GOVERNOR : Wilson Bristles Over Criticism on Rights Bill, Assails Kennedy

In an unusually personal denunciation of a fellow senator, Republican candidate for governor Pete Wilson said Monday that Massachusetts Democrat Edward M. Kennedy was “beneath contempt” for politicizing the controversial civil rights bill opposed by Wilson and vetoed by President Bush.

Bristling at criticism tossed his way by Dianne Feinstein, with whom Kennedy has recently campaigned, Wilson told reporters in Concord that Kennedy--whom he referred to as Feinstein’s “chubby friend”--had made a “partisan football” of the civil rights measure.

“I’ve fought discrimination all my life, but I am not in an election year going to be pressured into doing the politically expedient thing,” Wilson said.

Meanwhile, Feinstein took a three-city tour with 15 representatives of police organizations that have endorsed her candidacy. She accused Gov. George Deukmejian and Wilson of watching as crime across the state increased.

“Now the question is, do tough words and a macho image change the picture? Clearly, they do not,” she said. “I want a tough, fast-charging law enforcement structure all across this state.”

Wilson’s remarks on the issue of civil rights followed days of criticism by Feinstein and other Democrats for his vote against the 1990 Civil Rights Act. Wilson also voted to uphold Bush’s veto of the bill. The move to override Bush’s veto failed by one vote.

The senator said he opposed the civil rights measure because it would force small businesses to hire workers under quotas. The bill’s supporters heatedly denied that, and inserted language into the bill before its demise that said it was not to be construed as a “quota bill.”

“It’s not fair, and I say that as someone with a record that I will be more than pleased to match against that of Mrs. Feinstein or for that matter her chubby friend who is visiting the state,” Wilson said.

Wilson, at a Concord campaign event that followed a private fund-raiser with President Bush, blamed Kennedy for a Senate decision to close off consideration of additional amendments to the bill.

“I am convinced he did that for partisan reasons in order to create an issue rather than a solution,” Wilson said. “And I’ll tell you that I think it’s beneath contempt to try to make a partisan football of anything as important as civil rights.”

The verbal barrage from Wilson arose when reporters questioned him about Feinstein’s criticism of his civil rights vote.

The tenor of the remarks, if highly unusual between members of the clubby Senate, was in keeping with a testiness that Wilson has exhibited since he returned from Senate duty in Washington.

The senator came back to California early Sunday after nearly two weeks of what he called “exile,” prompted in part by Feinstein’s goading about his slumping attendance record.

Since his return, Wilson has repeatedly sought to use for his political advantage his vote against the budget accord supported by both congressional leaders and the White House.

While taking credit for that vote he has tried to diffuse criticism of his civil rights view, amid fears by Republicans that the issue will cost them votes of minorities, women and Democrats who might be tempted to discard party loyalty and vote for Wilson.

Wilson said his record compared favorably to Kennedy’s. Statistics compiled by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, which monitors legislative votes on civil rights issues, told a different story. During the last three Congresses--excluding the just-concluded session, for which votes have yet to be tabulated--Wilson supported 42% of the Senate’s civil rights legislation, statistics showed. Kennedy voted with civil rights organizations 91% of the time.

“Since 1983, Sen. Wilson has ranked in the bottom half of the Senate with respect to his voting on civil rights,” said Ralph G. Neas, the group’s executive director. Kennedy is regularly among the top Senate supporters of civil rights, he said.

Kennedy could not be reached for comment, but Feinstein’s campaign manager, Bill Carrick, castigated Wilson for his criticisms.

“For this pipsqueak to sit around and compare himself to Ted Kennedy on civil rights makes me nauseous,” Carrick said.

On Sunday, Wilson renewed an attack on Feinstein for having scribbled words on her hand just before their televised Oct. 7 debate.

Feinstein said that she jotted down the words while nervously awaiting the start of the contest.

Echoing past insinuations that Feinstein is not stable enough to govern, Wilson said, “It’s time we took the stress off her.”

“Anyone who is compelled to write things down on her hand because they’re so nervous is undergoing too much stress,” he added.

Carrick said Wilson’s remarks were an attempt to play gender stereotypes with voters.

“He’s always playing gender bias,” Carrick said.

While Wilson was reacting to her criticism, Feinstein was pledging to protect Californians against crime by waging a four-year, $7.5-billion battle financed with a half-cent increase in the state sales tax.

Crime clearly is a critical issue to Feinstein, particularly if she is to have any hope of luring disloyal Democrats back to the party on Election Day.

Feinstein is proposing to finance a war on drugs and crime with the tax money contained in Proposition 133, the “Safe Streets” initiative sponsored by her running mate, Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy.

“You can’t just talk about drugs,” Feinstein said in Burbank, before taking off for San Jose and Sacramento. “We’ve been saying ‘no’ to drugs with every kind of Madison Avenue-produced television spot possible and it hasn’t worked. The drug menace continues to grow.

“I say let’s try the Feinstein way. The Feinstein way is with an arsenal. The Feinstein way is with tough laws, and the Feinstein way is to prevent it in the first place.”

Wilson has claimed to be the law and order candidate. Feinstein and her supporters argued Monday that Wilson’s law enforcement backers are mostly management such as police chiefs and sheriffs while those supporting her represent more than two-thirds of the front-line officers--the cops on the streets.

The senator has called for tougher sentencing laws so that violent criminals are not allowed back on the street. He says the Legislature should do away with time off for good behavior and other factors in certain crimes.

Feinstein said Wilson’s crime-fighting program is ineffective because it lacks financing.

“The worst thing you can do is say to people, ‘Trust me because I talk tough,’ and then have nothing happen,” she said.

Wilson has contended that tough anti-crime legislation has been bottled up in Sacramento by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), Feinstein’s close political ally.

Feinstein retorted: “I haven’t seen a tough governor on the stump talking about it. I haven’t seen a tough governor say we’ve got to beef up law enforcement throughout the state. Don’t put it all on Willie Brown. I’ll handle Willie Brown.”

To try to break out of the tight race with Wilson, Feinstein will spend the last full week of her campaign hitting back on crime and what she sees as other visceral issues. She is to focus on abortion later this week, spend a day touring the growing Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino counties and plans a whistle-stop train tour of the San Joaquin Valley on Saturday.

Wilson will also hike up his campaign schedule. On Tuesday, he was largely behind closed doors, first at the Hillsborough fund-raiser with Bush. After he demonstrated alternate fuel cars in Concord, where he renewed a pledge to change over the state’s car fleet from gas-powered to clean energy by 1995, he traveled to San Diego for more fund-raisers.