CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / U.S. SENATE : Feinstein Blasts Rival on His Home Turf : Senator tells Santa Barbara voters she represented them when Huffington let them down. The candidates renew their debate over the propriety of help she gave Raytheon.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein showed up in her Republican challenger’s hometown Wednesday to spotlight Rep. Michael Huffington’s local problems and underscore their sharply different views of government.

The Democratic incumbent, who has found herself in a tight race for reelection, charged that Huffington has done such a poor job representing his district that she has twice had to step in and help.

Feinstein toured one company Wednesday that she has featured in a campaign commercial where she claims to have saved about 250 jobs by helping open a foreign market that Huffington declined to pursue.

“The message is that I’ve produced for this district and he hasn’t,” Feinstein said. “California business needs to know that it is supported. . . . I’m going to fight for my state. And I am going to help in any way I personally can, anyone who asks, if it’s appropriate.”

Huffington has criticized Feinstein’s corporate advocacy in Washington, especially on behalf of the Santa Barbara division of Raytheon, saying it proves she is a lobbyist for powerful special interests who expect pay-backs for their political contributions.

The Santa Barbara lawmaker also has broadcast a television commercial attacking Feinstein’s action for Raytheon, revealing a sharp contrast in the way the two lawmakers view their roles in Washington.

Huffington says his pro-business approach is to keep government out of the marketplace by reducing regulations and taxes. He has declined to solicit endorsements or take political action committee contributions, saying he can remain independent of individual interests or companies.

“She and I are different,” Huffington said in a telephone interview Wednesday from his Los Angeles apartment where he is recuperating from eye surgery Sunday. “I have no problem with a company getting a fair hearing in Washington. What I don’t think is appropriate is for one company to come in like Raytheon and ask their representative to change the laws so they can sell a product.”

Raytheon asked Huffington and then Feinstein last year for help in getting permission from the Clinton Administration to sell high-tech weapons systems to Taiwan. Feinstein wrote letters on behalf of Raytheon and other companies seeking access to the Taiwan market.

In contrast to Huffington, Feinstein said it is appropriate for companies to have a relationship with their representatives.

“When I was mayor, I would send a member of my staff to get a permit for a company if they wanted to come to San Francisco,” Feinstein said. “I want to be that same kind of senator.”

Feinstein also countered that Huffington is being hypocritical in attacking her corporate advocacy because he essentially is financing his campaign with earnings from his family’s petroleum company.

“It all comes from one source--oil,” Feinstein said. “If Michael Huffington made $50,000 a year, his campaign would be a joke based on his record. . . . But because he can fuel his own campaign with millions and millions of oil dollars, he can make accusations.”

Huffington rejected Feinstein’s charge that his money is tainted by a special interest. And he clarified that most of his family earnings came from natural gas, not oil.

The two campaigns have been locked in an expensive television battle since early June, when a series of polls indicated that the race had become surprisingly close. Feinstein’s appearance Wednesday marked one of the few times recently that she has personally carried her campaign message in public.

At a luncheon for about 200 supporters, Feinstein said she has been a valuable advocate for the state on the Senate Appropriations Committee, where no Californian had served for more than 20 years.

In the last fiscal year, she said, non-defense appropriations for California were up 27%--about $1.6 billion more than the state previously received.

“I thought maybe if I could get on that committee, I could help,” she said.

Feinstein also came to Santa Barbara to highlight an embarrassment for Huffington, who lost his home county in the June 7 Republican primary to GOP challenger William E. Dannemeyer.

Huffington sparked controversy in the county last fall when he announced that he would abandon his House seat for a Senate campaign less than a year after being elected. He also made enemies in the area during a bitter Republican primary for the House in which Huffington spent more than $5 million of his own money to unseat a veteran incumbent.

“In my view, the man on the street thinks Huffington has abandoned his district,” said Rusty Fairly, a Santa Barbara city councilman who attended the Feinstein lunch and once worked for Huffington’s congressional office. “The wounds have not been healed. These people feel as strongly as ever.”