Feinstein, Wilson Scramble to Add Points : Gubernatorial race: As both candidates seek to capitalize on their scores in the debate, most experts say there was no clear winner in the televised meeting.

Both gubernatorial candidates scrambled Monday to capitalize on points they scored in their first campaign debate, with Democrat Dianne Feinstein attacking Republican Sen. Pete Wilson’s attendance record in Congress and Wilson portraying Feinstein as a puppet of legislative leaders.

The consensus of many political scientists and campaign consultants, meanwhile, was that there was no clear winner in Sunday night’s televised debate. Feinstein handled herself better, many thought, but Wilson captured more news media attention by endorsing a popular ballot initiative to impose strict term limits on legislators.

TV ratings for the debate were “very respectable,” according to Victor J. Biondi, executive director of the sponsoring California Broadcasters Assn. The one-hour program, carried by 32 TV stations, was seen in 11% of California’s homes, or more than 1.1 million, Biondi estimated.

“In that time period (6 p.m.) on a Sunday night, it’s a little higher than what a station normally would do,” he said. Biondi attributed the good viewership to aggressive promotion by the stations. And he noted that even more people would have seen the debate if it were not for TV competition from the Oakland Athletics in the American League playoffs and the Los Angeles Raiders in an NFL game.

To a large degree, victory in the debate was in the eyes of the beholder, with perspectives influenced by an individual’s political orientation. Predictably, the tendency was for Democrats to give the benefit of doubt to Feinstein and for Republicans to lean toward Wilson.

What most everybody interviewed by The Times agreed on, however, was that each candidate escaped the debate without making a serious gaffe--and that was the primary goal. No home runs, but no errors.

Most outsiders generally praised the debate, but one political scientist called it terrible. Bruce Cain of the Institute of Government Studies at UC Berkeley equated the event to what former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali used to call “rope-a-dope.”

“It was the political equivalent of rope-a-dope strategy,” Cain said. “Let the other guy bang away. Cover up and don’t make any mistakes. Try not to lose. . . . They were so cautious, nothing interesting was said the whole time. No spontaneity. All rehearsed. All warmed-over TV ads.”

The one debate surprise, of sorts, was Wilson’s endorsement of Proposition 140, the term limit initiative sponsored by Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum. The surprise was not that Wilson endorsed the measure; it is highly popular with the voters, according to polls. But the timing of his endorsement was somewhat unexpected.

Many thought Wilson might wait until closer to the Nov. 6 election before deciding whether to endorse Proposition 140, hoping to be far enough ahead in the gubernatorial race to avoid taking a stand sure to alienate legislators he would have to deal with as governor.

Feinstein criticized Wilson for “weather vane politics.” But the Republican senator made it clear on Monday that he intends to counter Feinstein’s contention that she is the “candidate of change” by tying her to Sacramento’s old-guard Democratic leaders, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown Jr. of San Francisco and Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti of Los Angeles.

Feinstein opposes term limits, allying herself with Brown and Roberti, who are aggressively fighting them.

“She is beholden to Willie Brown and David Roberti,” Wilson said at a Santa Monica airport press conference Monday. “She cannot be the agent for change as long as that is the case.”

Wilson told reporters that “the last straw” in his decision to endorse Proposition 140 was a federal judge’s recent “outrageous” ruling that tossed out campaign contribution limits, a move that significantly helped Feinstein’s fund-raising ability. Noting that Speaker Brown had fought the contribution limit measure--Proposition 73--Wilson said Brown “wants the law of the fat cats to prevail.”

For her part, Feinstein kept up the campaign heat on Wilson for missing Senate votes recently and in past years. According to her figures, Wilson has missed 26 roll call votes since Labor Day and has the third-worst attendance record in the current Senate.

“Our country stands on the brink of recession and on the brink of war and Sen. Wilson is missing the action,” Feinstein said at a Los Angeles press conference. Then turning her rhetoric on Republican Gov. George Deukmejian--just as Wilson now is taking shots at Democratic legislative leaders--Feinstein said: “We’ve had eight years of a governor who was missing in action. We don’t need four more.”

Wilson’s response was that he would return to Washington for “a serious vote” on something like the budget.

Feinstein also tried to counter Wilson’s assertions that she would be a puppet of Brown’s by vowing, if elected, to work for an ideological moderation of the liberal Assembly Public Safety Committee. Wilson claims the committee has been “arrogantly” burying tough crime bills. And Feinstein said there is “no question” the committee should be changed.

Meanwhile, outsider opinions on the debate varied slightly, but the consensus seemed to be that it was a draw.

“I feel that she gained more than he did,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior associate at the Center for Politics and Policy, Claremont Graduate School. “She needed to hold her own with him and she did. She had to prove she could be a governor. And for the most part, Wilson did what he had to do. He had to not screw up.”

Jeffe thought, however, that Wilson was slightly “patronizing and condescending” toward Feinstein--for example, when he repeatedly addressed her as “Dianne” and at one point mentioned that the former San Francisco mayor was only the “mayor of a tiny geographical area.”

Larry L. Berg, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC, said Feinstein was “more forceful,” while Wilson occasionally “seemed even insecure.”

Wilson occasionally did look nervous and his voice cracked a few times. Aides attributed it to a slight cold.

Republican consultant Ron Smith, who is not involved in the gubernatorial campaign but is managing GOP state Sen. Marian Bergeson’s race for lieutenant governor, gave the nod to Wilson but said “both were very good. Neither made a goof. I thought it was pretty good TV.”

Sal Russo, a Republican consultant who is not involved in any statewide campaign, put it this way: “I don’t think it at all matters. This debate is not going to be the conclusive factor in the election. Feinstein came out looking a little better prepared and she’s mistake-prone. Wilson came out with the bigger news--Proposition 140. Both can walk out happy--Feinstein because she didn’t make a mistake and Wilson because he stole the news.”

Times Political Writers Cathleen Decker and Bill Stall contributed to this article.