CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS: THE AD CAMPAIGN

The race: Governor. Whose ads? Democratic candidate Dianne Feinstein. Cost: The campaign would not say, but a single display of a 30-second ad in the Los Angeles market costs from $20,000 to $40,000, depending on air time. Producer: Bill Carrick and Hank Morris.

Feinstein launched three new 30-second television commercials this week that attack Republican Sen. Pete Wilson on his voting record in the Senate and his handling of sewage treatment facilities while mayor of San Diego. They also promote Feinstein’s record against violent crime while mayor of San Francisco.

Elements of the ad, with analysis by Times political writers Cathleen Decker and Bill Stall:

Ad: Tom Noble, president of the California Assn. of Highway Patrolmen, tells the viewers, “The California Assn. of Highway Patrolmen and over 40,000 law enforcement officers endorse Dianne Feinstein because of her record on crime.” As a list of endorsements scrolls across the bottom of the screen, he adds: “According to the FBI, when Dianne Feinstein was mayor, she reduced violent crime by 20%. The FBI also looked at Pete Wilson’s record, and found that violent crime increased by more than 100% when he was mayor of San Diego.”

Analysis: The 40,000 officers cited in the commercial include members of major police labor organizations that have endorsed Feinstein, including the Highway Patrol association, the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs and the Southern California Alliance for Law Enforcement, an umbrella organization. The endorsement of the groups’ leaders does not, however, guarantee the vote of the membership.

Wilson has also earned an armload of police endorsements; his staff has distributed a three-page list of endorsements from police officers’ associations, correctional officers’ groups and sheriffs’ agencies.

The crime statistics cited in the advertisement come from annual FBI summaries. The FBI did not specifically “look at Pete Wilson’s record.”

According to the FBI numbers, crime overall went down in San Francisco by 27% during Feinstein’s tenure. Violent crime--murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault--went down more than 21%. During Wilson’s terms in San Diego, the FBI statistics showed, crime went up overall by 25.5% and violent crime went up 115.3%.

Ad: The commercial opens with an empty red chair. The word “absent!” flashes on the screen. “How does Pete Wilson vote?” an announcer asks. “Not enough. On the Souter Supreme Court nomination? Absent. On the Iraqi crisis? Absent. On three different death penalty votes? Absent. Pete Wilson has the worst attendance record in the U.S. Senate.”

Analysis: The vote to confirm David Souter to the Supreme Court and two measures dealing with the Iraqi crisis occurred earlier this fall, when Wilson was campaigning in California. The death penalty votes occurred on primary election day, when Wilson was in California to vote, and in 1988, when he was campaigning in the Bay Area.

Feinstein, citing the Congressional Quarterly as her source, said that Wilson has cast only 226 of 297 votes through Oct. 22, for a 76% voting record, the worst in the Senate. Congressional Quarterly said Wilson voted 91% of the time in 1987, 85% in 1988, and 92% in 1989, a figure Wilson uses in his own campaign commercials. However, that 92% is a relatively poor record, since many senators are in the 98% range.

Ad: “He says he votes when it matters. Like Wilson’s tie-break vote to cut your Social Security benefits.”

Analysis: That mention is a direct attack on a Wilson ad that praises the senator’s voting record, noting that he voted even when he had to be wheeled in on a stretcher after an emergency appendectomy. The Wilson ad does not mention--and this ad does--that the stretcher vote was one to eliminate a Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. The vote did not break a tie--it created one, which then-Vice President George Bush broke by voting to cut the benefits.

Ad: As a copy of a Los Angeles Times article appears on the screen, the announcer says, “But this month he couldn’t stop campaigning long enough to cast a tie-breaking vote to kill an anti-choice abortion amendment.”

Analysis: The reference is to an Oct. 12 motion to kill an amendment that would require parental notification for some abortions. Wilson said he would have voted against the amendment, but he was in California campaigning. The senator has said that his staff did not have enough advance notice of the vote to enable him to get back to Washington.

Ad: The screen flashes the words “Pete Wilson’s $2.3-billion mistake” and shows a photo of San Diego Bay with the blue water turning to red. The announcer says, “Pete Wilson’s $2.3-billion mistake. Mission Bay, San Diego. It’s a sea of red ink because Pete Wilson ignored San Diego’s sewage problems and tried to avoid the federal Clean Water Act.”

Analysis: While Wilson was mayor, he objected to Environmental Protection Agency requests that San Diego build a secondary sewage treatment facility that would remove about 90% of the solids from waste water before ocean disposal. Wilson cited Scripps Institute scientists as saying secondary treatment was unnecessary, a view supported by the San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club. San Diego obtained a temporary waiver from this requirement of the Clean Water Act. The city now is planning a new treatment plant. Originally, the plant was estimated to cost $500 million. Estimates now run up to $2.8 billion.

Ad: Flashing on the screen: “Pete Wilson’s Legacy: Ignored Sewage Problems. Avoided Clean Water Act. 1,800 raw sewage spills. Quarantined, one day in four.” The announcer says, “The result: 1,800 raw sewage overflows in five years. And a bay that was quarantined one day in four.”

Analysis: Wilson did not necessarily ignore the city’s sewage problems but sought a waiver from the Clean Water Act, as did many other American cities. The U.S. Department of Justice and the regional state water quality control board said that more than 1,800 sewage spills occurred in the San Diego system in a five-year period after Wilson had left the mayor’s job. The spills were attributed to a variety of causes.