AD WATCH / Campaign ’94 : Brown, Wilson Trade Charges

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Brown has been airing a new television commercial this week that attacks Republican Gov. Pete Wilson’s performance as chief executive on the economy, pushing again her theme that she is “America’s best treasurer to revive America’s worst economy.”

* THE AD: The commercial opens with black-and-white film of listless people, presumably jobless. A narrator says: “Since Pete Wilson became governor, 550,000 jobs have vanished.” With scenes of Brown at work, the narration continues: “With a million Californians jobless, Treasurer Kathleen Brown put $7.5 billion of voter-approved projects into action building colleges, expanding schools, constructing prisons and providing work for tens of thousands of Californians.”

* THE ANALYSIS: Unemployment soared after Wilson took office in 1991, but primarily because of the national recession and military-related cutbacks, factors over which Wilson had little or no control.

The evidence that California has “America’s worst economy” is arguable. Even though the unemployment rate has been running above the national average, California remains one of the nation’s leaders in the number of fast-growing new firms that create new jobs, according to several surveys.

The notion that Brown put $7.5 billion worth of projects into action is based on the sale of bonds, a basic responsibility of her office. Brown had no control over how the money from bond sales was spent. The “tens of thousands of jobs” might be accurate, but the only thing Brown had to do with it was to sell the bonds.

The statement that Brown is “America’s best treasurer” is based loosely on her having been honored by one publication as one of the nation’s outstanding public officials in one year. Wilson aides say that the work of her predecessor was better on the basis of the criteria Brown has cited to support her claim.

Wilson began airing a revised 30-second television ad on the immigration issue Wednesday. Much of it is similar to a previous ad, but the new commercial attacks Brown.

* THE AD: As does the earlier ad, the new commercial starts out with fuzzy film footage of illegal immigrants running across the border in San Diego County. “They keep coming,” an announcer says. Later in the ad, Wilson says: “I’m working to deny state services to illegal immigrants. Enough is enough.”

In the new portion on Brown, the ad says: “Kathleen Brown thinks differently. She supports continuing state services to illegals and says legal immigration is not a cause of problems in California. Where do you stand?”

* THE ANALYSIS: Brown has had major differences with Wilson on the immigration issue, but not necessarily in the manner implied by the Wilson ad. Brown has said that illegal immigration--and its costs to California--must be controlled, but argues that the most effective way to do it is not to cut off services, as Wilson proposes, but to get the federal government to control illegal immigration at the border and then to enforce state and federal laws that prohibit employers in California from hiring illegal immigrants.

They also differ over what motivates illegal immigrants to come to California. Wilson has said they come to this country to get free services such as health care and welfare. Brown believes the primary motivation is the search for jobs.

Wilson has proposed a federal constitutional amendment that would deny citizenship to children born in the United States to non-citizens. Such children then would not be eligible for state health and welfare benefits now available to all U.S. citizens. Brown has opposed changing the Constitution.