Time of Smiles for Pete Wilson

Pete Wilson is relaxed and smiling as he conducts year-end interviews with Capitol reporters. The 64-year-old Republican governor is savoring his most successful year as chief executive and looking forward to an active final 12 months in office with a decided strategic edge over his Democratic foes in the California Legislature.

Under term limits, which Wilson endorsed when he first ran in 1990, the governor must step down at the end of next year. The irony is that Wilson now says he regrets he cannot run for a third term. One reason for wanting to extend his tenure is that much of his first term was consumed in dealing with California’s worst recession in half a century and coping with an incredible series of natural disasters. Only in the last few years has the economy rebounded enough so that the state can afford some new initiatives, such as cutting the size of public school classes.

“I think we are doing good things . . . that are going to change California’s future,” Wilson told The Times’ Dave Lesher. “And that’s what you get into this business to do.”

Wilson says he will offer an active legislative agenda for 1998 and promises to become more involved in California’s critical water wars. His leadership in the water field will be welcomed.

We have often differed with Wilson, but he deserves credit for his activism in behalf of public education the past two years. And during those dark recession years in the early 1990s, his fiscal stinginess and willingness to raise taxes kept California on a prudent course.

Wilson’s determination to end funding for such things as prenatal care for illegal immigrants and his zeal in zapping social programs dear to Democratic hearts often made him seem a Grinch in past years. But those who know Wilson well know him as a decidedly pleasant and engaging fellow, in addition to being well-read and a fine conversationalist. That’s the Pete Wilson who could make some real bipartisan progress with the Legislature, even in his final year as governor.