CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS: GOVERNOR : Feinstein ‘Insensitive’ on Rape, Wilson Says; Women Prosecutors Endorse Him

Surrounded by women who ran the gamut of the criminal justice system--from victims to prosecutors--Pete Wilson on Sunday accused Dianne Feinstein, his Democratic opponent for governor, of being “remarkably insensitive” to the plight of rape victims.

Wilson, in Long Beach to accept the endorsement of the Women Prosecutors of California, drew a contrast between Feinstein’s pledge of mandatory prison sentences for drug sellers to her call for a return to indeterminate sentencing for violent crimes like rape.

“If Mrs. Feinstein can be for a mandatory minimum sentence for the sellers of drugs . . . let her also understand that it is necessary that there be a mandatory minimum sentence for rapists, that there not be ‘one on the house,’ ” the Republican senator said. Wilson supports a mandatory 18-year prison sentence for rape.

Feinstein has said she believes that indeterminate sentencing would allow judges to impose tougher sentences than they can under the determinate system. And, she said, it would allow authorities to keep particularly threatening criminals in prison indefinitely.

The Democrat could not be reached for comment Sunday. Feinstein was traveling throughout the day to a series of fund-raising house parties planned by her campaign across the state.

Wilson also attempted on Sunday to ally Feinstein with what he called “a handful of arrogant liberals from San Francisco” who have fought anti-crime legislation.

Feinstein, reacting to earlier, similar attacks by Wilson, has vowed to press for tougher members on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, headed by San Francisco Democrat John Burton. She said she had received assurances from Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr., also of San Francisco, that he would appoint more conservative members.

Wilson, however, called that response “a very bad joke.”

Both candidates have engaged in a back-and-forth series of press conferences and endorsement announcements intended to showcase their support among law enforcement officers. While small in number, the women prosecutors’ endorsement was doubly symbolic for Wilson in his campaign against a woman candidate who has talked tough on crime.

This announcement also packed an emotional wallop rarely seen. Tamra Wimler, one of the speakers, was kidnaped and raped at gunpoint in 1987 by a former boyfriend who had repeatedly violated restraining orders placed against him by San Diego courts. He was later convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Her voice trembling, she detailed her experience and held up a graphic picture of a friend, taken after the woman was pistol-whipped and raped. The woman’s assailant was freed by a trial judge pending appeals, Wimler said.

“Am I supposed to feel lucky because I got a ‘good’ judge?” she asked. “To me, that’s not justice.”

She credited the state’s determinate sentencing laws--under which judges have little latitude in setting prison time--with increasing recent sentences. And she charged that Feinstein’s proposal to return to indeterminate sentencing would “turn back the clock for women crime victims.”

Answering questions from reporters on a host of subjects, Wilson labeled as “hypocritical” Feinstein’s suggestion that he either go back to Washington or resign from office for missing 42 Senate votes this session.

Feinstein has been hammering Wilson for days for continuing to campaign in California while the Senate took action on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice David Souter and on the now-quashed compromise to cut the budget deficit.

On Friday, Wilson missed what could have been a tie-breaking vote on a Senate amendment that would require parental notification in some abortions.

The amendment, which Wilson opposes, could become law, although Wilson brushed aside that possibility Saturday.

“I am going to go back when there is a vote that will do something about the deficit,” Wilson said.

He also said he “would hope to be there” when the Senate takes up a revised civil rights bill that President Bush has threatened to veto. The vote is tentatively expected to take place Tuesday.

Wilson voted against an earlier civil rights measure on the grounds that, he said, it set up quotas for hiring. He said he continued to oppose the revised bill, which other Republicans have said is satisfactory.

“It’s still unfair,” he said, citing particularly the financial burden he said it would place on small businesses to defend themselves against discrimination suits.