Wilson Nears Culmination of 12-Year Ambition : Inauguration: Governor-elect will take office amid a flurry of lavish events. Aides say the celebrations are designed to accentuate the positive in time of economic uncertainty.

Pete Wilson realizes 12 years of ambition next week by taking over as California governor in a lavish flurry of inaugural events that contrast pointedly with the aloof image of his predecessor.

With war looming in the Middle East and economic hard times already a certainty, the Republican governor-elect is spending a record $2.5 million--albeit privately financed--on five days of “people-oriented” events that organizers declared was done purposely to accentuate the positive.

The inaugural celebrations for the man who first ran for governor in 1978 begin Saturday and end Jan. 11. Wilson’s formal swearing in takes place on the west steps of the Capitol at 11 a.m. Monday.

Besides a traditional entertainment night and formal ball, Wilson has scheduled a young people’s ball, an ecumenical prayer breakfast, a fiesta and free public events throughout Sacramento including a family night with mimes and face-painters for children. Unlike previous inaugural events when new governors appeared on cue and at a distance, Wilson’s events will have a certain informality with ample time at each for handshaking and crowd-mingling. Wilson plans to attend each one--and spend a full hour and a half, with his wife Gayle at his side, greeting the public after his formal inauguration ceremony on Monday.

The finale, to be staged Jan. 11, will be an inaugural gala featuring the Beach Boys held in Wilson’s hometown of San Diego.

“We want people to know that a new guy is taking over and he’s got his own way of doing things, “ said inaugural committee director Martin R. Wilson. “What you will see here is somebody in Pete Wilson who is very people-oriented. Likes to talk to people. Wants to shake their hands.”

It’s an inauguration laced with messages. For insiders, it’s a chance to show off what they view as the Wilson style, a gregarious approach that contrasts sharply with the detached, almost shy, reticence of his predecessor, Gov. George Deukmejian.

Insisting the two Republicans are close personal friends, Wilson’s staff members maintain no criticism of Deukmejian is intended. Nevertheless, it is clear that the ceremonies will draw sharp distinctions to the austere Deukmejian style.

Almost from the day he took office, Deukmejian’s relationship with the Legislature was generally strained and his failure to socialize and communicate with lawmakers was often blamed when the two branches failed to resolve differences. By contrast, two days after he becomes governor, Wilson plans to host a dinner for all members of the Legislature with political satirist Mark Russell as the featured entertainer.

“It hasn’t been the practice for governors to invite legislators to dinner this early in the year,” said former Senate President Pro Tem James R. Mills. “It’s a very accommodating sort of move toward the Legislature. It’s a peacemaking move. It’s a very conciliatory gesture.”

While the peacemaking moves draw praise, critics contend Wilson could have gotten his messages across with a less extravagant inauguration and, in their view, one more appropriate for these times. They noted that Ronald Reagan, after an elaborate Hollywood-style first inauguration as governor, severely scaled back his second inauguration, citing a slumping economy, rising unemployment and potential budget deficits. Edmund G. Brown Jr. cited similar reasons for two gubernatorial inaugurations that were so Spartan they hardly drew notice.

“It does seem excessive certainly in these economic times to have an inauguration that costs $2.5 million,” said Ruth Holton, a lobbyist for Common Cause, an organization that promotes campaign finance reform.

In private there were similar complaints from some other lobbyists and political consultants who have been pressed to purchase $10,000 boxes at the inaugural ball or contribute $25,000 as inauguration sponsors. “(Wilson’s) treating this like it’s a presidential inauguration,” grumbled one.

But the inaugural’s architects say that they wanted the event to be big enough to convey still another message, an attitude of optimism such as that exhibited by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. “What we’re trying to do,” said Martin Wilson, “is say, ‘Look, people are tightening their belt all over but we’re also optimistic about the future,’ . . . we need to restore optimism.”

“Jerry (Brown) was trying to attract attention by being offbeat and Pete Wilson’s is just trying to be very much upbeat,” said Mills.

To finance the free public events and keep ticket prices down at the less formal celebrations, the inaugural chairman said it was necessary to take up the slack by soliciting thousands of dollars from sponsors and others who could afford that kind of spending to stage the glittering formal affairs.

Although the new governor has given general directions, the detailed planning of events has been left to inaugural chief Martin Wilson, a longtime aide and confidant and the organizational boss of last year’s highly successful Republican get-out-the-vote effort.

Inaugural staffers said the only detail in which Pete Wilson took a direct interest involved the entertainment: He was emphatic that actor Charlton Heston do a Lincoln reading with the Sacramento Symphony as part of the celebration.

With Wilson facing a potential budget deficit of several billion dollars over the next 18 months, inaugural staffers said they wanted to “keep as much off his back as possible” so he could devote most of his time to weighty tasks awaiting him immediately after the swearing-in. In a short inaugural address after the formal oath-taking, the new governor is expected to set the tone for his Administration.

Then on Wednesday, a longer State of the State address to the Legislature is expected to outline California’s austere financial condition. On the day after, the new governor’s first proposed budget will be released and Wilson will say how he plans to deal with program cuts.

“The most important thing the inaugural staff has to keep in mind (is that) . . . what we are doing over here is not the most important thing for the future of California,” Martin Wilson said.

Even so, the task of planning a weeklong celebration involving thousands of people can be daunting, according to one man who has experience with inaugurations. Karl Samuelian, the Los Angeles lawyer who headed Deukmejian’s two swearing-in celebrations, remembered being told two days after the 1982 election that he was running the inauguration. “I thought, ‘What do I do now?’ ” he recalled.

But when he protested to Deukmejian that he had “never done one of these before,” he said the governor cut off his complaints with a terse, ‘Neither have I.”

“Essentially you’re trying to put together a $2- to $2.5-million marketing operation in an eight-week period of time and have it be successful,” said Martin Wilson. “You start with nothing. You don’t have a dime in the bank. You don’t have a lawyer. You don’t have a staff.”

He said he began preparing by seeking advice from Samuelian and poring over a detailed plan of the first Reagan inauguration. From that base, he said, he began adding what he calls the Wilson touches--the community events, the public handshaking and the legislative dinner.

Early on, he rejected the idea of a Reagan-style parade, deciding that would be an organizational nightmare. But in keeping with tradition, he decided to rely heavily on one of California’s natural assets--its celebrities--to spice up the festivities.

While not quite the star-studded array that Reagan presented, celebrities will still make an impressive showing at the Wilson affairs. In addition to Heston and Russell, there will be appearances by Wayne Newton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Beach Boys, the Kingston Trio, Mary Hart and Robbie Britt.