Wilson Opens Bid for 2nd Term on Optimistic Note : Politics: Governor says he wants to lead state ‘in good times.’ He vows that this campaign will be his last.

Pledging “strong and unflinching leadership” to fight crime and create jobs, Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday formally opened his bid for a second term as California’s chief executive and said it would be the last campaign of his long political career.

With stops in Fontana, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, Wilson began a two-day campaign tour with an upbeat message of optimism for a state that throughout his first term has suffered from economic recession, natural and man-made disasters and a rising fear of violent crime.

“I think this state has a magnificent future,” Wilson said. “I came to this office at a time when it was particularly challenging. Having been through the hard times, I would like to have the opportunity to lead California in good times.”

To get that chance, Wilson, who has only token opposition in the Republican primary, will have to defeat one of three Democrats who are vying for the right to face him in the fall: Treasurer Kathleen Brown, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and state Sen. Tom Hayden.

Wilson begins the campaign behind in the polls. A year ago, public opinion surveys gave him the lowest ratings of any governor in 30 years and showed him losing badly to his major Democratic challengers. He has rebounded in recent months with vigorous attacks on illegal immigration and street crime.

Already, Wilson has established himself as one of the most durable politicians in the state’s history. He was elected three times to the Legislature, served three terms as mayor of San Diego and won two elections to the U.S. Senate. He left the Senate in the middle of his second term when he won the election for governor in 1990.

A former Marine, Wilson has forged a career as a tenacious legislator and government executive as well as a relentless campaigner. The touchstones of his past campaigns have been support for business and advocacy of stricter treatment of violent criminals, elements that were on display Tuesday.

Wilson, 60, kicked off the campaign with a low-key rally inside a cavernous warehouse at California Steel Industries, a foreign-owned company on the site of the former Kaiser Steel plant. Wilson said he helped cut through red tape to speed a recent expansion at the factory, which employs about 1,000 people.

Fontana is in the heart of the Inland Empire, home to the kind of swing Democrats once credited with electing Ronald Reagan but who sided with President Clinton in 1992. Wilson strategists say the governor must win back those voters if he hopes to be reelected in November.

Speaking before an early morning audience of about 300 supporters, Wilson offered a job description of the post he has held for three years.

“The governor of California must be many things--a crisis manager when the earth shakes or the forests burn, the chief salesman for California jobs all across the country . . . and a leader of conviction who stands up for what’s right no matter who’s opposed or what the consequences,” he said.

Contrasting himself with his opponents, he said that he was proposing no flashy new programs. His only pledge was to stay a course he is convinced is the best for the state.

“Californians still face tough times, and to get through these tough times, we need more than 10-point plans and catchy slogans,” he said. “What California needs today is strong and unflinching leadership.”

Wilson’s Fontana speech was interrupted by protests from a handful of Corona residents who are upset about his decision to order their town sprayed with the pesticide malathion to fight the Mediterranean fruit fly. The demonstrators were ushered out by company security officers, and Wilson used the incident to stress his commitment to economic recovery.

The spraying, he said, is necessary to prevent a quarantine of California agriculture that he said could cost as many as 130,000 jobs.

“I think they are a little confused,” Wilson said. “There is no evidence it is harmful to human beings. . . . It’s just not tolerable to allow baseless fears, no matter how real they may be to them, to destroy people’s livelihoods.”

The protest was the only glitch in Wilson’s day, which for the most part focused on the crime issue. Even when he mentioned the economy, Wilson tied it to crime.

“We are in need of jobs for a growing population,” Wilson said. “Employers don’t bring jobs and they don’t keep jobs in a neighborhood that is no longer safe. If it’s not safe for their customers, if it’s not safe for their employees, they’re going to go somewhere else.”

Wilson acknowledged that in three years he has not been able to make Californians any safer. But he blamed the Legislature for resisting his calls for tougher criminal justice laws.

“I wish that I could say California were less dangerous than when I had come to office,” Wilson said. “But I don’t have any assurance that that’s the case.”

Neither Brown, Garamendi nor Hayden have any consistent record of supporting stricter sentencing laws, Wilson said.

He recalled his work on behalf of the “victims’ bill of rights” initiative in 1982, the campaign to oust Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird in 1986 and the speedy-trial ballot measure in 1990.

