Van de Kamp Shifts Gears, Opens Fire on Feinstein

Jockeying for position as the primary race for governor closes to a frenetic few days, John K. Van de Kamp switched gears Wednesday from a public emphasis on positive ads touting his record to an attack on his opponent Dianne Feinstein’s ideology and past support of a voter initiative backed by the insurance industry.

The strategic move marked a departure for Van de Kamp, who had been telling reporters that he preferred to end the race on a positive note. And it left the infuriated Feinstein campaign threatening to unleash a negative advertisement of its own.

The advertising maneuvers marked the beginning of the last surge in the governor’s race, the period in which strategic moves can spell benefit or disaster for candidates and in which television advertising becomes crucial because no other political tactic can reach so many people so quickly.

With just six days remaining before voters decide between the two Democrats, both are pushing hard at audiences they think will deliver on Election Day--bedrock Democrats, women, minorities, the poor--with Van de Kamp touting himself as “the real Democrat” and Feinstein accentuating the historic nature of her quest to become the state’s first woman governor.

The two candidates also are struggling to raise money and command the attention of television cameras, particularly as the U.S.-Soviet summit and the pending visit of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to San Francisco threaten to diminish the candidates’ chance to capture public attention.

The Van de Kamp television commercial, scheduled to begin in some markets Wednesday night and running statewide by today, was composed of snippets cut from a press conference held Tuesday in Washington by consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Nader called the session to talk about insurance reform, but included in his comments a critique of the California candidates.

“If Feinstein and (Republican) Pete Wilson are elected, you might as well send a check to Aetna and State Farm,” Nader says. “Because she really is a Republican in Democratic clothing.”

Nader has not formally endorsed Van de Kamp, but said during the press conference that he was considering speaking out on the race during a trip to California later this week. He did not return calls made to his office Wednesday.

In the advertisement, Nader mispronounces Feinstein’s name, pronouncing it Fein-steen. Van de Kamp campaign chairwoman Barbara Johnson denied that the pronunciation indicated Washington-based Nader was unfamiliar with the California candidates.

“Different parts of the country pronounce it differently,” Johnson said.

Among Feinstein’s campaign managers, Van de Kamp’s strategy switch sparked outrage.

“These people told us last week and told you they were going to go on the high road,” said Bill Carrick, Feinstein’s campaign manager.

“They keep going further and further down the low road, and they are certainly at subterranean levels. We have repeatedly told them we would not sit back and be a punching bag.”

Although the tenor of their remarks seems to indicate so, Carrick and other campaign officials would not say whether they were leaning toward using a commercial critical of Van de Kamp’s handling, when he was Los Angeles County district attorney, of the Hillside Strangler case. But Feinstein’s campaign has long held that out as a possibility--and a threat--to keep Van de Kamp from going on the attack.

Feinstein herself on several occasions has sought to exploit the fact that, after Hillside Strangler suspect Angelo Buono was accused of murder in 1981, Van de Kamp acceded to recommendations by underlings that he not initially prosecute Buono for murder.

Van de Kamp has said that he agreed to dismiss the murder charges because Buono’s cousin Kenneth Bianchi, who was due to testify against Buono, had begun changing his story. Prosecutors, including Van de Kamp, said they felt they had a better chance of keeping Buono in jail by prosecuting him on sex charges and seeking more evidence in the murder case.

But Superior Court Judge Ronald M. George disagreed and turned the case over to then-Atty. Gen. George Deukmejian, whose prosecutors persuaded a jury to convict Buono on nine of 10 counts of murder. Since the beginning of the campaign, Van de Kamp has characterized his decision as a “mistake,” but said that he should be judged on his overall record.

The Van de Kamp campaign’s decision to blister Feinstein for her support of an insurance industry-backed proposition in 1988 was a calculated gamble. On one hand, they hoped to capitalize on vehement anti-insurance company sentiment in a state still grappling to enforce reforms approved by voters in 1988. But at the same time, they knew the ad would prompt fits within the Feinstein campaign.

“Ralph Nader is a truth-teller and California voters know he is a champion of their rights and interests,” Johnson said, explaining the reasoning behind the ad. She also said campaign officials were not concerned about the prospects of a competing salvo from Feinstein.

“It will then give the voters a very clear choice between John Van de Kamp, who made one prosecutorial mistake that’s been talked about over and over again in his career--and Dianne Feinstein, who has sided with the insurance companies throughout hers,” Johnson said.

Johnson called the Nader ad “comparative” and said it did not contradict Van de Kamp’s recent statements that he was going to stay on a positive track through the primary election. Despite that, Van de Kamp has kept running a television ad criticizing Feinstein’s handling of the budget when she was San Francisco mayor.

Whatever its ultimate fallout, the advertisement was Van de Kamp’s attempt to corral the party’s most dependable voters in the upcoming primary, where the results may hinge on voter turnout and the loyalty levels each candidate is able to raise in voters.

In recent days, both Van de Kamp and Feinstein have boiled their campaigns down to essentials--each is spending a great deal of time raising money and driving home issues of traditional interest to Democrats. And despite their back-and-forth sniping, the campaign has thus far been free of the personal attacks that have marred races such as the recent Texas gubernatorial contest.

Van de Kamp has been visiting poor and minority neighborhoods, labor groups and schools, and talking about the environment. Feinstein, who is running a biographical advertisement statewide, has increasingly in recent days campaigned among women and in the black community.

Pollsters surveying voters have found Feinstein leading, but they have also found a big undecided vote. Because of that, Van de Kamp is trying hard to prevent his supporters from giving up.

And Feinstein is trying to prevent her supporters from assuming victory.

“What we’re trying to do is energize supporters and make sure they vote,” Carrick said.