CAMPAIGN WATCH : There They Go Again!

The first week of California’s gubernatorial campaign focused on death and taxes.

During the primary, exit polls showed the death penalty and abortion were the issues most on people’s minds. But Dianne Feinstein, who, as a proponent of capital punishment, is a prototype of the tough, new Democrat, is more interested in what people will be thinking the next time they leave the polls. She’s betting it will be taxes. So, she emerged from a meeting with Democratic legislators struggling to resolve the state’s $3.6-billion deficit, and said she favored spending cuts over taxes.

Those unable to distinguish between Feinstein-style Democrats and Republicans miss the point. What preoccupies (indeed rivets) tough, new Democrats is not Republican policy, but Republican success.

One of those successes was on Pete Wilson’s mind when he questioned Feinstein’s major claim to tough, new Democratic status: her enthusiasm for capital punishment. After all, Wilson warned a sheriffs’ convention, Feinstein, as mayor of San Francisco, “was sworn in by Rose Bird on three occasions.” In the GOP’s demonology, Bird is the Great Satan. Wilson, fearful that Feinstein is about to challenge his own commitment to choice, decided to steal a march on her, by waving the shirt soaked in the former chief justice’s blood.

In fact, both Feinstein and Wilson favor both capital punishment and a woman’s right to an abortion. Tough new voters will want to remember that.