CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Brown’s New Ad Blames Wilson for State’s Recession

Unveiling her first television advertisement since she won the Democratic nomination for governor, state Treasurer Kathleen Brown continued her attempts Wednesday to blame Gov. Pete Wilson for California’s recession.

Like several earlier Brown commercials, the latest 30-second ad--which began airing Wednesday night--depicts the state as a place where even hard-working people struggle and where economic uncertainty thrives. The ad also repeats a statistic that has become Brown’s mantra in recent weeks: the number of jobs that have been lost during Wilson’s tenure.

“Since Pete Wilson became governor, California’s lost 550,000 jobs. That’s 550,000 people cut loose. Five hundred fifty thousand dreams fading away,” a narrator intones as the camera pans a crowd of apparently unemployed workers. “Now Pete Wilson wants to keep his job. But what’s he done to protect yours?”

John Whitehurst, Brown’s campaign spokesman, said the ad is intended to remind voters that “Californians deserve more than pink slips, budget IOUs and foreclosure notices. We need a governor who will fight to restore California’s promise.”

Whitehurst said the Brown campaign will spend $200,000 to air the ad in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and the Central Valley for “at least a week.”

Last week, the day after the primary election, Wilson unveiled two new ads that acknowledged the tough financial circumstances that have wracked the state and sent his job-approval ratings plummeting. But he did not accept blame, choosing instead to paint himself as the candidate who is best prepared to solve the problems.

“The national recession and defense cuts have hit California hard,” the ads began. “Nobody understands that better than Pete Wilson.”

When asked about Brown’s new ad, Dan Schnur, the spokesman for Wilson’s reelection campaign, said that by continuing to focus on bashing the Republican incumbent, Brown is failing to define herself in the minds of voters.

“Kathleen Brown continues to point to problems without proposing solutions,” he said. “The people of California are smart enough to know that the recession is caused by factors that are national and international in scope and beyond the control of any one individual. They’re also smart enough to look for a leader who’s willing to do more than complain.”

Schnur predicted: “That’s the way this campaign is going to run. Kathleen Brown raises questions, Pete Wilson provides answers. Kathleen Brown complains about job loss. Pete Wilson talks about . . . the way to put California back to work is to reform workers’ comp, to streamline the permitting process and make California an attractive place to do business again. You’re going to see that repeated over and over between now and Election Day.”