Feinstein Jabs at Her Opponents, Draws Applause From Publishers

California newspaper publishers meeting here Friday got their first look at the three candidates for governor on the same podium--John, Pete and Buster.

Buster? That’s what Democrat Dianne Feinstein’s staff is calling her after her recent surge in a statewide poll and her blunt criticism of her opponents, Democratic Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and Republican U. S. Sen. Pete Wilson.

Like the new heavyweight boxing champ, James (Buster) Douglas, Feinstein sparred a few rounds Friday and then threw a big punch: “On issues of principle, California’s next governor can’t be for what he’s against, and against what he’s for.”

That was a reference to Van de Kamp’s personal opposition to capital punishment at the same time as he is urging the state to get on with the long-delayed executions of those on Death Row.

The attorney general, who had spoken before Feinstein, sat fuming nearby.

The former San Francisco mayor’s comment was as close as any of the three came to breaking out of the meeting’s rigid format and addressing each other directly.

As for Van de Kamp’s strategy to build his gubernatorial campaign around three ballot initiatives, Feinstein said, “The question is, can initiatives substitute for leadership? . . . Look at Prop. 103 on auto insurance. A court recently gave the insurance companies rights they didn’t have before.”

For Wilson, Feinstein had this to say: “The job we are running for is governor of our state--the chief executive officer, not the chief fund-raiser.”

Wilson had raised a whopping $8.2 million for his campaign as of Jan. 1, dwarfing the amounts collected by the Van de Kamp and Feinstein.

The 300 executives of the California Newspaper Publishers Assn. and spouses listened intently to all three candidates, but they gave their strongest applause to Feinstein.

The first--and loudest--hand-clapping came when Feinstein responded to a question about whether the death penalty helps deter crime.

“I believe it is a deterrent,” she said. “It’s a terrible commentary on society, but I’m afraid we have reached the point where some people, by their acts, do give up their right to survive.”

There was more applause when Feinstein challenged a questioner’s assertion that capital punishment is barbaric and ineffectual.

“I would characterize your analysis as incorrect,” Feinstein shot back, and the room burst into applause.

“You know,” Feinstein continued, “we’re all for the disadvantaged, but I would submit to you that the 2 1/2-year-old baby in Watts who is shot in the head is disadvantaged. I would submit to you that the 85-year-old woman raped and murdered in a convalescent hospital is disadvantaged. . . . The serial murders did not take place with the abandon of today when there was in fact a death penalty in place.”

And if Van de Kamp had hoped that the controversial Hillside Strangler case would not come up Friday, Feinstein disappointed him when she added, in comments supporting the death penalty: “We wouldn’t have the Hillside Stranglers--one of whom is now married and having conjugal visits--when there are 10 young women who were brutally killed.”

Actually, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, who were convicted of the Los Angeles Hillside Strangler slayings, faced the death penalty but were given life sentences.

Van de Kamp has been criticized for not seeking a murder conviction for Buono when Van de Kamp was district attorney of Los Angeles County. A judge overruled Van de Kamp’s motion to dismiss the case and it was eventually tried by the office of then-Atty. Gen. George Deukmejian.

When a member of the audience brought that up Friday, Van de Kamp responded, “That proves I made a mistake. It does not prove I am soft on crime.”

Van de Kamp added, in a reference to the charge that 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis coddled criminals: “Unlike Gov. Dukakis, when he ran for the presidency, I have a record in this particular area.”

The attorney general defended his ballot initiatives on the environment, ethics and drug-war funds by saying, “I want to ask people to join me in making change happen, to judge me not by what I say but by what I do to change California.”

Van de Kamp said he has already gathered more than 1 million signatures for his three ballot measures.

Crime being the favorite topic of the day, Wilson, when he spoke, called for passage of the Crime Victims Justice Reform Initiative on the June ballot.

He also called for “truth in sentencing,” saying, “Citizens of this state for the most part do not know and would be shocked to learn that the average felon in California, once convicted, actually serves half the sentence to which he has been sentenced.”

The two-term senator and former mayor of San Diego also touted his long record of public service in a speech that drew no applause.

Times staff writers John Balzar and George Skelton contributed to this report.