Brown Focuses on Economy to Boost Campaign

State Treasurer Kathleen Brown tried to pump new vigor into her lackluster campaign for governor Sunday by focusing her message on the California economy and the goal of creating a million new jobs for the state over the next four years.

In a potentially pivotal address to the Democratic State Convention, Brown acknowledged that critics have questioned what she stands for and why she wants to be governor, even though she has enjoyed comfortable leads in the opinion polls and in fund raising.

“Well, I’ll tell you what I stand for,” said Brown, adopting a crisper, more forceful personal style. “I stand for progress and for prosperity, for enduring values and a new vision . . . for building for the new century, the California century.”

All three candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor in the June 7 primary addressed the nearly 2,000 delegates, with Brown followed to the podium by Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and state Sen. Tom Hayden of Santa Monica.

But the focus was on the 48-year-old Brown for several reasons: because this was her first major appearance since she overhauled her campaign staff, because of criticism that she had failed to articulate a clear message, and because the primary campaign is entering a phase when voters are beginning to pay attention to election-year politics.

Garamendi also focused on the economy and jobs, as he has all year long. But he took a more populist approach by emphasizing his tactic of working alongside ordinary Californians in their jobs in all 58 counties. A governor must know the fears and problems of ordinary people if he or she expects to be able to exert the leadership required by the office, he said.

Garamendi, 49, said he was not content to sit in a back room dialing for campaign dollars--an apparent reference to Brown’s greater fund-raising success.

His campaign, he added, is based on the premise that “action speaks louder than money or words.” This is the only way to rebuild the bridge of trust between the people and their government, a trust that has been ruptured during the past 12 years of Republican governors, Garamendi said.

Hayden pursued his theme of campaign reform--the major reason he launched a quixotic, late-starting campaign that he acknowledges he cannot win. Hayden was not only critical of Wilson’s governorship, but threw barbs at both fellow Democrats, Brown and Garamendi.

“We cannot bring change about by business-as-usual politics . . . by relying on contributions from the same lobbyists who already dominate Sacramento,” Hayden said.

The speeches constituted the headline event of a 2 1/2-day party meeting at Downtown’s Bonaventure Hotel, but they were largely symbolic and psychological in nature. The party can endorse candidates for the primary election, but decided not to do so in the governor’s race this year because of the intraparty bitterness it might cause.

After she narrowly lost the governorship to Wilson four years ago, the 1990 Democratic nominee, Dianne Feinstein, said her fight with John K. Van de Kamp--including a protracted convention endorsement battle--sapped her campaign coming out of the June primary. That put her at an instant disadvantage to Wilson, who had had no Republican opposition, said Feinstein, who won election to Wilson’s old U.S. Senate seat in 1992.

Throughout this past weekend, state party Chairman Bill Press sought to emphasize the theme of “Unity ‘94” and to keep the party activists focused on the primary goal of defeating Wilson’s bid for a second term in November.

Press introduced each of the three in identical terms, as “a lifelong Democrat, and a real team player.”

Through Friday and Saturday, the Brown and Garamendi camps had sparred over Garamendi charges that the Brown campaign attempted to buy the endorsement of the California Teachers Assn. with a $175,000 contribution to an independent political action committee run by a CTA official.

Garamendi also claimed that CTA representatives fed Brown prospective answers to questions from teachers’ union leaders. As it turned out, the CTA declined to endorse any candidate.

Brown, who gave conflicting answers to the charges over the past week, lashed back sharply during a news conference after the convention speech Sunday.

She said the allegations were “outrageous” and constituted “dirty politics.” She got the same sort of briefing on major concerns of the CTA that she gets from any organization, Brown said, but nothing more.

“This issue is a dead issue,” she said.

But Garamendi, at his own press conference from the same lectern a few minutes later, said the accusations are “the truth” and eventually will be documented.

In their speeches, at least, both candidates generally followed the unity theme, focusing on their own campaign proposals and on attacking Wilson’s leadership.

The Brown speech differed from her past addresses primarily in style: shorter, less rambling and delivered with more punch.

Her jobs proposal was accompanied by a new brochure and signs carried by supporters that read: “One Million New Jobs for California.”

And her speech was built around that specific theme, winding up when she declared: “Over the last few months, some opponents say they don’t know what Kathleen Brown stands for. Well, I’ll tell you what I stand for. I stand for progress and prosperity. For enduring values and a new vision. I stand for one million new jobs. . . .

“We are going to put Californians back to work. We are going to restore the California promise. We are going to reinvent the California dream.”

But the fresh look to the Brown campaign appeared to be more in labeling and image than in substance. The jobs program is essentially the same one Brown announced in a major speech in San Francisco in January.

It includes proposals for tax credits for creation of new jobs, eliminating excessive regulations on business, a tax moratorium on new businesses and job training reforms.

She was asked again why she wanted to be governor.

“We need to have leaders who can see the future, who understand it and who are willing to invest in it, who are willing to fight for it, and who care what happens to average Californians. That is why I want to be governor, and I’m mad that this guy (Wilson) hasn’t done the job for the last four years.”

Brown’s new campaign team, led by consultant Clint Reilly, was delighted with her performance, and Brown herself was unusually buoyant when she appeared before reporters.

But Garamendi strategist Darry Sragow said, “It looked like the old Kathleen Brown . . . with a new slogan, new colors on her buttons and a slick brochure.”

“I didn’t get any sense that she was igniting any passion,” Sragow said.

The Garamendi campaign is at a different critical juncture now--virtually broke after spending about $1 million on television ads, which have failed to give Garamendi a significant boost in recent opinion polls. On Saturday, Garamendi said he was now prepared to put some of his family’s assets into the campaign.

Garamendi declined to say how much, although some sources said it would be well over $1 million. Sragow would only say there would be enough “to do what we have to do . . . to win the race.”