CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS GOVERNOR : Feinstein Airs Ad Attacking Wilson on the S&L; Issue

The campaign for governor exploded into rancor Thursday when, in a risky strategic move, Dianne Feinstein launched television ads criticizing Republican Pete Wilson for accepting money from savings and loan executives--and implying that Wilson’s income resulted in votes that harmed taxpayers.

Enraged, Wilson likened Democrat Feinstein’s tactics to red-baiting “McCarthyism” and demanded that the 30-second commercials be taken off the air.

Assuming that Feinstein will refuse to do so, Wilson announced plans to take to the airwaves shortly in self-defense--perhaps beginning a wholesale political barrage months earlier than expected.

“However juicy the issue, she has got the wrong man,” Wilson declared angrily at a late-afternoon press conference in West Los Angeles.

Feinstein’s move to try to tar Wilson with one of the season’s most fiery issues--the multibillion-dollar savings and loan conflagration--came suddenly and surreptitiously.

Without releasing the advertisements to reporters--as her campaign had throughout the primary season--Feinstein began airing the spots late Wednesday.

The ads were released despite Feinstein’s own past assertions that she has no evidence that Wilson intervened on behalf of the S&Ls; during his eight-year tenure in the Senate. Wilson, unlike Democrat Alan Cranston, has not been accused of acting on behalf of any scandal-ridden thrift.

In a prepared statement, Feinstein took the approach that Wilson’s absence from the scandal is as much an indictment of his tenure in the Senate as intervention would have been.

“Sen. Wilson’s duty to the citizens of California was not to sit by and watch as the S&L; scandal unfolded,” she said. “And his excuse that he did nothing isn’t good enough. . . . The people want a public official to perform the duties they were elected to do and not use public office as a steppingstone to your next job.”

The ad implies a connection between Wilson’s behavior and his receipt of $243,000 in contributions from the thrift industry.

Wilson joined the Senate after the thrift industry was deregulated--the policy decision blamed for much of the industry’s collapse--and in two major votes on a federal bailout, he voted against the industry’s wishes.

The issue has emerged as a potent one during this year’s elections across the country, where it has been pitched like a grenade between Republicans and Democrats. The decline of dozens of thrifts across the nation has been splashed across newspapers and television screens, and the cost to taxpayers of bailing out failed institutions now is estimated at $500 billion. Voter surveys taken by political campaigns, including Feinstein’s, have shown the electorate to be highly interested in fixing blame for the costs.

The former San Francisco mayor was fund raising in Northern California Thursday and could not be reached for comment apart from the prepared statement. But her most recent remarks about Wilson’s role with the S&L; crisis--in which she said that she did not have any evidence of wrongdoing--were seized upon by Wilson as a defense.

“There is no evidence that I have intervened on behalf of anyone, because I haven’t,” Wilson said. “Mrs. Feinstein knows that and yet she persists. . . . The people of this state are entitled to have as governor someone whose personal ethics can withstand the pressures that apparently she has succumbed to.

“This is simply innuendo of a kind that we used to call McCarthyism.”

Wilson suggested that by launching the advertisement now, Feinstein was hoping to manipulate public opinion polls and then use the polls to encourage donations to her campaign.

But Feinstein’s campaign manager denied any such intent and defended the use of the commercial. “I don’t have any idea when those polls are starting up,” Bill Carrick said.

The decision to run the commercials is risky for Feinstein, in part because it virtually depletes her campaign bank accounts. At the close of the last financial reporting period, Feinstein had about $650,000 on hand. The Wilson campaign estimates that she has since reserved in the neighborhood of $800,000 in television time.

Carrick would not disclose how close to the financial brink the campaign has come, but did acknowledge that the budget was tight.

“We’ll be driving on fumes from here till Nov. 6,” Carrick said.

The campaign manager indicated that the advertisement was released because Feinstein’s forces fear that unless they become aggressive, they could cede momentum to Wilson. Wilson has been attempting to chip away at Feinstein since the primary with a series of commercials criticizing her record and recent statements.

“There’s a concern, which is basically that that tone of the campaign was set by the Wilson campaign,” Carrick said. “The lessons of the 1988 presidential campaign are pretty clear. We’re not going to sit back the month of August and do a Michael Dukakis imitation.”

Dukakis entered August of 1988 with a lead in the polls of as much as 17 points, then watched it decline as George Bush went on the attack. The Democratic effort has since become something of an exemplar in how not to run a campaign.