CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Wilson Outlines Tough New Anti-Drug Proposals

Pete Wilson brought his gubernatorial campaign to the lawn of a San Diego schoolyard Thursday where he called for stiffer penalties for selling drugs in the vicinity of classrooms and pressed for a state death penalty for “drug kingpins.”

Backed by a cadre of police chiefs and deputy district attorneys who have endorsed his candidacy, the Republican U.S. senator also said in response to questions that he would sign legislation re-criminalizing marijuana possession as a felony.

But while insisting that a thorough hardening of the state’s anti-drug policies was in order, Wilson declined to set a price tag for the effort nor say how, beyond bond issues, he would raise the money to pay for his proposals in cash-poor California, where prisons and jails are already overcrowded.

In Sacramento, a staff member of the state Assembly’s Judiciary Committee estimated that re-criminalizing marijuana possession would by itself cost the prison system nearly $3 billion, not counting additional costs to the courts and local police agencies. But another legislative financial consultant estimated the prison costs at about $1 billion.

Wilson said his proposals would cost “at least (as much as) the bond issue that will be on the November ballot and it may very well require more.”

According to the state legislative analyst, however, the upcoming $450-million bond issue is needed to lower existing overcrowding, and did not take into account an influx of new prisoners.

In supporting a return to felony arrests for those who possess less than an ounce of marijuana, Wilson was following the lead of Gov. George Deukmejian and national drug czar William Bennett. In a recent visit to Sacramento, Bennett urged legislators to toughen existing law. Since 1975, possession of small amounts of marijuana in California has been a misdemeanor, punishable by a $100 fine.

“It is past time we went about changing those attitudes and providing a clearer message--the message is one of zero tolerance for drugs,” the senator said. No legislator has yet taken Bennett up on his challenge.

Wilson’s move to expand penalties for drug sales that take place within 1,000 yards of a school would build on the current state law, which allows stiffer punishment for the sale of crack cocaine to children during school hours. He favors penalties of up to 15 years in prison for any sort of school-area drug sale at any time.

“The law should say very simply that an adult who sells to a minor, whether it is during school hours or afterward, whether it is cocaine or PCP or some other dangerous controlled substance, will have to experience the full severity of the law,” Wilson said.

His move to install a state death penalty for major drug dealers parallels the senator’s ongoing efforts to institute a federal death penalty. Under his proposals for both the state and federal level, the penalty would apply to those who sell or manufacture more than 330 pounds of cocaine or other drugs, generate more than $10 million in drug profits and employ more than five people.

Dee Dee Myers, spokeswoman for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Dianne Feinstein, said the former San Francisco mayor has not taken a position on any of the issues raised by Wilson, although she did support the current state law regarding cocaine sales near schoolyards.

Feinstein could not be reached for comment Thursday, Myers said.

Since the primary election June 5, Wilson has repeatedly publicized his hard-line credentials on crime, a move that hints at concern that Feinstein--who favors the death penalty and stricter sentences for violent crimes--might chip away at his tough-on-crime supporters.

It is indicative of a problem faced by the candidates: Feinstein and Wilson lean toward the center politically, and when their views are fashioned into the 30-second television spots that define California politics, they are remarkably similar.

Each opposes offshore oil drilling. Each supported June’s Proposition 115, which reformed laws governing the state’s criminal trials.

Both call themselves supporters of abortion rights, and both say they support the death penalty. But on the last two points, they have begun warring over each other’s depth of commitment.

Feinstein has argued that Wilson’s occasional votes against government funding for abortions, and his support of laws requiring parents to be informed if their child wishes to have an abortion, mean that he is not a committed abortion rights advocate.

Wilson has argued that Feinstein only fully embraced the death penalty recently in order to use it as a campaign tool. According to a Times Poll, the death penalty and abortion rights were the top issues of interest to those who voted in the primary.