CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Candidates Vie for Minorities’ Support : Politics: Feinstein vows to appoint Latinos to 25% of the state’s jobs. Van de Kamp voices similar commitment, but says he opposes ‘quotas.’

Democratic gubernatorial candidates Dianne Feinstein and John Van de Kamp competed for bragging rights as defenders of minorities and consumers Saturday as they campaigned in opposite ends of the state.

Speaking in Los Angeles to delegates at the 43rd annual state convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens, Feinstein reiterated her pledge to name Latinos to 25% of the appointive jobs in her administration, equal to the percentage of Latinos in the state’s population.

She also vowed to invoke a “formal affirmative action plan” in all the state’s departments and said she would personally review progress on hiring goals when it came time every year to set the department’s budget and judge department heads.

But she specifically denied that she was advocating a quota system, despite using terminology like “goals and timetables” that historically have been indicators of quotas.

“If I am successful in my race for governor, I will move to guarantee full participation of Hispanics in every aspect of California’s public and political life,” she told the LULAC members, gathered at a hotel near downtown.

“Now, people have said ‘This means you’re for quotas.’ I say that’s nonsense,” she said. “I’m not talking about a quota. I’m talking about what I’m going to do and what I’m going to do is see that people of color are represented in the next administration to the goal of parity with their population.”

A week ago, Feinstein pledged her intention to name women to half the jobs in her administration, and also promised to appoint minorities proportionally. It was the most specific she had been in spelling out her hiring plans.

Van de Kamp, who has engaged in a running dispute with Feinstein over who is more committed to hiring minorities and women, has said he agrees with the notion of broadening representation of all groups in state government. But, the attorney general said, he believes that employees should be “selected on merit” rather than by “quotas”.

The issue of who is the better consumer candidate also resurfaced Saturday--three days before Tuesday’s primary--in a slightly different form. For three days, Van de Kamp has struck at Feinstein via television ads featuring consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who states that Feinstein is a pawn of the insurance industry and “a Republican in Democrat clothing.”

On Saturday, Feinstein tried to cut out a little consumer turf of her own. At a North Hollywood rally of senior citizens who lost money on bonds floated by defunct Lincoln Savings & Loan, she contended that Van de Kamp had ignored warnings that the company controlled by businessman Charles Keating was failing.

“Did he move quickly, did he make your life savings a priority?” she asked. “When Lincoln Savings failed, did the attorney general start an investigation? No, he did not.”

Van de Kamp, campaigning in Oakland, called the allegation “a desperation shot” and said the authority over Lincoln rested with the state savings and loan commission and the corporations commission.

“Mrs. Feinstein has been running a hysterical campaign this last week,” he said.

Van de Kamp also criticized Feinstein for the television advertisement she is running, which accuses Van de Kamp of trying to let loose Angelo Buono, who was later convicted as the Hillside Strangler.

“The image she has been building as a warm and caring person has been absolutely shot down with these ads,” he said.

Van de Kamp ally Nader, meanwhile, stepped up his dispute with Feinstein, faxing to reporters a letter he said he sent to the former mayor.

“Upon analysis, it is clear that your career has moved from early stage consumer activist to latter-stage corporate supporter,” Nader wrote. “You have repeatedly sided with the insurance industry, big developers and big property owners against their weaker but more just challengers among the people.”

Feinstein, answering questions from reporters after the Lincoln bondholders’ meeting, said she had not yet received the letter. “That’s sheer baloney,” she responded when told what it said.

“I’m beginning to think maybe (Nader) is a little confused because he lives so far away,” she said. “Mr. Nader never asked me for my view on any consumer subject. . . . For Mr. Nader, a registered independent from Connecticut who has supported Republican candidates, to suddenly be putting forward his dogma as to who is and who isn’t a good Democrat--I think is a little bit out of the line of being a consumer protector.”

Nader specifically has been irked at Feinstein for her 1988 support of an insurance industry-backed initiative that would have instituted no-fault insurance in California. Nader backed Proposition 103, which ultimately won out over several competing insurance reform proposals.

Van de Kamp also did not support Proposition 103--favoring instead an initiative that was backed by trial lawyers--but he has won Nader’s vocal support because he moved to assist the implementation of Proposition 103 after the election.

