CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / TREASURER : Brown, Hayes Air Out Their Differences

After months of long-distance sparring, the two candidates for state treasurer, appointed Republican incumbent Thomas W. Hayes and Democrat Kathleen Brown, finally got together to voice their differences Monday.

The result was a spirited hourlong exchange on Michael Jackson’s KABC radio talk show that revealed differences between the two on directions they want to take the treasurer’s office, state bond policy, even abortion.

Hayes, a career government executive who would like to turn the treasurer’s race into a matchup of resumes, considered simply getting Brown to sit down with him something of a victory. Brown, a Los Angeles attorney who has served as a city school board member and public works commissioner, has cited scheduling problems and other conflicts in begging off what Hayes said were nine invitations to the candidates to debate before various groups.

But once the two sat down in Jackson’s studio, it was Brown who kept Hayes on the defensive for most of the hour they spent outlining their political views.

Brown, a member of the political family that has produced two former governors, Edmund G. Brown Sr. and Edmund G. Brown Jr., displayed her family’s well-known combativeness in taking one verbal potshot after another at Hayes.

The Democrat blamed Hayes for a logjam of $7 billion in school, water, housing and other bond issues that has delayed implementation of voter-approved bond projects. She challenged him for not using the state’s voting rights as a General Motors Corp. shareholder to oppose $42 million in pension benefits recently approved for top GM executives. She also criticized him for being late in opposing the purchase of $200 million in junk bonds by the $56-billion Public Employees’ Retirement System.

Brown also forced Hayes to defend his campaign manager and define his position on abortion. At one point, she even accused Hayes of being a creation “of the politicians in Sacramento.” Hayes was the state’s auditor general until picked by Gov. George Deukmejian to fill out the term of the late Treasurer Jesse M. Unruh.

For his part, Hayes countered each of Brown’s verbal sorties with a carefully measured response, trying to stick to his game plan of establishing himself as the most experienced, best-qualified candidate.

He said he is selling bonds as fast as is legally possible. He argued that government has no place in corporate boardrooms. He declared that he put up stouthearted opposition to junk-bond purchases. As for abortion, he said he opposes it personally but would not use his office to further his beliefs. Brown also pledged not to use the office to further her beliefs, but, at the same time, expressed unqualified support for abortion rights.

Hayes, during his time in front of the microphone, cited the record harvest of investment income--$1.6 billion--that he said he has earned for the state since becoming treasurer in January, 1989. He argued that issues such as abortion had nothing to do with the treasurer’s race other than to divert attention from Brown’s own thin experience in government finance.

After the debate, Hayes told reporters he would not be happy until Brown agrees to debate him before a forum of experts in municipal and state finance. On the air, he challenged Brown to accept a debate offer made by a state association of county treasurers. Brown declined.

“I think if we debate the complexity of the financial issues, obviously I win,” Hayes said.