CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS GOVERNOR : Brown Assures Help on Tough-on-Crime Plan, Feinstein Says

Dianne Feinstein said Saturday that Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr. has assured her that committee changes in the next legislative session will provide her tough-on-crime platform with a fair hearing.

“I think he recognizes that my election would carry with it a mandate for change and he has indicated to me he would respect that mandate,” the Democratic candidate for governor said at a press conference Saturday.

Feinstein has come under attack from her Republican opponent, Sen. Pete Wilson, for her relationship with Speaker Brown, and through Brown with Assemblyman John Burton, chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. Both are San Francisco Democrats and Feinstein is the former mayor of San Francisco.

Wilson has contended that Brown and Burton have made the Public Safety Committee the “graveyard” for anti-crime legislation and has given California the reputation for having the nation’s best cops and worst laws.

But Feinstein argued Saturday that she is just as tough on crime as Wilson--or tougher. She often has expressed a determination to change the legislative committee system so that it is more receptive to anti-crime bills.

Asked Saturday if she had discussed such changes with Brown, who appoints all Assembly committees, Feinstein said she had on two occasions.

Without discussing specific members of the Assembly or their committee assignments, Feinstein said Brown recognized the need for tougher anti-crime legislation if she is elected.

Asked what that would take, Feinstein said: “It’ll take whatever it takes. I want to get a vote for my program. If I win I expect a vote in the Assembly for my program.”

That program includes mandatory prison terms for drug peddlers, longer lockups for violent criminals and a “meaningful war on drugs.”

Feinstein argued that her anti-drug program is more effective than Wilson’s because she has proposed a means of financing it, the half-cent sales tax increase provided for in Proposition 133, the “Safe Streets Act” initiative sponsored by Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy.

Wilson challenged Feinstein on Friday to demonstrate that she is not “beholden” to Brown by demanding that he dump Burton as chairman of the Public Safety Committee. But Wilson then said there was no chance that could happen because of Brown’s influence over her.

Feinstein said she did not get a commitment for specific personnel changes in Assembly committees, or advance approval of specific bills, “but we talked about a toughening of the criminal justice apparatus and specifically the Public Safety Committee of the California Assembly.”

“We’ve been specific,” she said. “We’ve earmarked the crimes and the charges and I’ve made the Speaker aware of this.”

Feinstein came to Fresno to announce her endorsement of Proposition 149, a $437-million bond issue for development and rehabilitation of state and local parks throughout California.

Among those joining her was Assemblyman Jim Costa of Fresno, the chairman of the Assembly Democratic Caucus. Asked if he thought it realistic that Brown would adhere to Feinstein’s desire for tough anti-crime legislation, Costa said he did.

He added that many anti-crime bills have gotten through the Public Safety Committee during Burton’s tenure as chairman.

Feinstein also kept the pressure on Wilson to interrupt his campaign to represent California’s interests on votes in the Senate. She offered to reschedule next Thursday’s debate if Wilson needed to be in Washington to vote on budget reconciliation proposals.

“I frankly think that Sen. Wilson doesn’t want to have to cast a vote,” she said in response to reporters’ questions. “He wants to duck and run.”