CAMPAIGN JOURNAL : Morale Booster : For John Garamendi, the days before the primary have been marked by ups and downs. A pat on the back for his handling of the Executive Life crisis is a welcome counterpoint to Kathleen Brown ads.

The candidate had come to the headquarters of a citizens patrol group to talk about crime. But Colleen Luinenburg had something else in mind.

“I have money with Executive Life,” she told Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, grabbing the hand of the startled would-be governor and shaking it warmly. “And I didn’t lose a dime.”

By invoking the failed insurance company’s name, Luinenburg gave Garamendi a scare. All day, his campaign staff had been responding to a TV ad aired by state Treasurer Kathleen Brown--his main rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. The ad featured another woman who had had money with the Executive Life Insurance Co. and had nothing good to say about Garamendi.

In 41-year-old Luinenburg, however, Garamendi found a soft-spoken but effusive woman who praised Garamendi for saving her $11,000 annuity. Gratitude was what made her seek out Garamendi, she said. That made the campaign-weary candidate pretty grateful himself.

“I needed you tonight,” he told her.

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For Garamendi, the final week before the primary election has been a time of ups and downs. His broken right leg has healed a bit, allowing him to discard the crutches he’s relied on for the last month. Physically at least, the burly rancher is more agile.

His campaign, in contrast, has seemed sluggish at times. Ever since Tuesday, when Garamendi blasted Brown in two TV ads that focus on her personal opposition to the death penalty, he has been the target of relentless counterattacks. First, Brown unveiled the Executive Life ad. Then, in another ad, Brown accused Garamendi of flip-flopping on the death penalty.

Darry Sragow, Garamendi’s campaign manager, labels Brown’s ads misleading--though he admits that it’s nice to be noticed.

“Kathleen’s finally admitted that there’s a race,” Sragow said, noting that until this week, Brown has focused her attacks on Gov. Pete Wilson. “Who likes being ignored?”

But Garamendi has not taken advantage of that attention as much as he might have. Considering how few days remain before Tuesday’s primary, his campaign schedule has been light, with just one or two public events each day. Brown, by contrast, has been riding her cushy campaign bus up and down the state all week, meeting voters (and television camera crews) at nearly every stop.

Elena Stern, Garamendi’s press secretary, said that as well as campaigning, Garamendi has been busy with several “private meetings”--some of them fund raising. Because his public events have been in key media markets that afford widespread news coverage, she said, it has not been necessary to keep Garamendi stumping all day long just to get his message out.

“We’re not hopping on a bus and hitting 10 cities a day,” she said. “We’re trying to send quality messages on the issues we think the voters care about.”

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That’s what brought Garamendi to Normal Heights, a middle-class San Diego neighborhood. The organizers of Beat 311 Citizen’s Patrol, a volunteer group that aids police by canvassing neighborhoods looking for suspicious activity, had invited Garamendi on a ride-along. And on Thursday night, he accepted.

Outfitted with a flashlight, a clipboard and a walkie-talkie radio, Garamendi rode along as Sharon Wilson, a volunteer, steered her four-wheel-drive truck through the darkened streets. Wilson told her guest to keep an eye out for older, middle-aged people riding bicycles.

“We’ve got a large population of parolees,” she explained. “They don’t have driver’s licenses, so they prowl on bicycles.”

In an hour of patrolling, Garamendi spotted one cyclist (seemingly innocent), a group of loitering teen-agers (who, on closer inspection, turned out to be adults) and a broken sprinkler main at a local elementary school. Mostly, he listened to Wilson’s concerns--about the lack of after-school programs for youngsters, about the rise in prostitution, about the importance of getting involved.

Election Day came up only once, when Wilson stopped for coffee at a convenience store. When the cashier told Garamendi it was his second day on the job, the candidate was reminded of one of the jobs he held while fulfilling his pledge to work in each of California’s 58 counties.

“One night, I was a cashier in a restaurant. Boy, did I screw up,” Garamendi said, laughing as he extended his hand for a quick shake. “When you go to vote next Tuesday, think about me.”