Burton Blames ‘Self-Serving, Inept’ Jerry Brown for Feinstein’s Defeat : Politics: But other Democrats say the nominee for governor shares responsibility for her loss to Pete Wilson.

Internal bickering among California Democrats over blame for Dianne Feinstein’s narrow gubernatorial defeat surfaced Friday in Florida as delegates to a meeting of state Democratic officials snickered over a letter harshly critical of state party chairman and former governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.

In a letter dispatched to state Democratic Party chairmen meeting in Miami, California Assemblyman John Burton of San Francisco said Brown bungled the party’s get-out-the-vote drive and doomed Feinstein to defeat. Feinstein lost to Republican Pete Wilson by 3% of the votes cast.

Brown “is the most self-serving, inept politician that I have ever met in my 35 years in politics,” Burton’s letter to the Democratic officials said.

Brown, defending his tenure as state party chairman, promptly labeled Burton “a yeller and a screamer” and said the assemblyman was “out of touch” with California Democrats.

“He’s used to just yelling and having everybody shake,” Brown said in a telephone interview from Miami.

Burton’s letter was only the latest bit of ammunition to be fired at or by Brown since the Feinstein defeat. As dispute over the election results continues, some Democrats have separated into camps. Others are openly chagrined that the tempest will further sour the party’s image.

While the shifting of blame is a traditional act for fratricidal Democrats, it has been heightened this year because of maneuvering over the two 1992 Senate races and the general tumult caused by the success of initiatives limiting the terms of elected officials.

So far, Burton has raised the loudest public ruckus against Brown, and has himself come under criticism from Brown partisans. They contend that Burton is trying to undercut a future Senate bid by Brown in order to assist his political ally, Rep. Barbara Boxer of Greenbrae. Boxer has announced she will run for the Senate.

Burton, in an interview, dismissed with an expletive the suggestion that his attack was politically motivated.

The intraparty tussle is expected to be renewed this weekend at a meeting of the state party’s executive committee in San Jose.

Burton said he personally believes that Brown, whose term runs until 1993, should be ousted as the party chairman. However, party rules establish a complicated process for dismissing officers, making summary action this weekend impossible.

Brown also maintains some strong ties with party regulars, many of whom insist that it is overly simplistic to blame him for Feinstein’s defeat.

Feinstein herself made several strategic errors during the course of the campaign, fellow Democrats point out, including a decision not to air television ads critical of Wilson’s absence from the Senate until after Wilson had defused the issue by returning to Washington.

The surge of concern over the Persian Gulf stalemate and fears about a recession played against Feinstein’s positioning of herself as a “candidate of change.” And some voters were influenced against Feinstein because she is a woman, polls showed.

Fund-raisers who could have financed a stronger get-out-the-vote effort were pulled in several different directions. In June, Democrats were working to defeat initiatives that would have reformed the reapportionment process. In November, many were allied against the term-limit initiatives, one of which succeeded.

Brown has pointed out that his San Francisco law firm spent $300,000 to help overturn Proposition 73, the campaign financing measure that was struck down by a state court in September, allowing Feinstein to collect millions in extra campaign dollars and bringing her closer to Wilson in the polls.

Several of the party’s organized groups, including the Los Angeles County Democratic organization, have rushed to Brown’s defense.

“We all share responsibility for the loss of the governor’s race,” said David Brooks, chairman of the Butte County Central Committee, in a letter to the party executive committee.

Problems with the party’s get-out-the-vote organization began in February with the dismissal of voter organizer Marshall Ganz over what Brown says was a financial dispute and Ganz says was a failure by Brown to commit to a massive plan to target 750,000 voters.

Ganz was not replaced until mid-September, when fellow organizer Larry Tramutola was brought in to head what turned out to be a much-diminished effort.

Although Ganz said Brown bears “a major responsibility” for November’s results because Brown scuttled the initial program, he and other Democrats said elected officials and Feinstein herself deserve some of the blame for the low-powered effort.

“Once the statewide candidates were nominated in June, they certainly had responsibility, too,” Ganz said. “Why the Feinstein people didn’t raise holy hell . . . is a mystery to me.”

Ganz said he proposed a get-out-the-vote effort to Feinstein’s campaign staff, but the suggestion “disappeared into the mist.”

Several Democrats said this week that they were concerned that public dissent over the election results would disintegrate into Brown-bashing and enhance the perception of Democrats as a less-than-organized lot.

“I really wish what was being debated was why did the party drop the ball on registration and get-out-the-vote and why didn’t Feinstein pick up the ball,” Ganz said. “Instead it’s a little like low farce.”

Times political writer Robert Shogan contributed to this story from Miami.