CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : U.S. SENATE : Personal Appearances, TV Wars Mark the Home Stretch

Heading into a bruising final stretch, U.S. Senate candidates Barbara Boxer and Bruce Herschensohn launched high-energy campaign swings through opposite ends of the state Wednesday, while television warfare continued to highlight the race between Dianne Feinstein and John Seymour.

Boxer, a Democratic congresswoman, and conservative Republican Herschensohn met with rowdy crowds on college campuses; Seymour and Feinstein spoke to Leisure World audiences and to gatherings of friendly party supporters.

Fighting to maintain her lead over Herschensohn, Boxer embarked on a 33-hour road tour of 14 cities. The round-the-clock stump got its start in a meeting with supporters in a Sacramento cafe, then moved to Davis, where Boxer spoke to hundreds of students at a University of California campus rally.

“You matter. You vote. You care,” Boxer told the crowd. A small group of Herschensohn partisans showed up but were drowned out by Boxer’s supporters chanting “Barbara, Barbara, Barbara” each time they started to heckle the candidate.

Through the rest of the day, Boxer was talking about the environment with community activists in Rodeo and jobs with workers in Oakland. She was scheduled to press southward into Los Angeles and San Diego today.

As Boxer went from city to city in a rented van, Herschensohn was taking a chartered prop plane on his whirlwind, three-day California tour.

The former television commentator kicked off the first phase of the trip--a four-city swing through Southern California--with a noon rally at USC. Introduced by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch as “a man with integrity,” Herschensohn was greeted by about 500 placard-waving students with shouts of both approval and denunciation.

“This is part of the great fun of campaigning,” Herschensohn announced as chants by rival groups of students drowned out his remarks. Soon the clamor became so disruptive that Herschensohn pleaded with both sides to hold it down so that he could be heard.

He then launched into what sounded like a textbook lesson on limited government, but he soon abandoned his speech as the crowd became increasingly unruly.

Chants of “Bruce, Bruce, go away! Racist, sexist, anti-gay” were matched by cries of “Fight Back” (the Herschensohn campaign slogan) and “Bruce in ’92.”

Herschensohn took half a dozen questions from the audience, eliciting the loudest response when he quoted conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh on the issue of character in politics. Although he has a well-known distaste for glad-handing, Herschensohn then waded into the crowd to shake hands and sign autographs.

From there, it was on to Riverside, Ontario and Palm Springs, where Herschensohn was greeted by former mayor--and primary-election rival--Sonny Bono and a senior citizen rap singer who performed a piece about Boxer’s 143 overdrafts.

In Riverside, someone held up a hand-lettered sign: “Kemp-Herschensohn, ’96.”

Herschensohn was to spend today and Friday stumping through the Central Valley and into Northern California, Boxer’s home territory.

Herschensohn and Boxer are competing for the six-year seat being relinquished by Sen. Alan Cranston. Recent polls show Herschensohn has cut Boxer’s once-formidable lead by at least half.

In the other Senate race, Democrat Feinstein and Seymour, the Republican appointed incumbent, are running to fill the last two years of the seat vacated by Pete Wilson when he became governor.

Feinstein holds a double-digit lead over Seymour as the two continue to air harsh ads attacking each other’s record. In the newest of these, Seymour accuses the former San Francisco mayor of substantial conflicts of interest because of the complex business dealings of her husband, investment consultant Richard Blum.

The ad claims Feinstein would have to miss 25% of her votes in the Senate because of conflicts of interest involving banks, defense contractors and other firms that Blum works with.

Feinstein’s campaign denounced the claims as delusional.

“Obviously the Seymour Senate campaign gets more and more desperate by the hour,” said media consultant Bill Carrick. “It’s all a concoction of his mind. She will have no conflict that will prevent her from voting on anything.”

Seymour found himself the target of tough questioning from reporters over his own potential conflict of interest. Seymour acknowledged receiving $69,000 from a savings and loan institution while he was a sitting state senator who voted on legislation that affected the thrift industry. He received the money as payment for consultant work for the institution, which has since failed.

Seymour denied it was a conflict of interest because the S&L; was a federal bank while he was only voting on state thrift issues. He said that comparing his own business interests to Feinstein’s was like comparing “ants to elephants.”

Earlier, Seymour found out just how effective Feinstein’s television ads have been during a speech to about 400 Orange County supporters at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

During the speech, the audience of mostly business people corrected Seymour twice when he misquoted Feinstein’s ad.

Seymour began in a quest for sympathy, saying: “In a campaign like this, you suffer slings and arrows.” Then, as he complained that one of Feinstein’s ads said he had voted to raise his pay “three times,” members of the luncheon crowd interrupted, shouting: “ Four times .”

“Obviously, you’ve seen the commercial more times than I have,” the hapless senator responded.

Forging ahead, Seymour said the same ad had claimed he was sued, “How many times was it?”

“Eighteen!” the audience chimed in, getting a big laugh from the candidate.

“Well, you know, when you see something like that on television it does hurt a little bit,” he said.

Then, Seymour said, “the commercial said I had a large Senate staff--or something like that.” The audience interrupted again: “The largest “ Senate staff.

“See, you have been watching,” Seymour said. “Tell me about the power of television.”

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Bill Stall and Tracy Wilkinson.