While Feinstein campaigned among senior citizens and Latinos Saturday, Van de Kamp enjoyed a leisurely public pace, spending about 90 minutes walking through an open-air lake front festival in Oakland while talking to reporters and shaking hands with a few dozen passers-by. From there, he flew to Northern California’s wine country for three fund-raisers.

Times political writer Decker reported from Los Angeles, Times staff writer Weintraub reported from Oakland.

* BIG LOCAL BALLOT

County voters will decide two supervisor races and several important local measures. B1

* WATCH THE PROPOSITIONS

There’s no big difference between the candidates for governor, Republican or Democrat. The 17 ballot initiatives will have a greater effect on California’s future. M1

KEY MATCHUPS IN TUESDAY’S ELECTION

THE DEMOCRATS

* Governor: Former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein and Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp want to replace George Deukmejian in the governor’s office. First, Democrats must decide which one will represent their party in the November election against Republican Pete Wilson.

* Attorney General: Two district attorneys, one from the North and one from the South, want to be the state’s top legal officer. They are Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith.

* Insurance Commissioner: A big and brawling field of seven Democrats are tussling to become the state’s first elected insurance commissioner. The candidates are Michael Blanco, Ray Bourhis, Conway Collis, John Garamendi, Larry Murphy, Bill Press and Walter A. Zelman.

THE REPUBLICANS

* Lieutenant Governor: Two state senators, both from Orange County, are seeking the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor and the right to face Democratic incumbent Leo T. McCarthy in November. The Republicans are John Seymour and Marian Bergeson.

* Treasurer: Incumbent Thomas W. Hayes won the office last year through gubernatorial appointment, but that did not automatically give him the nod for the party’s nomination. Former U.S. Treasurer Angela (Bay) Buchanan is trying to oust him.

* Insurance Commissioner: Five Republicans have run low-key, low-budget campaigns for insurance commissioner. Seeking to carry the GOP banner are Wes Bannister, Joseph D. Dunlop, John L. (Jack) Harden, John S. Parise and Thomas A. Skornia.

KEY PROPOSITIONS

There are 17 ballot measures for voters to wade through. Among those to watch:

* Gas Tax Increase: Proposition 111 would trigger a gasoline tax that would eventually double the current 9-cents-a-gallon levy. It would also modify the state’s spending limit, so the money raised could be spent. The money would go toward transportation projects.

* Ethics: Proposition 112 would impose stricter ethical standards on state officeholders. It would also establish a new commission to set salaries, possibly opening the door to higher pay for lawmakers and others.

* Court Reform: Proposition 115 proposes to change procedures in state courts to speed up criminal trials. Critics say--and supporters deny--that it could also undercut abortion rights.

* Reapportionment: Propositions 118 and 119 go right to the heart of political power, proposing to change the way congressional and legislative district lines are drawn every decade. That power now rests with the Legislature.

AROUND THE STATE

* Oakland Mayor: Lionel Wilson made history when he was elected Oakland’s first black mayor in 1977. But in a city beset by a variety of urban ills and the ravages of last October’s earthquake, he is the underdog as he faces seven challengers in his bid for a fourth term.

* 37th Assembly District: Republican incumbent Cathie Wright has been plagued by revelations of her efforts to intervene with authorities on behalf of her daughter, who had accumulated a series of speeding tickets. Primary foe Hunt Braly hopes the flap will cause voters in this San Fernando Valley-Ventura County-Santa Barbara County district to drive her from office.

* 48th Assembly District: Maxine Waters’ decision to give up this Assembly seat to run for Congress set off the first competitive legislative race in Los Angeles’ black community in years. The leading contenders for the Democratic nomination in this heavily Democratic district are Marguerite Archie-Hudson and Los Angeles City Councilman Robert Farrell.

* 59th Assembly District: In a test of clout, four of Los Angeles County’s leading Latino politicians--including two congressmen--are backing their own candidates in the Democratic primary for the San Gabriel Valley seat vacated by state Sen. Charles Calderon.

* 79th Assembly District: Democrat Peter Chacon has been hinting for years that he is close to retiring from the San Diego-area seat he won in 1970. Celia Ballesteros has mounted a stiff primary challenge to Chacon and is counting on voters making the decision for him.