“California doesn’t need a governor who started talking tough about crime just 12 weeks ago,” he said.

The governor also reminded his supporters that he turned down a clemency request and sent murderer Robert Alton Harris to the gas chamber two years ago. Although Garamendi and Hayden support the death penalty, Wilson hopes to exploit his differences with Brown, who says she opposes capital punishment in principle but would enforce it if elected governor.

The state, Wilson said, needs a governor who will “invoke the death penalty and do it in good conscience because in fact he believes in it.”

In Los Angeles, Wilson picked up endorsements from the county probation officers association and the deputy sheriffs association. The deputies group supported Democrat Dianne Feinstein when she opposed Wilson in 1990.

But members of another law enforcement group, the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs, attended the press conference at the county jail and handed out leaflets criticizing Wilson for approving a parole policy that allows ex-convicts to remain on the streets even after they are caught using drugs or committing other offenses. Administration officials say the policy is intended to reduce prison overcrowding by offering drug treatment and counseling to wayward but nonviolent parolees.

Wilson made only passing references to issues other than crime.

He downplayed the state’s budget problems, contending that he had averted a “fiscal train wreck” by cutting state spending. He did not mention that he also supported a huge tax increase in 1991 or that neither the spending cuts nor the tax hikes have balanced the budget.

And in keeping with the theme that the state needs tough leadership, Wilson said he was willing to demand that Washington reimburse the state for the cost of serving illegal immigrants, even if he is “vilified for it.”

In an interview with a group of reporters between appearances, Wilson flatly rejected the idea of running for President in 1996, even if he wins a second term as governor.

“I’ll rule it out,” he said. Being governor, he added, is a “career capper.”

Wilson also said he would turn down any offer to run as vice president on the Republican ticket. He said the governor’s job would be more interesting and challenging than the second spot in Washington.

“If you’re not interested in the first spot, why the hell would you be interested in the second?” he said.

In San Diego, Wilson’s adopted home town, the governor’s entourage was greeted by a boisterous demonstration outside the bayside restaurant where Wilson held a reception. Protesters held signs mocking Wilson’s record on a number of topics.

“Would you rather have your kids in school or in jail?” read one sign. “No Re-Pete,” said another.

The campaign for governor is expected to be fierce and expensive, with total spending likely to top $50 million. The national Democratic and Republican party organizations probably will send surrogate campaigners and cash to California in an effort to control the governor’s office in the nation’s largest state going into the 1996 presidential elections.

As the campaign progresses, Wilson will have a delicate balancing act as he wages a partisan battle for reelection yet seeks to maintain his effectiveness as a Republican chief executive working with a Democratic Legislature.

With the state budget at least $5 billion out of balance, the governor will need help from lawmakers to avoid another crisis that would undercut the voters’ distrust in him as a manager of the state’s fiscal affairs.

But Wilson’s leverage in the Legislature, never great, may be waning as lawmakers decide to wait and see if he will survive to serve a second term. Last week, the state Senate blocked a Wilson nominee to the University of California Board of Regents--the first regent ever rejected--and voted to overturn a Wilson veto, the first time a governor has been overridden in either house since 1984.

Wilson’s plan to sell bonds to finance the state’s share of the Northridge earthquake recovery program also is having trouble in the Legislature.

Profile: Pete Wilson

Gov. Pete Wilson formally declared his candidacy for a second term Tuesday. He faces only token opposition in the Republican primary. State Treasurer Kathleen Brown, Insurance Commissioner John Garmendi and state Sen. Tom Hayden are running for the Democratic nomination to oppose Wilson.

* Born: Aug. 23, 1933, Lake Forest, Ill.

* Residence: Sacramento

* Education: Bachelor’s degree with major in English literature, Yale University, 1955; law degree, University of California, Boalt Hall, 1962.

* Career highlights: State Assembly, 1966-71; mayor of San Diego, 1971-82; U.S. senator, 1983-91; governor since 1991.

* Family Married in 1983 to Gayle Wilson; no children.

* Quote: “I think this state has a magnificent future. I came to this office at a time when it was particularly challenging. Having been through the hard times, I would like to have the opportunity to lead California in good times.”