Sen. Feinstein Endorses Harman

Rep. Jane Harman, who has campaigned for governor as a virtual clone of Dianne Feinstein, won the coveted endorsement Wednesday of the genuine article.

In a 30-second TV spot set to begin airing today, U.S. Sen. Feinstein prefaces her measured praise for the Torrance Democrat by acknowledging the unusual step of taking sides in a contested party primary.

“It’s difficult,” Feinstein states, “but sometimes it’s necessary to speak out.”

Feinstein continues: “Having faced the rigors and demands of public office, I know that experience and integrity under fire count. I’m voting for Jane Harman. I hope you will too.”

The endorsement, coming less than two weeks before the June 2 primary, could provide a welcome boost for Harman, who jumped into the race in February just days after Feinstein announced she would not run. “I wasn’t my first candidate for this race,” Harman told reporters at the time. “She was.”

Since then, Harman has explicitly patterned herself after Feinstein, with a broad appeal to middle-of-the-road voters and a campaign team stocked with Feinstein’s closest political advisors. Further, the Feinstein ad cites Harman’s support for the senator’s legislation imposing a federal ban on certain assault-type firearms--legislation that was a centerpiece of Feinstein’s 1994 reelection campaign.

With her endorsement, the senator not only ratified Harman’s carbon-copy campaign strategy, but could bolster recent efforts by the gubernatorial hopeful to make a more gender-specific appeal to voters, as the lone woman in the race.

“Dianne has always had great strength among women of both parties,” said Barbara O’Connor, head of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at Sacramento State. “Given the new open primary, it could help Harman attract Republican women as well” as Democrats.

Bill Carrick, one of the Feinstein advisors who moved over to Harman’s camp, said the endorsement was sealed a few weeks ago, when the former and current gubernatorial candidates dined together.

Harman announced Feinstein’s backing with little of the usual ballyhoo that accompanies such a sought-after endorsement. The campaign merely issued a news release with a text of the TV spot. Carrick cited “the vagaries of congressional scheduling.”

Hours later, however, Feinstein released a somewhat less generic four-paragraph statement praising Harman’s “credibility, integrity and toughness” and reiterated her support in a telephone interview.

Although she professed difficulty in choosing sides in the governor’s race, Feinstein has made no secret of her animus toward Harman’s two main Democratic rivals, businessman Al Checchi and Lt. Gov. Gray Davis.

Feinstein has never forgiven Davis, her opponent in the 1992 Democratic Senate primary, for running a scathing TV ad that compared her to convicted tax cheat Leona Helmsley.

More recently, she criticized Checchi’s ads in the governor’s race as “grossly misleading” and “dreadful,” saying they illustrate the “negativism” that kept her from running.

In an interview Wednesday, Feinstein reiterated her disgust with the tenor of the campaign. “I’m very sensitive to this stuff,” said Feinstein, who barely prevailed in her brutal 1994 reelection fight against multimillionaire Michael Huffington. “I felt I couldn’t just be quiet and let this happen to a very good person and very good candidate.”

Checchi, meanwhile, acceded to a request by Secretary of State Bill Jones to contact 400,000 voters statewide to make sure they receive the absentee ballots they requested through Checchi’s campaign--or know they need to vote in person.

Jones’ request stemmed from problems with an aggressive mail effort by the Checchi camp that sent more than 3 million brochures--along with absentee ballot applications--to targeted voters across California. Some local registrars reported delays in receiving applications forwarded by the Checchi campaign. The Checchi campaign blamed the U.S. Postal Service for the delay.

County registrars must receive absentee ballot requests by Tuesday for voters to be eligible to vote June 2.