CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : U.S. SENATE : Seymour and Feinstein Trade Biting Charges

In a debate that more closely resembled verbal mud wrestling, Democrat Dianne Feinstein and Republican John Seymour hurled bitingly personal charges at each other over live radio Monday in the final direct encounter of their U.S. Senate campaign.

With two radio talk show hosts acting more like referees than debate moderators, Feinstein and Seymour trashed each other with equal relish for most of the hour they were given by radio stations in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

The most heated exchanges, punctuated by shouts that the other candidate was “lying” or talking “baloney,” developed over personal finances, with the candidates bringing up lawsuits in each other’s background and trading charges that each was guilty of conflicts of interests.

Twenty-eight people, mostly friends and family of the two rivals, jammed into the Los Angeles studio of KABC with the candidates while the debate was broadcast. The debate hosts, Michael Jackson of KABC in Los Angeles and Ron Owens of KGO in San Francisco, interrupted Feinstein and Seymour frequently to keep the debate moving from one subject to another.

At one point, Jackson admonished the two to “drop this personal crap and get to substance.”

The exchanges continued off the air when the debate was over, with both candidates complaining that they were wronged.

Feinstein accused Seymour of unfairly bringing her husband, investor Richard Blum, into the debate. “It’s interesting to me that every time a woman is running, her husband comes into it,” she told reporters after the debate.

Most of the allegations made by Seymour were a rehash of issues first brought up two years ago during a gubernatorial race that Feinstein lost to Gov. Pete Wilson. After winning the governorship, Wilson appointed Seymour to the Senate seat he is now trying to win by election to serve out the remaining two years of the Wilson term.

Seymour questioned whether Feinstein could perform as a senator because of potential conflicts of interest posed by investments managed by her husband in a $400-millon portfolio. He cited investments by Blum’s firm, RCB & Associates, in Northwest Airlines and Shanghai Partners, an investment company with interests in China. Seymour also claimed that Blum had settled $35 million worth of suits filed against his investment firm.

Sitting next to Feinstein in the crowded studio, Seymour told his opponent: “This is called conflict of interest, and can you be a senator for California 100% of the time?”

Seymour contended that Blum held so many different investments that Feinstein would be prevented from sitting on all the committees of the Senate except “Rules, Budget and Veterans Affairs.”

The incumbent senator based his conflict claim on the argument that Feinstein and Blum together “control” the investment banking firm and that since California is a community property state, half of everything Blum owns is Feinstein’s.

At one point during the on-air exchange, the lanky Blum, standing in the wings with other observers, joined Seymour and Feinstein in front of a microphone to directly deny charges that his investments would pose an ethical problem for his wife if she is elected, or that the settlements had reached $35 million.

“Dianne has no interest in my business. She is not my business partner,” said Blum.

Later, Blum told reporters that he only manages most of the portfolio and that it is not his property. He said that he began his investment business before he married Feinstein 13 years ago and continues to maintain it as “separate” property.

Feinstein, when her turn came, said, “John, you are lying. I have no interest in any of those things. I am an independent human being that happened to marry a man who is an investment banker.”

But, even as she was taking political shots from Seymour, Feinstein was giving as good as she got.

She got under Seymour’s skin by referring to four votes “as a senator” that the Republican made to raise his own pay. Seymour said he opposes pay raises for members of Congress, but cast the votes for pay raises when he served in the Legislature as a state senator during the 1980s. He called her claim “a bunch of baloney.”

During a discussion of abortion rights, which Seymour opposed until 1989, when he switched positions and became an advocate of a woman’s right to decide the matter herself, Feinstein said “he actually cast 18 votes in the Senate against choice.” When Seymour protested, Feinstein corrected herself to say the state Senate. “All right, that’s fair,” Seymour said.

Feinstein accused Seymour of “lying” about her husband’s investments and said he was “a walking conflict of interest.” She said he took $500,000 in campaign contributions from corporate agricultural businesses while backing agribusiness water policy in the Senate. She added that he carried 47 real estate industry bills as a state senator and boasts of himself as “the real estate senator.”

“All my votes relative to real estate didn’t put one penny in my pocket,” Seymour retorted.

Seymour also was angered that Feinstein brought up 18 lawsuits filed against him during a 17-year business career. He told reporters after the debate, “My goodness sakes, the total number of lawsuits against me . . . were settled for less than $50,000. Her spouse settled stockholder, shareholder suits for $35 million. Give me a break.”

Off the subject of personal finances and lawsuits, Feinstein and Seymour were in general agreement on continuing a ban on offshore oil drilling, beefing up the Border Patrol, reforming welfare by giving recipients incentives to go to work, and enacting a health plan to provide minimum insurance to all Americans. Both said they were opposed to plans that would put most of the cost of health insurance on small businesses.