Wilson Backs Affirmative Action Measure : Politics: GOP convention cheers governor’s promise to rescind programs by executive order. However, straw poll finds only 14% of state delegates would support him for President.

California Republicans cheered Gov. Pete Wilson Saturday for vowing to end the “festering resentment” caused by affirmative action programs, but seemed less enthusiastic about the prospect of Wilson running for President of the United States in 1996.

The cheers and standing applause came from nearly 1,000 party loyalists during a luncheon address in which Wilson formally announced his support for a prospective 1996 ballot initiative that would eliminate many state affirmative action programs.

To the extent that he can, Wilson said, he will rescind such programs by executive order. But permanent “fairness and equality” can only be assured by a state constitutional amendment, he added in a speech to the biennial organizing convention of the California Republican Party.

The 30-minute speech, interrupted frequently by applause, had the ring of a presidential campaign address to it, in the opinion of some listeners.

They chortled at his barbs at President Clinton and applauded warmly when Wilson called upon all Californians “to once again send East from California a message about fairness.”

“I ask you join me in changing the law to restore fairness, to make real again that American dream,” he said.

But Wilson won only 14% of the vote in a straw poll designed to measure delegate support among more than 10 potential Republican challengers to Clinton. With 515 votes cast by delegates and official guests, the governor ran a distant second to Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas.

Gramm, who concludes his national presidential announcement tour with a speech to the convention today, won 56% support in the poll conducted by a young Republican group. Wilson came in second and Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas was third with 12%.

Wilson forces did succeed in quashing in committee a proposed resolution that pointedly called on the governor to forgo any White House aspirations next year and serve the full four-year term to which he was elected last November.

But a number of party leaders made no secret of their unhappiness that Wilson would consider any scenario that would turn the governorship over to a Democrat: Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, who was chief of staff to the last Democratic governor in California, Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich noted that Davis not only would assume the governorship, but would then get to appoint his own successor as lieutenant governor.

“That would be wrong,” Antonovich said.

The resolution was pushed primarily by leaders of the GOP’s conservative wing, who have often warred with Wilson. They talked of trying to bring the measure directly to the convention floor at the concluding business session today, but such efforts rarely succeed.

The main business of the convention is to elect officers to serve through the 1996 election. There was no opposition to the election of former Energy Secretary John Herrington as chairman, or to that of Mike Schroeder, a former president of the conservative California Republican Assembly, as vice chairman.

But bitter battles were being waged between moderates and conservatives over a number of lesser offices. Early voting patterns Saturday indicated the conservatives had the edge.

The straw poll was conducted Friday evening through lunchtime Saturday by members of the conservative Young Republican Federation of California. Max Rayner of Los Angeles County, the group’s chairman, said members tried to conduct balloting in a way that would reflect a fair cross-section of the 1,680-delegate convention.

“I would say it is a clear statement by activists and insiders that we need to pick one conservative candidate to succeed Bill Clinton,” Rayner said.

Although conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan was also on the ballot, he received only 9% support.

Rayner acknowledged that Gramm may have benefited from the fact that he is the only formally announced Republican candidate, but he noted, “Gov. Wilson gave a speech that could have been given by Phil Gramm.”

In such addresses, Wilson normally recites a laundry list of his Administration’s accomplishments and a tally of goals. On Saturday, he devoted most of his speech to the passage last fall of Proposition 187, the anti-illegal immigrant ballot measure, and the need for an affirmative action measure next year.

Although the initiative petitions are not yet in circulation, the affirmative action issue is already sweeping the nation as a political issue.

Wilson allies, seeking to downplay presidential speculation, insisted that Wilson was merely addressing a state policy issue. And although it is not unusual for the governor to begin talking about such issues well in advance of an election, it is uncharacteristic of him to formally endorse one so early.

The governor, who was an outspoken advocate of affirmative action when he was mayor of San Diego 1971-83, broached the subject Saturday by reaffirming the need to vigorously enforce laws against racial discrimination.

“We haven’t yet achieved the ideal of a truly colorblind meritocracy, and we must do so,” Wilson said.

But Wilson said California society must not betray the fundamental fairness of awarding prizes on the basis of merit rather than race or gender.

“It’s not right or fair to do so, to replace one form of discrimination with another,” he said.

As it did with Proposition 187, he said, California should lead the way nationally “in ending unfairness and the increasing festering resentment which it has bred.”

And he noted that the Republican Party would continue to seek to be an inclusive party that takes pride in “our many colors” and participation by men and women.

On Saturday morning, however, veteran GOP consultant Lyn Nofziger cast his eye about his audience while giving a brief speech to about 200 people.

“I look out in this room, and I see one black face, maybe two,” said Nofziger, who was a longtime aide to Ronald Reagan and has been engaged by the new GOP chairman Herrington as the party’s senior political adviser.

“That is not acceptable,” Nofziger said. “I want to bring people into this party.”

Times staff writer Dave Lesher also contributed to this story.