CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS GOVERNOR : Battling Neck and Neck for Votes : Feinstein: She portrays herself as the underdog, saying Republicans have ‘put everything in their arsenal’ for Wilson.

Describing the campaign for governor as “David and Goliath,” Democrat Dianne Feinstein said Thursday that she still thinks she can win despite some polls showing Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson pulling ahead.

In a hectic day of appearances that included short stops in San Jose, Sacramento and Monterey, Feinstein and other Democrats belted Wilson with more of the populist rhetoric that has characterized her campaign in recent days.

“In a sense, this race has always been David and Goliath,” Feinstein told reporters after a speech to Sacramento office workers. She said Republicans in California and nationwide have “put everything in their arsenal” into the race on Wilson’s behalf.

She listed her opponent’s assets: “Every big Republican consultant. All the money they can possibly use. Five trips by the President. Two or three by the Vice President.

“But I think it’s winnable,” she added. “We’re well within striking distance.”

Feinstein said her campaign’s internal polls showed the race to be “dead even,” as has the Los Angeles Times Poll. She downplayed the importance of the California Poll, which showed her trailing Wilson 47% to 39%, saying she was more concerned about the public’s perception of that survey than its accuracy.

“It creates a bandwagon effect, no question about it,” she said. “We just have to mobilize our vote and get it out there. I believe we can do it. I really do.”

But if Wilson’s campaign has been rolling along smoothly, with the candidate acting more gubernatorial by the day, Feinstein’s operation has been scrambling.

A visit to a Fresno senior citizens’ home was scheduled for Thursday and then scrapped, and Feinstein planned to take the afternoon off. Then, suddenly, a trip to Monterey was added to the schedule, and Feinstein appeared at a hastily planned news conference at the Municipal Wharf to restate her support for an “ocean sanctuary” off the coast.

Today, Feinstein plans to visit several spots in the Inland Empire, but her itinerary is unclear, and late Thursday she was talking about adding Santa Barbara.

“We’re calling audibles in the air,” said Feinstein’s press secretary, Dee Dee Myers.

En route by private jet from Sacramento to Monterey, Feinstein said she was adjusting her plans to hit as many media markets as possible in the campaign’s final days.

“I’m trying to reinforce what I’m for and mobilize our people, and at the same time, show some of the distinctions on the issues,” she said.

The primary distinction between the two campaigns that Feinstein tried to portray Thursday was that she is for the “little guy” and the middle class while Wilson is for the rich. It is a theme the Democratic nominee has used often since polls began showing that the public believes President Bush and the Republicans are protecting the interests of the well-to-do.

Feinstein promised to sign legislation providing health insurance for every worker, guaranteed leave for new parents and more money for child care. Wilson, she said, is more concerned about “tax loopholes for the very wealthy.”

Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) was more graphic when he joined Feinstein at her speech to students and faculty at San Jose State University.

Republicans, he said, “don’t know how to solve any problems--except protect the rich and their money. They’re so haughty and so distant and so callous, about poor people, about women, about gays and lesbians, about persons of color, about anybody who isn’t wealthy and well-to-do.”