CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Event Shows Women’s Support for Wilson

Facing a female opponent for the second time in four years, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson flexed his political muscle with women Tuesday.

The governor basked in the applause--and some cheers--of 5,000 women attending the third annual Gov. Pete Wilson Conference for Women at the Long Beach Convention Center.

The daylong event featured 33 panel sessions on a variety of women’s issues, from public safety to business entrepreneurship. A number of national leaders participated, including American Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole and Paramount Pictures Chairman Sherry Lansing.

The conference illustrated Wilson’s ability to use his incumbency to boost his reelection campaign. Although billed as a nonpartisan event, the conference was run by, and showcased, a number of women serving in the Wilson Administration.

And at the luncheon, the governor received robust applause when he noted that “just last week, I was proud to sign a bill” that allows women to select their obstetricians-gynecologists as primary care physicians under group health care plans. Wilson also has designated October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

At another point he cracked, “In this Administration, everyone wears pants,” an indirect reference to another bill he signed that outlaws workplace dress codes that bar women from wearing pants.

As Wilson spoke, his Democratic opponent, state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, was in New York to raise campaign funds. Since early in the year, she has not made gender a major issue in the race as Democratic nominee Dianne Feinstein did when she ran against Wilson in 1990.

Among those on the dais for lunch was Democratic Assemblywoman Jackie Speier of Burlingame, a Brown supporter who nonetheless is quoted in Wilson campaign literature as saying: “Gov. Pete Wilson has done more for California women than all the previous governors put together.”

After lunch, Wilson held a campaign news conference to announce the rejuvenation of Pro-Wilson, a woman’s group claiming 5,000 members supporting the governor’s reelection effort. Also created was a Pro-Wilson national advisory committee that includes such prominent Republicans as former First Lady Barbara Bush, former UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas.

Political Scorecard

34 days to go before Californians go to the polls.

THE GOVERNOR’S RACE

* What Happened Tuesday: Gov. Pete Wilson addressed his third annual Conference for Women at the Long Beach Convention Center. State Treasurer Kathleen Brown continued her East Coast fund-raising trip, traveling from Washington to New York City.

* What’s Ahead: Today, Wilson travels to Washington for a fund-raiser. Brown returns from New York and has no campaign events scheduled.

THE SENATE RACE

* What Happened Tuesday: Both U.S. Senate candidates--Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Mike Huffington--remained in Washington, where Congress is in session.

* What’s Ahead: Both candidates are scheduled to remain in Washington today. No campaign events are planned.

NOTABLE QUOTES

“If you are sensitive in the matter of civil rights, you don’t need to have someone read you the contract. You feel it from your innards.”

--Former L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, who said Huffington is racially insensitive because he did not remove outlawed discriminatory language from property records of two homes he once owned.

“They are saying that I am a racist--this is McCarthyism and Mrs. Feinstein should be ashamed of herself.”

-- Huffington, responding to Bradley’s charges.