, Feinstein unveiled her new campaign platform at a meeting of the California Society of Newspaper Editors. The editors, who had originally planned to hear her address during a luncheon meeting at Sacramento’s Hyatt Hotel, at the last minute had to trek across the street to a legislative hearing room because she refused to cross a union picket line. The Hotel, Restaurant Workers Local 49, AFL-CIO, has been picketing the downtown hotel for weeks.

Feinstein is the second politician this week to announce that ethical reform would be a major campaign theme. Former Republican Rep. Daniel E. Lungren promised Wednesday that he would actively prosecute political corruption if his efforts to win election as attorney general are successful.

Feinstein vowed to push for legislation that would drastically reduce the amount of money candidates and officeholders can collect from political action committees and other special-interest groups.

But when asked if she would voluntarily agree to put some of the reforms into effect in her own campaign, Feinstein said she would not do so unless other candidates agreed to do likewise.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a candidate to disadvantage himself,” she said.

Acknowledging that similar proposals have stalled in the Legislature, Feinstein outlined a legislative reform package that included proposals for banning political donations from businesses, limiting political action committee contributions to $1,000, preventing officeholders from collecting contributions in non-election years, banning honorariums and limiting the acceptance of gifts--including travel--to $100.

She also called for legislation that would prohibit lawmakers from voting on any matter in which they have a direct financial interest, prevent state administrators from lobbying their former agencies for at least one year after they leave office and ban lobbying of governmental agencies by elected officials.

The former mayor said she will try to find a lawmaker to sponsor her proposals and if that is unsuccessful, she will work to get them adopted in an initiative.

Feinstein said her travels throughout the state have shown her that recent publicity over the resignations of House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Texas), U.S. Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced) and the federal indictment of State Sen. Joseph Montoya (D-Whittier) have given voters “a profound mistrust of government.”

“As California faces a crisis of leadership, a cloud of suspicion hangs over our government,” she said. “And this cloud adds to the inability of our elected officials to get anything accomplished.”