Democrats Given Another Nudge on Early Primary at L.A. Convention : Politics: Delegates get a chance to endorse a gubernatorial candidate at three-day event, the first in modern times. National chairman addresses delegates.

The real business of this weekend’s convention of California Democrats is the choice between Dianne Feinstein and John Van de Kamp in the race for governor. But first a word about Californians and another high office the Democrats covet--the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

“It is absurd for the state that’s most important in politics in this country to have no role in relation to nominating the candidates for president in either party,” said Democratic National Chairman Ron Brown.

Brown welcomed delegates to the state convention Friday afternoon with another of his lobbying pitches to move up the June primary three months to the second Tuesday in March. That would put California and its huge harvest of delegates near the front of the nominating sequence rather than at the end.

Brown’s reasoning is this: “The sooner we can get a consensus candidate, the sooner we can concentrate on getting George Bush out of the White House.”

Brown spoke at an opening news conference held jointly with California Democratic Chairman Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.

California’s Brown joined in the early-primary lobbying: “Any way they can advance the primary is good for California.”

The state Legislature has taken some long strides toward changing California’s traditional primary date, but final approval is snagged on an important partisan detail.

Republicans do not want state primary elections to be held in March, so they want a three-election system--a presidential primary in March, a primary for state offices in September and the general election in November. Democrats, by and large, prefer that the primary for state offices be consolidated with the presidential primary.

A poll of delegates by The Times found overwhelming support for the idea of pushing forward the primary date. Only 7% of the delegates favored keeping the June primary. A whopping 68% favored moving it up--with the largest share, 57% preferring a consolidated presidential/state primary in March.

A separate poll of all California voters found the idea of an early primary favored, but not quite so enthusiastically: 30% favored a consolidated March vote, 12% favored some sort of split primary, and 36% said they preferred no change.

Meanwhile a possible record number of delegates, maybe up to 2,000, began arriving Friday for the three-day convention, the first in modern times with the legal authority to endorse one candidate over another.

That necessitates some marathon back slapping by both Feinstein, the former mayor of San Francisco, and Van de Kamp, the state attorney general. Californians accustomed to a multimillion-dollar campaigns waged on television will find this convention a sharp throwback to the gritty face-to-face politics of old.

Between Feinstein and Van de Kamp, they scheduled no fewer than 29 separate appearances during Friday afternoon and evening alone, shuttling between the Convention Center and the headquarters at the Biltmore.

They address the convention separately this morning and an endorsement vote is scheduled for Sunday, although many party insiders believe it will be difficult for either candidate to secure the 60% majority needed for endorsement.

The two chairmen both made a pitch for civility among the gubernatorial combatants. California’s Brown failed in his effort to bring both campaigns together for a general election unity meeting.

“The immediacy of June makes the reality of November more distant,” noted the state chairman.