CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS GOVERNOR : Wilson and Feinstein Exchange Barbs

Stoking an argument that played itself out from a hotel ballroom to the parking lot across the street, Pete Wilson on Monday accused Dianne Feinstein of being a campaign convert to the death penalty and ridiculed her past association with former state Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

Feinstein lashed back, contending that her support of the death penalty dates back to the 1970s and suggesting firmly that the Republican senator butt out.

“I strongly urge the senator to stay out of the Democratic primary,” the former San Francisco mayor said. “We’ll have time for him in the fall.”

The exchanges marked a particularly curious day in this campaign season, as Feinstein and Wilson--whose positions on many issues are remarkably similar--thrashed about in what could be a preview of coming attractions if Feinstein’s current lead in the polls holds up through the primary election on June 5.

The two candidates--and the third, Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp--were to deliver speeches back-to-back before the California Peace Officers Assn. meeting at the Red Lion Inn in Costa Mesa. But the local Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union set up a picket line to protest the use of non-union workers at the hotel. The logistics of the meeting dissolved.

Wilson spoke as planned. Van de Kamp canceled, telling conventioneers via fax machine that he refuses to cross picket lines. And Feinstein sent a message to the delegates that she would deliver her speech in the parking lot of a bakery across the street from the hotel--oddly, a windmill-topped establishment once operated by Van de Kamp’s family. About a dozen police officers and a like number of reporters ambled over to watch.

The labor dispute also quashed plans for the three major candidates for attorney general to speak to the officers. Republican Dan Lungren and Democrat Arlo Smith spoke as planned, but Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, who had spent the morning shaking hands with conventioneers, left when he heard of the labor troubles.

Wilson’s criticisms of Feinstein suggested that he would like to put some distance between the two of them in case she is the Democratic nominee. On the surface, the moderate Republican and conservative Democrat appear to have similar stands--favoring the death penalty and abortion rights, opposing off-shore oil drilling, and each claiming a strong law-and-order record.

The senator indicated Tuesday that Feinstein’s support of the death penalty is insufficient. He contended that she changed her mind to take advantage of the death penalty in the campaign year and noted her absence from the forefront as state politicians waged war over the death penalty in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Where has Dianne Feinstein been--so quietly on this vital question until so recently?” he asked the police officers. “Telling someone after the fight is over that you were really on their side all the time is pretty cold comfort. It is certainly not remotely the bold leadership which the mayor promises on tough issues.”

Wilson also repeatedly raised the persona of former Chief Justice Bird, vilified by death penalty advocates for her opposition to it during her tenure on the court. That was a key issue when voters removed her from the court in 1986.

The Republican senator described Feinstein as a “co-chair and fund-raiser for the campaign to keep Bird on the court.” According to The Times article on which the senator’s description was based, Feinstein was honorary chair of a 1985 fund-raising dinner for Bird. But Feinstein, the article noted, declined an invitation to speak or appear.

Angrily denouncing Wilson’s remarks, Feinstein said she had intentionally steered clear of the Bird campaign.

“I consider Rose a friend,” she said. “I differed with her (on the death penalty) . . . I thought the appropriate thing was to stay out of it.”

As to her presence as honorary chair of the Bird fund-raiser, she replied: “People use my name all the time. I do not recall it.”

Feinstein dated her change of heart on the death penalty--which she has said she initially opposed but came to embrace as a deterrent to crime--to 1973. To bolster her claim, she produced a newspaper clipping noting that she and other San Francisco supervisors faced censure from the local Democratic Party for endorsing a bill that would have restored the death penalty for those who killed a police office, firefighter or prisoner.

“I have sat through the funerals of seven policemen, and I know that this kind of deterrent is necessary,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Feinstein as saying in 1973. “I don’t believe in the death penalty generally, but for this exception.”

Feinstein said she gradually came to support the death penalty in other instances as years passed. Asked why she had maintained a relatively low profile on the issue, she replied that she had talked about it “when I was asked.”

“During the 1970s, I was busy trying to run a city,” she added.

The two candidates also clashed over the sort of judges each would appoint as governor, with Wilson describing Feinstein’s vow to appoint women and minorities to the bench as “shameless pandering . . . insulting to ethnic groups.”

He also was critical of Feinstein’s pledge to appoint as judges those who support abortion rights. “There should not be a litmus test,” he declared. “It should not be a matter of their personal convictions.”

But on the other hot issue--the death penalty--Wilson acknowledged that he would “be more comfortable” appointing judges who share his views.

Contributing to this article was Times staff writer Paul Feldman.