Democrats Start Their Convention Amid Discord : Politics: Battle continues over John Garamendi’s charge that Kathleen Brown had advance notice of questions at a California Teachers Assn. forum.

California Democrats, who excel at backbiting and arm-twisting election year conventions that can leave their candidates wounded, thought they would try something new at this weekend’s gathering in Los Angeles: unity.

Wrong. The elaborately planned love fest turned nasty Friday within minutes of the convention’s opening, at its very first event, which was supposed to be a genteel celebration of the party’s women.

The battleground was the continuing brouhaha over whether state treasurer and leading gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Brown tried to gain unfair advantage over other candidates by procuring in advance questions that were to be asked at a January California Teachers’ Assn. forum.

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi alleges that Brown arranged to receive the questions from Alice Huffman, the union’s political director and a Brown partisan. Huffman has acknowledged giving Brown briefings before the forum, and Huffman’s political action committee received $175,000 from Brown’s campaign this year. But Huffman has said she did nothing wrong, and on Friday she publicly retaliated against Garamendi’s wife, Patti.

The confrontation occurred at Friday’s women’s caucus lunch, as Huffman accepted a Democratic party award. She was on the dais while Patti Garamendi was in the audience.

“Patti, you tell John this: They were ill-advised and they were dirty tricks,” Huffman said of John Garamendi’s charges. “And you tell him that it’s one thing to be a candidate; it’s another one to try to destroy a candidate.”

Huffman demanded an apology and added another threat: “So Patti, you tell John that if he doesn’t watch out, not only will we reach out, but we will do it with style. And you tell him that when he has hit women the way he has hit us two women, that when he finishes, he’s just going to be chopped liver, baby, because we ain’t stopping.”

Patti Garamendi said she was stunned at Huffman’s attack.

“I found it condescending and I found it insulting for women,” Garamendi said. “If she has something to say to John Garamendi, then she should confront him herself. John Garamendi is an outstanding man and he did what was right.”

Reached later, John Garamendi called Huffman’s attack “pretty sad . . . but this isn’t about Alice Huffman. This is about Kathleen Brown and whether she cheated.”

Declarations of war notwithstanding, party Chairman Bill Press insisted that unity is still the watchword for the weekend. “Alice is not an officer of the Democratic Party,” he said, adding that “she was not speaking for a political party. She was speaking for what happened to her.”

Nonetheless, the outburst could not come as good news to Press, who has gone to extraordinary lengths to maintain a veneer of friendliness at the three-day annual convention. Although the Democrats can endorse a candidate for governor, the prospect of a messy contest horrified party officials. So Press decreed that no endorsement for the state’s highest office will be awarded. Requests for a candidate debate were also quashed.

“We did not want to emphasize our differences,” Press said. “We wanted to emphasize the one common goal, which is getting rid of Pete Wilson.”

Press’ quest for unity is broadly seen as benefiting Brown, who hopes that the convention will give her a boost after weeks spent shaking up her campaign. Neither Garamendi nor the third Democratic candidate for governor, state Sen. Tom Hayden, were pleased.

“The whole purpose of the democratic process is to allow candidates to discuss their views on issues, but our process has devolved into conventions as light entertainment and campaigns as merchandising,” said Hayden’s campaign manager, Duane Peterson.

The convention also will highlight the importance that President Clinton and the national Democratic Party have placed on California. The Westin Bonaventure, site of the convention, will be awash in Administration officials. Chief among them is Vice President Al Gore, who will speak today.

While Clinton has his eye on California for 1996, Brown’s effort is current, and it is she who may have the most on the line. After spending much of the past year lauded as the probable Democratic nominee, Brown has recently been criticized within the party for failing to suitably impress the state’s voters.

Even those who favor Brown, such as Press, consider a prospective race between Brown and incumbent Wilson to be a tossup.

“Pete Wilson has very effectively used the fact of his incumbency to make this a horse race,” Press said. “People discount him because he is wooden and bland and he is--but he knows how to punch key issues and craft a message that may be simplistic, may be superficial, but that resounds with the voters.”

Clint Reilly, who assumed control of Brown’s campaign two weeks ago after she lost confidence in her earlier team, said the treasurer will use her speech Sunday before the delegates to say “some very substantive things.”

Hayden and Garamendi each asked that the party arrange a candidates debate during the convention, but Press refused. Each, like Brown, will be allotted 10 minutes for speeches Sunday morning.

Candidates for other statewide offices will also speak to delegates, and endorsements in those races will be voted on Sunday.

Times political writer Bill Stall contributed to this article.