Feinstein Ad Says She Stepped In to Save Jobs in Rival’s District

Sen. Dianne Feinstein continued her effort Thursday to check the momentum of Republican challenger Michael Huffington with a pair of new television commercials that highlight the congressman’s problems in his home district.

The 30-second spots focus on a controversy freshman Rep. Huffington (R-Santa Barbara) set off last year when he declined a request by one of his district’s largest employers, Raytheon Corp., to help it seek State Department waivers for selling high-tech military equipment to Taiwan.

In the ads, about half a dozen workers from the company offer testimonials that portray Feinstein as the legislator who picked up a ball that Huffington dropped, saving hundreds of jobs.

“Michael Huffington wasn’t there for us and Sen. Feinstein was,” a woman says. “He didn’t seem to feel that it was his duty to help one single company in his district,” a man adds.

Raytheon officials said Thursday that the employees were acting on their own time as private citizens and that the company does not want to take sides in California’s U.S. Senate race. The company has, however, contributed to the Democrat’s campaign and praised the handling of the Taiwan issue by Feinstein, whose help was sought after Huffington declined to become involved.

Huffington told reporters and company officials last fall that he believes helping Raytheon would have effectively made him into a special interest lobbyist and compromised his promise to represent all groups equally.

“I’m not going to be a paid or unpaid lobbyist for any company,” Huffington told a Times reporter earlier this year. “That’s not my job. I represent everyone equally.”

Huffington also charged that Feinstein’s involvement “smacks of conflict,” and his campaign said Thursday that the senator’s action was a political pay-back for contributions.

“In terms of Raytheon, she is California’s vending machine--you put your money in, you get something back,” said Huffington campaign manager Bob Schuman. “If we were going to get into this tit-for-tat thing . . . there are a ton of companies that fled out of San Francisco when she was mayor.”

Feinstein campaign officials said, however, that the senator’s interest in helping a company gain access to foreign markets was sparked by the struggling California economy and the need for jobs--not the aid of a contributor.

“Dianne’s view is that . . . when people have problems with government, to fight for them,” said Kam Kuwata, Feinstein’s campaign manager. “Huffington has said he believes in the general interest, not the special interest. We do not believe that workers are a special interest.”

Pat Coulter, director of communications for Raytheon at its Lexington, Mass., corporate headquarters, said the company is still competing for the Taiwan contract after State Department officials, encouraged by Feinstein, waived restrictions last April on the sale of military equipment to the country.

Coulter also said the company has not disclosed whether any of the Santa Barbara facility’s 1,364 employees are at risk if Raytheon does not win the Taiwan sale, although the ad suggests Feinstein saved about 250 jobs.

The commercials, to be broadcast statewide for about two weeks, are the second pair of ads Feinstein has used in the campaign, both communicating unflattering images of Huffington while many California voters still don’t know much about him.

The first pair of commercials began shortly before the June 7 primary, when polls showed the two candidates in a race that has become surprisingly close after Huffington spent several million dollars on unanswered television commercials during the spring that attacked Feinstein.

Huffington’s hometown district has been a source of controversy that was underscored in the Republican primary when it voted for his challenger, William E. Dannemeyer.

Huffington was elected to the district, which includes most of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, in 1992 after spending a record $5.2 million of his own money.

The newcomer made some enemies in the district by unseating a veteran GOP congressman who still maintains many loyal followers. Then he sparked anger last fall when he announced that he would abandon the Santa Barbara seat to run for the U.S. Senate.