Wilson Travels to Florida With Prop. 187 Message : Politics: Governor barnstorms Sunshine State in presidential bid. But he finds himself explaining why measure he supported isn’t anti-immigrant.

Traveling to a state that could be key to his White House hopes, California Gov. Pete Wilson said Saturday he faces a teaching task in Florida because few voters understand that the centerpiece of his reelection last year--Proposition 187--was for him an issue of fairness, not racism.

The successful ballot measure, which, if it passes judicial review, will halt a variety of public services for illegal immigrants, occupied Wilson’s first day back on the presidential campaign trail since he was sidelined more than two months ago by throat surgery.

Wilson was still straining to talk Saturday, but the governor said his campaign hoped to make up lost ground with a barnstorming series of airport press conferences in Miami, Orlando and Tampa. At each stop, Wilson kicked off his Florida campaign by introducing three state GOP officials who will lead his effort in the battle for the Republican nomination.

It is in Florida that Wilson hopes to make his biggest stand in next year’s Super Tuesday round of Southern primaries. And a win in the state could firmly establish him as a national political presence.

The three people heading his Florida campaign are Jeanie Austin, a vice chairwoman of the Republican National Committee; Robert F. Milligan, the state comptroller, and Raul J. Valdes-Fauli, the mayor of Coral Gables and a leader in the state’s Cuban American community.

“I am here to announce the outstanding team we have recruited to lead our campaign for a state that we regard as terribly important to America and to the success of my campaign for President of the United States,” Wilson said in Miami. He has yet to make a formal announcement of his candidacy.

Still, Wilson’s campaign is well aware that Proposition 187’s apparent popularity in California has not yet translated to Florida, where Cuban Americans are a crucial bloc in the state GOP. More than half of the Republicans in Miami’s Dade County are Cuban American, for instance.

Wilson made a trip to Miami two weeks ago and met privately with about a dozen Cuban American leaders to sound them out on Proposition 187. Campaign officials said the meeting indicated that the initiative is misunderstood, not opposed, by Cuban Americans.

Proposition 187 “is not anti-immigrant,” Wilson said Saturday in Miami. “A cheap deception has been practiced by the opponents of 187. They have deliberately sought to confuse legal and illegal immigration. And, tragically, it would appear they have had some success. . . . There is a need for education.”

Wilson stressed that he supports immigration for Cuban refugees. And he criticized the Clinton Administration for not being more aggressive in seeking the ouster of Cuba’s Communist leader, Fidel Castro, although he was vague about how his policies would differ from Clinton’s.

Afterward, Raymond Molina, a Wilson supporter and a leader of a group called the Broad Front for the Liberation of Cuba, said the governor needs to address fears among Cuban Americans that he is against immigration. “That is basically what the Cuban American community would like him to clarify. There is some confusion.”

Saturday was not the first time Wilson has found that the political boost he gained in California by supporting Proposition 187 does not always transfer to other states.

When Wilson made a brief appearance in March in New Hampshire, which will hold the first presidential primary next year, he was asked why voters there should be swayed by an issue that has little effect on them.

The next day in New York City, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said during a joint press conference with Wilson that he was so upset by Proposition 187 he once considered a trip to California to campaign against it.

Still, the issue remains one of the major planks of Wilson’s presidential campaign.

Proposition 187, “very simply, is an issue that has to do with fairness,” he said Saturday. “It is a statement to the federal government that it has failed in its duties--its exclusive duties--to secure the international borders, and it has compounded that injury by sticking the state taxpayers with the cost. That is unacceptable, and it is monstrously unfair.”

Wilson heads to Iowa today as he continues a series of appearances aimed at jump-starting his campaign. Later this week, he plans stops in Colorado, Texas and New Hampshire.

The blitz of events is timed to raise Wilson’s national profile before he is pinned down in Sacramento over budget deliberations.

At a news conference in Tampa on Saturday, Wilson said he still hopes a budget accord with state legislators can be reached with a minimum of difficulty.

And for the first time, he spoke about the legislative firestorm sparked by the recent election of Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) as Speaker. Allen infuriated her Republican colleagues when she broke ranks and won the post with the backing of Assembly Democrats.

Wilson’s remarks were guarded, but he broached the prospect of a recall of Allen if she does not use her position to help pass such Republican issues as his proposed income-tax cut. Several GOP Assembly members have already said they will pursue a recall.