CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Wilson’s Challengers Unveil First Television Commercials

The campaign for governor snapped into action Wednesday as Democrats Kathleen Brown and Tom Hayden unveiled television ads and plans were tentatively made for three candidate debates later this month.

Two Brown ads, which began running Wednesday night across the state, put the blame for 550,000 lost California jobs squarely on the shoulders of incumbent Republican Pete Wilson. Brown also touts her tenure as the state treasurer, but does not mention her much-criticized plan to “create 1 million new jobs” in the next four years.

Wilson’s campaign staff quickly jumped to his defense. Although it did not contest the main point of her ads--the job loss--the campaign distributed a videotape of Brown, shot last December, in which she said she did not blame Wilson for the economic storms which have buffeted the state.

Right after making that statement, however, Brown said she faulted Wilson’s management: “I certainly hold a CEO of a corporation responsible, or a governor responsible, for how one manages through those economic storms,” she said at the time.

The governor also took aim at Brown’s contention that she is “America’s Best Treasurer”--the tagline that closes each of her new commercials. That honor, the Wilson campaign says, goes to Thomas Hayes, the Wilson appointee Brown defeated four years ago, who earned more annual interest for the state in his two years in office than Brown has in three.

On the matter of the upcoming campaign debates, spokesmen for both state Sen. Hayden (D-Santa Monica) and the third Democrat in the race, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, accused Brown of tailoring the debate schedule to her benefit.

Without holding any negotiations with the other two campaigns over the timing or locations of the forums, the Brown campaign announced her plan to appear at three debates in the space of three days.

“The dates, formats and places, I believe, are designed to minimize viewership and news coverage,” said Duane Peterson, Hayden’s campaign manager.

Garamendi’s campaign manager, Darry Sragow, said the timing confirmed his campaign’s contention that Brown has little grasp of the issues facing the state and requires extensive preparation.

“What they clearly have done is bunched the debates so they don’t have to spend the rest of the campaign preparing their candidate,” he said.

But Brown’s campaign spokesman, John Whitehurst, said the time of the debate was selected for convenience and because the accepted offers were the first tendered by organizations in specific cities.

The debates accepted by Brown were an 8 p.m. session May 23, in Sacramento; a 6 p.m. debate the following day in San Francisco and, on May 25, a three-way appearance on the Michael Jackson radio show in Los Angeles.

Under the conditions known Wednesday, it appeared that there would be no statewide televised debate before the June 7 primary. There also is no certainty that any of the debates will be broadcast on television in Southern California.

Jim Sanders, news director at KOVR-TV, the ABC affiliate in Sacramento that is sponsoring the first debate, said his agreement with the campaigns involved airing the session only in the capital. The Commonwealth Club, which is the main sponsor of the second debate, has no firm agreement regarding television rights, campaign officials said. And the Jackson show is on daytime radio.

“If they are not on television in Los Angeles, you are cheating half of the people in the state,” said Sragow.

Despite their criticisms, both Garamendi and Hayden will appear at the three forums, their campaign spokesmen said. Each virtually must, after long criticizing Brown for refusing to confirm debate appearances.

The release of new television ads by the Brown and Hayden campaigns signaled the beginning of the more frenetic last month of the campaign. But in style, the two efforts could not have been more different.

Hayden’s commercial, a 13-minute essay destined for viewing initially on cable television public access stations, pounds home his contention that the state government must be radically reformed. It does so by interspersing film of an earnest Hayden speaking about several topics with flashes of the 800-number to which viewers can pledge money. Campaign manager Peterson dubbed the effect “corruption verite “

Brown’s advertisements take direct aim at incumbent governor Wilson, pairing a lamentation of the state’s problems with snapshots of unemployment lines, closed businesses and downcast people.

“In the midst of crisis, Treasurer Kathleen Brown earned taxpayers a record $4 billion,” one ad says, “protected our $26 - billion investment fund and pumped $12 billion of building bonds into California.”

The second ad also highlights Brown’s earnings as treasurer, and adds that she saved $249 million by refinancing bonds and invested $695 million in housing.

Brown’s campaign contends that her $4 - billion earnings represent a historic high for California, yet her $1.3 - billion annual earnings are lower than the average of $1.7 billion per year earned by the previous treasurer Hayes. The appointee served two years before his defeat in 1990.

The Wilson campaign, in a statement issued by spokesman Dan Schnur, chortled that the figures meant that “America’s Best Treasurer” was “not even California’s best treasurer.”

Brown spokesman John Whitehurst said that Brown still earned more if interest rates were taken into consideration. Rates during Hayes’ tenure were almost double the low rates seen in Brown’s, he said.

Campaign observers found it startling that Brown’s ads did not include her new signature line--that she would create “1 million new jobs for California.” The effort, which Brown has said is not a promise or a pledge, has been roundly criticized in recent weeks by economists who contend that the state will naturally create that many jobs regardless of who wins the governor’s race.

Whitehurst, however, indicated that the line may appear in future advertisements. “There will be many, many spots in this campaign,” he said.