Democrats’ Candidates for Governor Slash and Parry : Feinstein: Former San Francisco mayor says opponent isn’t qualified to comment on her record.

Stung by Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp’s criticism of her record as San Francisco mayor, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dianne Feinstein struck back Monday, saying Van de Kamp is not qualified to discuss her record because he has been a lawyer all his life and has never balanced a budget or solved a crisis.

Feinstein had called a news conference at the federal court building in downtown Los Angeles to dramatize her concern that the 1990 Census may not accurately count California’s population and thus cost the state some federal money.

She waved a letter she had written to Gov. George Deukmejian in which she urged him to ensure an accurate population count by reviewing the methods used by census takers, particularly those in bilingual communities.

But the row of television news cameras was not set up to cover that issue. What the reporters wanted was Feinstein’s response to a range of charges made against her Sunday by Van de Kamp, her opponent in the June 5 primary.

Among other things, Van de Kamp blasted Feinstein for backing the insurance companies in the 1988 auto insurance reform battle, hit her for not supporting his environmental ballot initiative and said she had left the city of San Francisco with a budget deficit when her two terms as mayor ended in January, 1988.

Feinstein said Monday: “If we are going to get into this kind of thing, I want you to know I am proud of my record. I was mayor of a difficult city at the time when Proposition 13 (cut property taxes), there were hundreds of millions of dollars in federal cuts, there was homelessness. . . . It is very easy for Mr. Van de Kamp to criticize.

“He has been essentially in a law practice, either as public defender or district attorney or attorney general. It’s very different when you have to balance the budget, when you have declining revenues, when you have increasing needs and you have to make very hard choices.

“I am proud of the fact that we reduced crime in San Francisco by 20%. . . . But if he wants to impugn my record, I would say, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Californian, if you feel safer today as a product of John Van de Kamp’s tenure as chief law enforcement officer of the state of California, then vote for him.’ I and the people who support me do not feel safer.”

As for auto insurance reform, Feinstein said she backed the industry’s Proposition 104 because it included a provision for no-fault insurance, and she felt that would lower rates. She noted that neither she nor Van de Kamp supported the grass-roots initiative that won, Proposition 103.

“With 103, the insurance industry has actually gained two things they never had before,” Feinstein said. “The right to leave the state and the right of fair return.”

As for the $180-million budget deficit that San Francisco’s current mayor, Art Agnos, faced when he took office, Feinstein said it was caused by several unforeseen developments, including court decisions that forced the city to pay out money it had not planned on spending.

Feinstein said a recent California Poll showing her now ahead of both Van de Kamp and the presumptive Republican nominee, U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, had given her campaign new life and had led to Van de Kamp’s attacks.

“Two weeks ago I was irrelevant and I’m clearly not irrelevant now,” Feinstein said. “I think John Van de Kamp is hearing footsteps and they are loud enough that he has decided to leave the high road that he said he was going to stay on a week ago.”