<i> Snapshots of life in the Golden State.</i> : Couture of Gubernatorial Candidates Is Not So Haute

Pin-striped indoor style is out. Casual outdoor chic is in. On television, the state’s three top male GOP candidates have been looking like models for the Eddie Bauer catalogue.

Senate primary front-runner Michael Huffington, in shirt and lightweight parka, strikes a pose on some picturesque rocks in his TV commercial. Gubernatorial long shot Ron Unz, in a like shirt and parka, strikes a pose on what appear to be the same picturesque rocks in his TV commercial (as the wind, whooshing on cue through the flora, seems to murmur “Zschau. . .”).

And on TV newscasts, Gov. Pete Wilson, in shirt and tan windbreaker, strikes a pose on some less-than-picturesque reconstituted rocks--the new concrete of the Santa Monica Freeway.

Our GOP couture has come a long, welcome way since Richard Nixon strolled the San Clemente sand in lace-up black oxfords.

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What goes with handcuffs? Field tests for prototypes of women’s prison guard uniforms are under way in six state prisons, the state Department of Corrections newsletter promises. At least a third of 2,500 women correctional officers surveyed couldn’t stand the jacket, trouser or hat styles, and would prefer a blend over pure polyester, as well as an “action back” shirt. Design changes could dump the bus driver hat in favor of one like the Air Force’s, and adopt Eisenhower-style jackets. Sorry: Color choices are still limited to green and tan.

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Liquid faction: Milk-curdling news that bodes a long and sour campaign season: Adorning the state Democratic Convention, which begins today, are two 11-foot-tall milk cartons bearing photos of “Peter Barton Wilson. Missing. Last seen campaigning for governor in 1990. Description: 60 years old, brown hair, blue eyes, changes appearance depending on audience . . . considered dangerous around students, working people and middle-class taxpayers.” (After three years in Sacramento, Wilson’s hair is now more gray than brown.)

And the week before, at the California Republican Assembly, where Arkansas state troopers who went public with then-Gov. Clinton’s supposed sexual indulgences were welcomed with prayer and standing ovation, the drink of choice was described as “Southern Discomfort with a splash of white water.”

Types of Taxpayers

April 15 is the day that reminds us why economics is called “the dismal science.” Here on tax day is a breakdown of California taxpayers and what they paid to the state in 1990, the latest year available.

FILING STATUS 1990 RETURNS TAXES PAID Single 5.6 million $4.1 billion Married 5.4 million 10.8 billion Head of household 1.65 million 502 million Surviving spouse 12,000 11 million Married, filing separately 176,000 223 million

Source: California Franchise Tax Board, Sacramento

Compiled by Times researcher TRACY THOMAS

Park perk: State Sen. Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino) merrily showed off this ironic item from the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin to colleagues on the Senate floor: Earl DeVries, a GOP challenger to Ayala, plans to celebrate “Tax Freedom Day” Saturday in that popular Chino venue . . . Ruben S. Ayala Park.

The California League of Conservation Voters recently ranked legislators’ environmental votes, and its Southern California regional director, David Allgood, was struck by a different irony: “If it’s a park, it probably ought to be a Superfund site, given his (environmental) voting record.”

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Three strikes and you’re toast: By the millennium, the Department of Corrections expects most state prisons to be plugged in. Lethal electric fences can deliver a memorable charge of 650 milliamperes. Shades of government purchasing practices and $435 Pentagon hammers: About 70 milliamperes is considered enough to kill.

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Dulce dome: The state’s senior state senator is Ralph C. Dills (D-Gardena), 84, a onetime teacher and jazz saxophonist who began his Assembly service in FDR’s second term, accepted a judgeship in 1949, then returned to the glitter dome as a senator in 1967. If term limits had been in force when Dills was first elected, he would have been out of the Assembly in 1944 and gone from the Senate in 1975.

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Batter up: Ron Unz’s million-bucks bucking of the GOP’s 11th Commandment (“Dis ye not one another”) doesn’t faze the ballot-hardened governor. “Most people don’t remember,” said a Wilson spokesman, “but Pete Wilson faced primary opposition in 1990,” and the opponent “got 1%” of the vote. That opponent was Jeff Greene, a 21-year-old UCLA student.

EXIT LINE

“(People) say it’s their choice, but then they come in with black eyes, stab wounds, scars and foot-shaped bruises on their stomachs where violent pimps have tried to kill their babies.”

--Former San Francisco prostitute Norma Hotaling of WOLF--”We’re Opposed to Liberal Feudalism”--a group that helps young prostitutes get off the streets. It plans to unfurl a quilt in memory of murdered or vanished prostitutes.

California Dateline appears every other Friday.