GOVERNOR : Wilson and Feinstein Call Out the Presidents : Democrat: She toots Truman’s horn during whistle-stop campaign through Central Valley.

Dianne Feinstein, who opened her campaign for governor stressing her differences with traditional Democrats, Saturday began to close it out with a most traditional call for a populist uprising on her behalf.

Aboard a packed four-car campaign train, Feinstein traveled the Central Valley from Bakersfield to Sacramento, grasping at the underdog spirit of the President who made that mode of campaigning famous.

Feinstein’s strategists continued to frame the race in neck-and-neck terms, but she was rallying appreciative crowds like a candidate looking for a come-from-behind victory.

“Forty-two years ago, Harry Truman campaigned in this great valley,” she told supporters in Merced. “I got news for Pete Wilson. I may not look like Harry Truman. I may not cuss like Harry Truman. But I have the heart and determination of a Harry Truman.

“Truman heard the experts saying it was over,” Feinstein added. “But he thought people should decide this election and so do we.”

At seven different stops lined with hundreds of loyalists, Feinstein conjured up Truman, who came from behind in 1948 to defeat Republican Thomas E. Dewey, and lobbed insults at her Republican opponent Pete Wilson.

“As we approach the finish line in this campaign, the choice in this race is a clear one,” Feinstein said, “with the choice between a candidate that wants to protect the bank accounts of the rich and a candidate who wants to protect the pocketbooks of the people.”

Feinstein began her campaign--and won the Democratic nomination--by accenting her differences with old-line Democrats. She flaunted her support of the death penalty and presented a more moderate image than past Democrats.

But in the campaign’s closing days, she has reverted to themes that have characterized generations of Democratic politicians.

In contrast to Democrats around the nation, Feinstein has only recently begun pressing the populist “fairness” message in earnest. Playing that theme poses some inherent difficulties for Feinstein, whose personal wealth contrasts sharply with her message.

Feinstein is speaking the rhetoric of the working class while she and her husband, Richard C. Blum, earned $7.4 million last year.

“We can’t afford four more years of policies that favor the rich and forget about all the rest of us,” she said Saturday.

Against Wilson, she invoked a symbol of wealthy excess--controversial savings and loan financier Charles Keating, who is facing charges in connection with the collapse of his financial empire. The Republican senator received almost a quarter of a million dollars in campaign contributions from thrift interests this decade.

“Charles Keating and the savings and loan interests have had their say,” she said. “It’s our turn now.”

The Democratic candidate’s comments echoed new campaign commercials she has put on the air that seek to drive a wedge between voters and elected Republicans like Wilson.

Feinstein denied that her recent swing to traditional populism marked a shift from her earlier, more centrist campaign.

“I’ve always said I’m a mainstream Democrat,” she told reporters. “We’ve always been a people’s party. We’ve got to return a sense of power to people who feel powerless.”

While the underdog theme was never far from Feinstein’s lips, the Democrat was more robustly upbeat than Friday, when she offered a gloomy assessment of the campaign, blaming in part “sexual stereotyping” for her failure to overtake Wilson in the polls.

Her voice raspy but strong, Feinstein on Saturday goaded Republicans for the sense of confidence they have exuded in recent days. She aimed a particular gibe in the direction of President Bush, who flew in to Southern California Friday night to campaign for Wilson on Saturday.

“Last night, the White House flew out a whole planeload of blue suits to try and carry Pete Wilson over the finish line,” Feinstein said to cheers in Bakersfield. “Well, they ought to stick around. Because next Tuesday, they can carry him right back to Washington, D.C.”

Feinstein’s pollster Ed Reilly said the message and the surroundings of her Central Valley trip were meant to tap voter frustration over crime, unbridled growth and environmental degradation.

To overtake Wilson, Feinstein will have to strongly pull the undecided voters, whom Reilly said were “lunch bucket” Democrats and women.

“They’re just kind of tuning in,” he said. “They’ve got to hear Dianne in the final period. What gets them to the polls is a sense of urgency.”

Along for the whistle-stop ride were longtime Feinstein supporters, valley politicians and a few celebrities, including comedian Chevy Chase and actors Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker of “L.A. Law.”

The trip was meant to be picturesque and it was, stopping at little-town train stations on a gloriously sunny day. Feinstein and her party rode in a custom wood-paneled car. Flags and Feinstein signs waved incessantly, Dixieland bands tooted their horns and at the last stop in Sacramento fireworks exploded skyward.