CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Feinstein, Wilson Turn Bids Toward High Road

With both gubernatorial candidates smarting Wednesday from criticism of their mud-flinging campaigns, the battle for the governorship took a small step toward the high road as Democratic nominee Dianne Feinstein put forth her credentials on crime and pledged to be a governor who would “get really personally involved in the fight against crime.”

Before an appreciative Burbank audience of law enforcement officers who have endorsed her campaign, Feinstein called for a “functioning” death penalty, mandatory jail time for any drug sales conviction--no matter the amount or the circumstances--and a wholesale restructuring of the state’s sentencing guidelines.

She also pledged to promptly enforce the Speedy Trials Initiative, which California voters approved in June after a campaign in which Republican gubernatorial nominee U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson served as the initiative’s chief supporter.

“When punishment is slow and doubtful, criminals have no reason to fear the law and the rest of us have no reason to trust it,” Feinstein told the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs.

Wilson, in an earlier press conference, said he wanted to focus the campaign on “real issues” and get away from the bickering that has marked it recently. At the same time, he continued to raise questions about the sources of income for Feinstein’s husband, investment banker Richard C. Blum.

Feinstein punctuated her remarks with the names of infamous criminals--including former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White, who rushed past Feinstein’s San Francisco office in 1978 on his way to shoot her fellow supervisor, Harvey Milk, and the city’s mayor, George Moscone, to death. Moscone’s killing made Feinstein mayor of San Francisco, a post she held for 10 years.

Crime, a defining issue for California voters, has preoccupied the candidates this political season. Both Feinstein and Wilson have talked tough against any form of leniency to criminals, and specifically have advocated longer sentences for violent criminals and for drug sellers.

In Sacramento Monday, Wilson advocated the tripling of prison penalties for sex crimes, including a minimum sentence of 18 years for rape. He blamed Democrats for what he said was the systematic blocking of anti-crime legislation.

For Feinstein, there is even more reason to accentuate her credentials on the subject, since voters have traditionally considered Republicans tougher on crime. She has adopted the Los Angeles Police Department’s logo motto--”To Protect and To Serve”--as her campaign’s buzzwords and weaves the theme into most speeches. On Wednesday, she sought to knock down Wilson’s characterization of her as a latecomer in support of the death penalty.

“I’ve seen violence and murder at close range--in my own life and the lives of others,” she said. “And I firmly believe that there are some people who, through the callousness and multiplicity of their crimes, the brutality of their acts, abrogate their right to live. I don’t say that with joy or pride. But I say it with conviction.”

Feinstein also vowed to veto any effort to legalize drugs--as has Wilson--and took a decidedly Republican approach to increasing the number of programs available to treat drug addicts. The emphasis, she said, should be on “replication of successful treatment programs” that use “few, if any, government dollars.”

In comments to reporters, both Feinstein and Wilson complained that they had been trying to discuss germane campaign issues but that their efforts were not rewarded by coverage.

But the purpose of Wilson’s press conference was not exactly heavy gubernatorial policy: To propose legislation requiring candidates for statewide office to disclose the sources of all income earned both inside and outside of California by both themselves and their spouses.

This was another way to question the finances of Feinstein’s husband, who loaned the Feinstein campaign more than $3 million before the June 5 primary election.

Wilson argued that Blum should disclose not only the sources of his direct earnings and corporate clients, which he has done, but also name the individuals he advises. Feinstein offered last week to have Blum’s interests examined by a neutral third party who then would decide if there was any apparent conflict of interest in the event Feinstein is elected.

Feinstein also said she would put all of her own financial interests in a blind trust if elected, but that Blum might be forced out of business if he had to do so. “The nature of my husband’s business is that he puts together investment possibilities for corporations and individuals,” she said.

But Wilson said voters are entitled to know everything about the finances of both the candidate and spouse before the election, he said. This is particularly relevant to the contest for governor because of Blum’s contributions to the campaign, he said.

The senator said he was not accusing Blum of having something to hide. “Who knows?” he said. “Who knows? That’s the point.”

Feinstein called Wilson’s comments part of “a very untrue and very distorted campaign.”

“I’ve been in elective public office for 20 years . . . I’ve been mayor of a big, rough-and-tumble city for nine years while I was married to Richard Blum,” she said. “There’s been no conflict of interest. There’s been no wrongdoing. He runs his business. I run my city.”