Wilson Finds Dilemmas in Senate Choice : Government: An election campaign in 1992 and a litmus test set by the governor-elect are seen as factors limiting his options.

Before a glittering audience of financial backers, Gov.-elect Pete Wilson cut quickly to the much-debated subject of his replacement as U.S. senator.

“There are probably a thousand people who can serve admirably,” he told Republicans in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night. “But there are not too many who are eager or ready or able to undertake what is actually going to be involved, which is doing the job at the same time that you are running to keep it.”

One month after he won the governorship and the right to pick his own Senate successor, Wilson is sifting through the names of candidates and said he plans to announce his selection in two to three weeks. Rumors are flying fast and furiously, but Wilson has limited discussion to a coterie of tight-lipped advisers.

Some Republicans, however, are finding it hard to come up with a list from which Wilson can pick, given the parameters the governor-elect has set. The dilemma, they say, once again points to the party’s weakness in statewide races.

“We don’t have the kind of bench that I think we need,” said Steven A. Merksamer, longtime party activist and former chief aide to departing Gov. George Deukmejian. “I’m not sure it’s going to be easy for Pete to find someone who reflects his views entirely.”

While there is some disagreement about that, other Republicans concur that the party is facing the same problem it confronted two years ago, when Gov. George Deukmejian announced he would not run for a third term. The solution then, after much hand-wringing, was the emergence of Wilson, who ran in an all but uncontested GOP primary.

The limited options faced by Wilson derive from two colliding circumstances--the need to run an almost constant transcontinental campaign for the seat and the litmus tests set by Wilson himself.

Wilson’s appointee will have to stand for election in 1992--right around the corner in the political lexicon. The appointee also will face election in 1994, when the seat was to come up if Wilson had kept it. In short, the appointee would have to run twice in four years, at an estimated cost of $10 million to $15 million each time, while building a defendable record as a freshman senator.

“Being an effective brand-new senator is an extremely difficult job,” said former congressman Ed Zschau, who challenged Sen. Alan Cranston in the 1986 Senate race. “On top of that, in your spare time, you have to run statewide in California, an extraordinarily difficult job. You’re put in a position of doing two different jobs from a standing start.”

Complicating matters is Cranston’s announcement last month that he would not seek reelection, leaving his seat open in 1992 as well. That seat has proved much more alluring to many candidates because the winner would not have to run again for six years.

“People want to go for the six-year seat,” said state Republican Party Chairman Frank Visco.

Making the pick more troublesome are the ground rules Wilson set for his successor--an ideological moderate, an advocate of abortion rights and the death penalty and someone who can hold on to the seat for the Republicans.

The position on abortion rights, in particular, may be hard to fulfill. Many of the party’s potential candidates--for example, U.S. Rep. David Dreier of Covina--have a more restrictive view of abortion rights than Wilson. The governor-elect opposes federal funding for abortions but favors a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

State Sen. Rebecca Q. Morgan of Los Altos Hills, who has withdrawn from contention for the Senate seat, said that in a recent telephone conversation Wilson seemed intent on keeping his pledge to appoint someone who shares his moderate views on abortion rights. He also pressed the point of electability, she said.

But others say Wilson may have to trade off some of his pledges to satisfy others.

“He may well have to make some modifications,” said one senior Republican campaign activist. “This isn’t like the ‘Dating Game’ where . . . the potential field is millions of people.”

Wilson and his advisers have refused to release a formal list of names under consideration. But among the field of presumed candidates, both Morgan and Zschau have asked that they not be considered, and others have spread the word that they are not particularly interested in an appointment.

Intimates of U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills, said to be among those being considered by Wilson, have spread the word that she would like to stay with the Bush Administration.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis of Redlands is close to Wilson, but this week he won a hard-fought race for the third-highest leadership post among House Republicans. Those familiar with his thinking have said Lewis would prefer to remain in Congress, where he is among those in line to replace House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois.

“He doesn’t have my resume,” Lewis said of Wilson earlier this week. Lewis would not specifically rule out interest in a Senate bid. Republicans and other political analysts suggest Wilson has three general options:

* He could pick an elected official, who would have a leg up on creating a fund-raising base and the political acumen required in the job. A concern is that few Republicans have shown an ability to win statewide; most state offices are held by Democrats.

Some Republicans suggest that Wilson could chose from those who ran well-considered, if unsuccessful races--for example, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who lost to incumbent Secretary of State March Fong Eu in November.

Flores said this week that she has not been contacted by Wilson. “Unless it were offered, I probably wouldn’t even think about it,” Flores said. “If it were offered, I’d weigh the pros and cons.”

* Another alternative is someone in the public policy arena familiar with the requirements of politics but not an officeholder. Hills’ name is most often mentioned in this category, along with that of Condoleezza Rice, director of Soviet and East European affairs on the Bush Administration’s National Security Council.

Morgan said she talked to Wilson about Rice, a black woman who before her NSC appointment taught at Stanford University.

But Rice passed up an opportunity to run for Congress in 1986. Some Republicans are wary of placing someone who has never run for office in the position of running what amounts to a transcontinental, four-year marathon.

“It’s a huge hurdle,” said a Republican campaign activist. “This person faces four years of campaigning and fund raising. Until you’ve done it, I don’t think people know the toll of energy and particularly cross-country travel.”

* Others, however, suggest that a policy expert--or someone outside the political world entirely--could win points for being a fresh face in an era where incumbency does not always play well with voters. Some Republicans cite Peter Ueberroth, president of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and a registered Republican, as an example of a political outsider.

“You don’t have to carry all those rocks in the bag,” said Zschau, who in his race with Cranston was battered over votes he cast in Congress. “The longer you’re in office, the more record is there to attack.”

No matter who is appointed, Republicans already are worrying whether intraparty warfare will break out in the 1992 primary and help hand the seat back to the Democrats.

Several Republicans, in comments about the Senate appointment, suggested a comparison between the fate of Wilson’s choice and that of Thomas Hayes, the appointed incumbent state treasurer who was defeated by Democrat Kathleen Brown in November. Many Republicans blame his loss on a contested primary in which Hayes was forced to spend $1 million to defeat fellow Republican Angela Buchanan.

At his $1,000-a-plate Tuesday night fund-raiser, Wilson pressured his backers to support his ultimate selection.

“My friends, when you are relieved of the responsibility for supporting my efforts, please pick up the cudgels for those who will follow,” he said.