Wilson Misses Key Senate Abortion Vote to Campaign : Governor’s race: His absence enables a parental-notification amendment, which he opposes, to avoid being killed. It now could become law.

Sen. Pete Wilson, under growing criticism for skipping U.S. Senate sessions while he campaigns for governor in California, missed a tie-breaking vote in Washington on Friday on a Senate amendment requiring parental notification in some abortions.

The provision, which Wilson opposes, now could become law.

The Senate failed on a 48-48 vote to kill the amendment by Sen. William L. Armstrong (R-Colo.), which would bar hospitals, doctors and other health care providers from receiving federal funds unless they give 48 hours’ notice to parents of minors seeking abortions.

Otto Bos, Wilson’s campaign director, said the Republican senator would have voted to table, or kill, the amendment had he been on the Senate floor.

After the effort to kill the Armstrong provision failed, the Senate attached the amendment by voice vote to an appropriations bill for the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services.

Lynda Schuler, Wilson’s Senate press secretary, said: “This thing came out of thin air. The senator has been told what happened, and he will work vigorously to have the bill killed in conference.”

Wilson now has missed 42 recorded Senate votes since the August recess because he has been campaigning full time in California. Until now, he has argued that most of the votes he missed were inconsequential or “ pro forma .” And he has called it unproductive to be in Washington on the budget issue at this point while it is being hammered out behind the scenes by members of committees to which he does not belong.

On Friday, Wilson said he very likely would return to Washington next week for a final budget vote whether he supports or opposes whatever compromise is reached. Previously he said it would not be necessary to go to Washington if he decided to vote “no” on a budget measure, since being absent from the Senate floor is the same as casting a negative vote.

Also Friday, he said he is keeping posted on the negotiations for a new Clean Air Act by telephone with one of the Senate conference committee members, Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.). Several critical California issues are involved, including the control of air emissions from offshore oil rigs.

An official of the Clean Air Working Group, an industry lobby, said Wilson’s absence does not matter much. A Sierra Club expert on the Clean Air Act said Wilson’s firsthand assistance would be helpful. The club’s California members have endorsed Feinstein for governor.

After Friday’s abortion vote, Feinstein described Wilson as “missing in action.”

“He said he would vote on any serious issue where his vote would tip the balance. Well, today he missed just such a vote. A woman’s right to choose is a serious issue,” Feinstein said in a statement. “And Pete Wilson’s vote could have tipped the balance.”

Bos said Wilson would have another chance to vote on the Armstrong amendment when the final version of the Labor and Health and Human Services appropriations bill reaches the Senate floor. But the usual procedure in such a case is to vote to accept or reject the entire bill and not specific provisions contained in it.

Wilson was “on standby to cast important votes . . . but we are three time zones away, and on this one we were simply not able to see it coming so fast,” Bos said.

Bos added: “With three weeks to go in the campaign, I think people (in California) want a person who’s going to lead the state for the next decade to lay out his vision on what he wants to do with the state.”

Earlier in the week, Wilson said he was keeping up with the budget debate through telephone calls with President Bush, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu and Sen. Bob Packwood of Oregon, the senior Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee.

On Friday, Wilson said he was “not enthused” about either Democratic or Republican tax proposals that were circulating Friday. He had not spoken to Bush in the last several days, he said.

Asked to comment on the President’s handling of the confusing tax issue, Wilson said: “Well, I would have to say that it’s been less than clear. All I know is what in fact has been reported, and there seems to be a good deal of indecision, which I hope will change.”

Wilson went to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Academy on Friday to discuss anti-crime legislation and to challenge Feinstein to use her influence with state Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) to change the makeup of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. Wilson called the committee “the graveyard” of critically needed anti-crime legislation. But then he said there was no chance that Feinstein could wield that much influence over the Speaker since she was, in fact, “beholden” to him.

Feinstein, meanwhile, began airing a 30-second television ad that closely resembles one that helped spark her victory in the Democratic primary June 5. It opens with live footage of a stricken Feinstein announcing the Nov. 27, 1978, shooting deaths of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk--the event that propelled her into the mayor’s office.

“Forged from tragedy, this woman’s leadership triumphed over the fiscal trauma of Proposition 13,” the ad says.

It further praises Feinstein for balancing city budgets, cutting crime and building a modern sewer system.

There was a key change from a primary campaign version. A line that highlighted Feinstein’s difference on the death penalty with primary opponent John K. Van de Kamp was changed to say: “She’s the only candidate for governor who will change California.”

Stall reported from Los Angeles and Houston from Washington. Times political writer Cathleen Decker also contributed to this story.