Wilson Leads in Money Not Yet Spent

Republican gubernatorial candidate Pete Wilson entered the final two weeks of the campaign with a hefty $1.07 million in the bank, more than twice the $360,519 his opponent, Democrat Dianne Feinstein, managed to save to pay for a final flurry of campaign advertisements, financial reports showed Friday.

Partisan warfare over commercials already running across the state heated up Friday, with Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) demanding that Feinstein pull an anti-Wilson ad that quotes Dole. The Sierra Club, meanwhile, demanded that Wilson withdraw a commercial that it says “deliberately and knowingly misrepresents” its position. Neither campaign, by the end of the day, had decided to withdraw the advertisements.

The verbal fisticuffs occurred as the campaign entered perhaps its most crucial phase, with the candidates technically in a dead heat in most polls but Wilson holding a slight, if statistically insignificant, edge. The financial reports, the final major ones of the campaign year, demonstrated the fund-raising prowess that has been demanded of Wilson and Feinstein.

According to the reports, Wilson has raised $12.2 million this year, adding to several million he had in the bank as the year opened. Feinstein raised even more--$14.7 million, including $2.7 million she and her husband, Richard C. Blum, loaned the campaign.

The candidates spent similar sums, with Wilson putting his costs at $15.7 million and Feinstein putting hers at $14.9 million.

Between Oct. 1, the beginning of the most recent filing period, and its close on Oct. 20, Feinstein raised more than $3.9 million; Wilson took in $3.4 million.

On the advertising front, Feinstein’s campaign Friday unveiled a sure-to-be controversial commercial that quotes Senate Minority Leader Dole reminiscing about Wilson’s 1985 budget vote, cast shortly after Wilson had undergone an appendectomy.

“He does better under sedation,” Dole says, after relating that he told Wilson how to vote.

The Kansas senator, in his letter to Feinstein, said his words were meant as a joke. Dole noted that Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, when running against Wilson for the Senate in 1988, had tried a similar ad. The ad ran briefly before it was pulled from the air.

The Sierra Club’s objection came in response to an advertisement Wilson began running earlier this week. In it, he defends himself against Feinstein’s allegations that he dragged his feet when confronted with a leaky sewer system in San Diego.

In the ad, Wilson contends that construction of a new sewer system would have been a waste of “tax dollars on unneeded water treatment. Scientists and the Sierra Club agree.”

Michael Paparian, the Sierra Club’s state director, and Carl Pope, the national Sierra Club’s conservation director, said in a letter to Wilson that the group disagrees with Wilson’s decision on the sewer system. Paparian said Friday that the Sierra Club has asked television stations to pull the ad, but has yet to get a response.

Wilson and Feinstein also continued to campaign, after a fashion. Wilson introduced President Bush at a Century City fund-raiser via satellite from Washington, where he remains while the Senate considers final appropriations bills.

Feinstein flew from San Francisco to Chico, where she gave a brief talk to residents at a senior citizens’ home before speaking at Cal State Chico. There, she was greeted by one of the largest audiences of her campaign, estimated by campus police at up to 5,000. She aimed a populist pitch squarely at Republicans in general and at Wilson in particular.

“I want to be the governor who protects the pocketbooks of working men and women, because we’ve had enough of tax cuts for the rich and tax hikes for everyone else,” she said.

She also scorned Wilson’s vote against a civil rights bill that would have expanded the rights of women and minorities to sue for discrimination in the workplace.

Other candidates for state office also filed financial reports Friday. In the state attorney general’s race, the candidates each raised more than $400,000 during the first 20 days of October.

Democrat Arlo Smith had $221,920 on hand as of Oct. 20. Republican Dan Lungren had a mere $109,481 in the bank.

In the secretary of state race, Republican challenger Joan Milke Flores raised more than $418,000 during the three-week reporting period, far more than the $46,000 raised by incumbent March Fong Eu.

State Treasurer Thomas Hayes disclosed yearly campaign contributions of $1.3 million and expenses of $1.4 million. Democratic opponent Kathleen Brown reported receipts of almost $2.2 million, with half of that still unspent.

In the most one-sided contest, former Sen. John Garamendi, Democratic candidate for insurance commissioner, reported contributions totaling nearly $2 million. His poorly financed Republican rival, Wesley Bannister, an independent insurance broker, raised only $130,795.

For state controller, incumbent Democrat Gray Davis reported $1.8 million in the bank, more than three times the total contributions to Republican Matthew Fong.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy reported contributions of $1.4 million in his race for a third term compared with $1.1 million for his GOP challenger, Sen. Marian Bergeson.

Decker reported from Los Angeles and Stall from Chico. Times staff writers Carl Ingram and Jerry Gillam in Sacramento also contributed to this story.