Wilson Presidential Question to Dominate GOP Gathering : Politics: He will address convention Saturday. Some party loyalists oppose idea of governor quitting post in midterm.

Gripped by the early symptoms of presidential fever, California Republican leaders began gathering in Sacramento on Thursday for an organizational convention dominated by the question: “Will Pete run?”

Gov. Pete Wilson, his political capital restored after a strong reelection victory in November, will speak Saturday to a convention that is far from united on the question of whether he should seek the Republican presidential nomination next year.

In almost any other situation, state party loyalists would be ecstatic to have their governor considered potential White House stock.

But leaders of the GOP’s conservative wing have been particularly outspoken against the idea of Wilson quitting the governorship in midterm and leaving the state’s top job in the hands of a Democrat.

If Wilson became President, or vice president, he would be succeeded automatically under California law by Democratic Lt. Gov. Gray Davis.

Greg Hardcastle of Sacramento, president of the conservative California Republican Assembly, said Wilson should live up to his pre-election pledge to serve a full four years as governor.

“I think he’s dead serious about running,” added Hardcastle, whose volunteer activist group--an official constituent body of the California Republican Party--often has warred with Wilson over tax increases, abortion, gay rights and other issues.

Hardcastle’s group adopted a tartly worded resolution at a recent meeting that--as described by the group’s newspaper--”commends and praises Governor Wilson for his noble and responsible self-sacrifice in promising to serve his entire four-year term as governor of California.”

Some version of that resolution will be floated this weekend, but party leaders and the governor’s office were seeking a way to bury it in committee.

Officially, the major business of this semiannual party gathering of 2,000 delegates and guests is to elect new officers, during the formal business session Sunday, for the next two years. Normally, it would unite in celebration of the November election in which Republicans scored major gains and begin gearing up for the prospect of seizing the White House in 1996.

But the prospect of Wilson as a presidential campaigner has become the dominant issue in California politics the past two months.

At first, the idea largely was discounted because of the succession problem. But Wilson-for-President advocates argue that by 1997, Republicans could effectively control the Legislature, making it difficult for Davis to push Democratic programs.

As a number of potential candidates have removed themselves from the 1996 White House sweepstakes, Wilson’s stock has grown. Washington Beltway politicos touted him as a strong challenger by virtue of his leadership on hot issues such as illegal immigration and the “three strikes” crime bill.

Also in Wilson’s favor is the Democrats’ admission that they have to carry California to hold onto the presidency.

In his reelection campaign, Wilson cast himself as a more conservative candidate than the “compassionate conservative” he was in first winning the governorship in 1990. The GOP state convention in San Diego in September was one of the most united the party has held in years.

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But Hardcastle and others object to Wilson thinking about yielding the governorship to a Democrat just as the GOP might gain the political clout that would enable it to turn back Democratic programs enacted by the Legislature over 30 years.

Wilson angered them further by suggesting in an interview that the national Republican Party should drop its opposition to legal abortion when drafting a platform at the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego.

“It was a stupid thing to do,” Hardcastle said. “Do we want to beat ourselves up again (over abortion)? Or do we just agree to stop talking about it?”

The incoming state party chairman, former U.S. Energy Secretary John Herrington of Walnut Creek, said the convention “will have to deal” with a resolution urging Wilson to give up any presidential aspirations and remain as governor.

But Herrington said,: “I personally do not see the logic behind the party taking a gratuitous position on the governor, who is the highest elected Republican official in the state and is the leader of the party.”

Herrington added: “I’m looking for a unified Republican Party. I’m not looking for excuses to have differences of opinion.”

With the presidential primary season compressed into the early months of 1996, this might have turned into an all-out mini-national convention featuring Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas and other possible presidential candidates battling for support in a convention straw poll.

But that would have put Wilson in the awkward position of having to wage an all-out battle for his own party’s support before he is ready to decide whether to become a candidate. So party leaders sought to play down the presidential aspects of the convention, at least officially.

However, Gramm this week arranged an appearance before the convention Sunday, extending by one day his national tour formally opening his campaign. Hardcastle said Gramm enjoys considerable conservative support within the party apparatus.

George Gorton, Wilson’s chief political consultant, said of Wilson’s planned speech Saturday: “We may break some ground, but it won’t be on presidential campaign stuff. If we do, it will surprise me.”