NEWS ANALYSIS : CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS GOVERNOR : Battling Neck and Neck for Votes : Wilson: He plays it safe, avoiding new issues or political risks that Feinstein could use to her advantage.

Republican Sen. Pete Wilson plodded methodically Thursday toward the governorship he expects to win Tuesday, playing a safe end game devoid of new issues or political risks.

In fact, except for his Oct. 7 endorsement of legislative term limits, Wilson’s campaign is ending with the very same policy positions with which it began five months ago: Tough on crime, for choice on abortion, cautious on taxes and fiscal management, pro-environment and for better education. Most of that platform was outlined well before the general election campaign began. Wilson’s course has been consistent ever since.

In these waning days of the campaign, former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein is struggling to find some weakness in the Wilson defense, any issue to exploit. The Wilson campaign is determined not to give her the slightest opening.

In an address Thursday to the Commonwealth Club on Feinstein’s home ground, Wilson delivered a speech that was a virtual duplicate of all those he has given since June. Even the jokes were the same.

The only significant change has been his endorsement during their one and only debate Oct. 7 of Proposition 140, the initiative to limit officeholder terms, sponsored by Republican Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum.

Even then, Wilson’s decision was not a big surprise. He had been hinting at it for days. Two things changed his mind, he said: The failure of a ballot measure in the June primary to take reapportionment of legislative districts out of the Legislature’s hands, and a federal judge’s decision to remove campaign spending limits.

With those two actions, Wilson said, the only way to achieve change in the Legislature’s entrenched membership was through term limits.

Feinstein, meanwhile, adopted a number of policy positions that were designed to demonstrate to voters that she is the candidate who will get California “moving again” after more than 20 years of governors who were stingy with budgets and reluctant to experiment with new programs. Some of Feinstein’s policy decisions brought her the support of interest groups that now endorse her candidacy.

She got the backing of the California Teachers’ Assn., and declared that she would not tamper with the education spending mandates of Proposition 98 of 1988, which is part of the CTA gospel.

She endorsed Proposition 128, the “Big Green” environmental initiative sponsored by a coalition of conservation groups and won the support of the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters.

Wilson and Feinstein have battled neck and neck in the public opinion polls all summer long and into the fall. It seemed that nothing Feinstein could do would put her out front, despite the high hopes of supporters after her dramatic primary victory over Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp won her national attention.

Now, late in the campaign, the issues seem to have swung in Wilson’s direction. While Democrats may be reaping political capital by accusing President Bush of saving the wealthy from an income tax surcharge to help cut the federal deficit, Wilson boasts of voting against the budget package because of the gasoline and excise taxes that he claims would most hurt the average working man and woman.

On Thursday, Wilson also defended his vote against the proposed Civil Rights Act of 1990 as a matter of political integrity. In response to a question from a Commonwealth Club member, Wilson said, “I despise discrimination” of any sort. He added that “it would have been easy and expedient” to vote for the bill and not risk upsetting minority groups. “But I voted against this one, whatever it is called, because it was a quota bill.”

While Feinstein has tried to exploit his vote as anti-civil rights, Wilson is confident the issue works in his favor because opinion polls indicate a majority of Americans oppose quotas.

While he is enthusiastically endorsing term limits to rid state government of entrenched interests, Wilson nevertheless makes constant use of his unbroken record of 24 years in office--in the state Assembly, as mayor of San Diego and the last eight years as the junior U.S. senator from California. The apparent inconsistency does not seem to have shown up in the polls as a liability for Wilson.

When asked Thursday how he would handle Democratic Speaker Willie Brown, Wilson noted that the two had served together in the Assembly years ago. Brown was first elected to the Legislature in 1964 and Wilson to the first of his three terms in 1966.

“I’ve known him for years,” Wilson said. “I think we’ll get along just fine as long as he’s willing to do the public business.”

Not being “beholden” to Brown--as Wilson claimed that Feinstein is--will allow him to be a strong governor, Wilson said.

“I have no interest in being a weak governor,” he said. “I am an activist, one who will enjoy the job and make change. This is why I am running. There are changes that this state needs that cannot be made from the Senate floor, nor can they be made by someone who is beholden to Willie Brown.”