Despite Unity Pleas, Garamendi and Brown Feud Heats Up : Democrats: Insurance commissioner continues attacks at state convention. Treasurer says her focus is on defeating Wilson.

As state Democratic leaders gathered for the party’s annual convention tried to patch together a veneer of unity, the increasingly bitter contest between the two major candidates for governor flared anew Saturday.

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi accused Treasurer Kathleen Brown of character flaws, renewing his assertion that she had spent $175,000 in an effort to procure in advance questions to be asked at a January candidate forum.

Saying he was motivated in part by a verbal attack on his wife Friday by a Brown supporter, Garamendi also told reporters that he was pumping his own money into his financially depleted campaign. The insurance commissioner turned coy, however, when asked the magnitude of his loan--he described it only as “sufficient to finance a victory.”

“I have never been up against an opponent that tried to purchase the test questions,” he said. “I have never seen a situation such as we are faced with now.”

Although Garamendi characterized Brown’s campaign as “totally unraveling,” her forces were playing down his outburst. Campaign manager Clint Reilly, who Saturday announced a new management team for the Brown campaign, said Brown’s focus was on her prospective November opponent, Republican Pete Wilson.

“Our objective in this campaign is not to win the battle, it’s to win the war,” said Reilly, who said Brown had done nothing wrong.

Of Garamendi’s charges, he added: “That’s a comment, I think, from a candidate who’s 15 to 20 points behind in the polls after having just spent $1 million on television. I expect even worse before the campaign’s over.”

Brown leads Garamendi by more than a dozen points in statewide opinion polls.

The conflict was played out as thousands of delegates met for the party’s annual convention, which its organizers meant to serve as a continuing celebration of the 1992 Democratic victories in California and a rallying point for the 1994 elections.

Luminaries attending the event at the Westin Bonaventure hotel in Los Angeles ignored the brewing dispute between Brown and Garamendi, putting their focus on Wilson and on the paramount political importance that the Clinton Administration has attached to California.

Vice President Al Gore, the keynote speaker Saturday, told cheering delegates that the Democratic Administration in Washington was due credit for the economic recovery that he said is taking hold in the state. He also pledged that more help is on the way.

“We’ve been working mighty hard for California,” Gore said. “We will not let you down.”

The accusations leveled by Garamendi at Brown center on her actions before a January forum sponsored by the California Teachers Assn., which was then pondering its endorsement. Garamendi alleges that Brown arranged to receive in advance the questions that were to be asked at the forum--and that in exchange she forwarded $175,000 to a political action committee controlled by Alice Huffman, the union’s political director.

Huffman has denied giving Brown a list, but Brown has given conflicting answers about her knowledge of the issues to be dealt with by the union. Huffman has acknowledged giving Brown a series of briefings on education issues.

On Friday, at the convention’s women’s lunch, Huffman lashed out at Garamendi’s wife, Patti, threatening that if the candidate did not apologize he would be “chopped liver, baby.”

Garamendi on Saturday accused Brown of engineering Huffman’s statements and said that the original episode showed that Brown was “cheating.”

“It has to do with the way in which a campaign and a candidate conduct themselves,” he said. “It has to do with what a candidate is all about.”

He acknowledged that the issue alone was not enough to loft him over Brown by the June primary. Brown campaign manager Reilly said he does not consider the allegations to be a “significant” element of the campaign.

Reilly also cast doubt on whether Garamendi’s loan would provide enough capital to benefit the struggling campaign. The larger question, he added, was whether Brown would be forced to spend money to deflect Garamendi’s charges.

“The issue for us is how much money that we would rather spend in the general election against Pete Wilson will we have to spend on the primary . . . because John is either spending his own money recklessly or making reckless charges,” Reilly said.

Garamendi’s campaign is in debt, as the candidate acknowledged Saturday, while Brown has an estimated $4 million in the bank.

Party Chairman Bill Press continued to insist that the dust-up between Brown and Garamendi would have no impact on the party’s chances of unseating incumbent Wilson. “We are Democrats,” he said, in a joking allusion to the party’s traditional infighting. “We do have some differences. That does not at all take away from the overriding sense of unity.”

National Democratic Chairman David Wilhelm told reporters that California is at the heart of the party’s effort to hold onto congressional seats and win statehouses in the midterm elections in November. The Democratic National Committee announced this weekend that it has bequeathed $1 million to the state party to help finance state campaigns. Another $400,000 was raised by Gore in a series of fund-raisers.

Overall, the state party plans to spend $8 million to try to maintain its political advantage in 1994, Press said. During the last mid-term election, in 1990, the party’s budget was a significantly smaller $2 million.

Other candidates on the ballot in November made pitches before the party faithful.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein spoke via tape from Washington, ticking off promises she had kept to voters and asking for aid in beating back a prospective challenge from Republican Rep. Michael Huffington.

“I need your help,” she said, and then characterized the Texas-born Huffington as a carpetbagger: “I’m running against a man who came to California in 1989.”