Wilson in for Taunting by GOP Conservatives : Politics: State Republican convention in Anaheim gives critics of the governor’s tax increases a chance to vent their ire.

Although he has been applauded nationally for mastering California’s budget crisis, Gov. Pete Wilson faces the taunts of tea bags this weekend and perhaps being hanged in effigy by angry anti-tax conservatives from within his own Republican Party.

The setting is the semiannual convention of the Republican State Central Committee, to be held here tonight through Sunday. Officially, the 1,500 committee members have been summoned to handle housekeeping duties and to begin organizing for the 1992 election campaign.

Candidates for the two U.S. Senate seats at stake in California next year will seize the opportunity to woo supporters from among GOP officialdom at hotel hospitality suites, in corridors and in caucus rooms.

But almost certain to get the most public attention will be debate on issues raised by the state GOP’s most conservative members--usually aligned with the so-called religious right--who consider themselves keepers of the true Republican flame. The conservatives, who appear to control the party structure, brand as heretical the moderate policies of Wilson and his hand-picked U.S. Senate successor, John Seymour of Anaheim. Those policies range from advocacy of a woman’s right to abortion to protection of the environment.

Conservatives are focusing their ire on Wilson’s sponsorship of nearly $7 billion in tax increases as part of the $14-billion budget deficit solution he fashioned this summer with majority Democrats in the Legislature. Conservative activists have urged delegates to come to the convention armed with tea bags symbolic of the anti-tax Boston Tea Party of 1773. There was talk of having a doll representing Wilson either hanged or tarred and feathered--borrowings from the American colonists’ response to British tax collectors.

State GOP conventions usually are marked by ideological infighting, noted former state Sen. H. L. Richardson, head of Gun Owners of California and an adviser to the U.S. Senate campaign of Rep. William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton. But in 1991, “for the first time in California history, a Republican governor is not welcome at the Republican convention,” he said.

He may not be welcomed by many, but Wilson is the titular head of the party and was invited some time ago to address the convention. He is scheduled to address a gathering tonight at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda.

That event will include a buffet dinner, a speech from the governor and a tour of the year-old museum. Wilson, who worked as an advance man on Nixon’s 1962 California gubernatorial campaign, is also scheduled to talk with the former President by speaker phone.

Even Richardson, a veteran intriguer and instigator of intramural spats and plots, acknowledged that party conventions “are great exhibitions of nothingness.”

He added, however, that “Pete is a little bit out of step with the basic grass-roots party” and “you can expect some fireworks.” An effort will be made to diminish the governor’s control over party functions, such as the selection of delegates to the Republican National Convention.

If history is any guide, the debate will attract lots of media attention but will lead to little action. The governor’s office seemed little concerned. In the past, governors and presidents worked behind the scenes to mute or squash internal conflict. The Wilson folk claim they are not bothering to do that at Anaheim. The best approach is to ignore the dissidents, said one Wilson political adviser who declined to be identified.

“They don’t represent the broad spectrum of the party, certainly not the mainstream. A segment of the party does not support Pete Wilson. They say it’s because of issues. I say it is access. They are not players. . . . They are in this thing for their own glorification.”

The Wilson strategist guessed that the vocal right represents only about one-third of the delegates. “This is their only time to shine,” he said. “You don’t see them working in campaigns. You don’t see them at fund-raisers.”

Frank Visco of Lancaster, immediate past party chairman, observed, “There’s a whole lot more clout in the governor’s office than in the party apparatus.”

Still, the conservative shock troops spend time, energy and money in seeking party positions, and therefore will wield considerable control of the party apparatus at this convention.

Allies of Dannemeyer, who is challenging Seymour for the nomination in 1992, will try to obtain official party condemnation of tax increases and sanctions for GOP lawmakers who supported them. Other goals will be expressions of abhorrence for government waste, abortion and civil rights for gays.

State GOP Chairman Jim Dignan of Modesto said he expects the most raucous debate to be confined to committee meetings, sparing the full convention from protracted wrangling. Former Chairman Visco said the dissidents “are basically attacking the governor on issues I think are meaningless.”

“Two issues, abortion and gay rights, should not be issues in the political arena. They should be private issues,” Visco said.