CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS U.S. SENATE : Economy, Gender to Be Key Elements in Feinstein’s Bid

Declaring “I want to bring America home,” Democrat Dianne Feinstein formally opened her U.S. Senate campaign Wednesday by proposing a five-year, $135-billion, invest-in-America program of highways, housing and schools and creation of new jobs for Californians.

Feinstein, 58, barely lost the governorship of California in November, 1990, to Republican Pete Wilson. Now, hoping to benefit from the credibility she built in that campaign, she is seeking the remaining two years of the Senate term Wilson had to give up to become governor.

“I am trying to launch a campaign that’s based on a new America, an America that cares . . . I want to care about solving our problems once again,” she said in Universal City, the midpoint in her three-city tour.

The economy dominated her speech, but the former San Francisco mayor also made it clear that her gender will be integral to her campaign--more than when she ran for governor.

Signs plastered on the meeting room walls said that “2% is not enough,” a reference to the two women now serving in the 100-member Senate. The audience of about 100 well-wishers was dominated by women, including many prominent members of the Hollywood Women’s Political Caucus, which has endorsed Feinstein. Her biggest applause line was her call for a federal law guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion, “never to be reversed by an ideologically packed Supreme Court.”

Feinstein was introduced by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus and state Sen. Diane Watson.

Feinstein made no reference to the surprise entry into the race Wednesday of Joseph M. Alioto, 48, a political neophyte but the son of former San Francisco Mayor Joseph L. Alioto and sister of San Francisco Supervisor Angela Alioto. A Feinstein aide said he thought Alioto’s presence in the race could be as damaging to state Controller Gray Davis as to Feinstein in the June 2 Democratic primary.

The Republican contenders for the so-called short seat are John Seymour, appointed by Wilson to the seat, U.S. Rep. William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton, William Allen of Claremont and Jim Trinity of Glendale.

Also at stake in 1992 is the six-year Senate seat being relinquished by Democrat Alan Cranston after 24 years. Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono formally filed for the Republican nomination for that seat in Riverside on Wednesday. Other Republican candidates are Rep. Tom Campbell of Stanford and Los Angeles television commentator Bruce Herschensohn, with speculation rising Wednesday that former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth might also enter the race.

Bono, 57, the former husband and entertainment teammate of Cher, commented as he filed: “My message is one of plain talk--common sense.”

As he has before, Bono proposed a series of tax credits and reductions that would provide incentives for business investment and research and development of new American products.

This is Bono’s first run for statewide office. When he said last fall that he would seek the Senate seat, most California political experts dismissed him as no more than a nuisance factor in the contest. He has high name recognition, a remnant of his entertainment career, but he also has left a relatively high negative impression among potential voters.

The most recent California Poll showed Bono running a strong third with 16% support among Republicans. Campbell and Herschensohn were tied with 27% each.

Democrats running for the Cranston seat are Reps. Barbara Boxer of Marin County and Mel Levine of Santa Monica and Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy of San Francisco, a longtime Feinstein political ally.

Feinstein opened her day on the docks of San Diego, where she mingled with shipyard workers with two Navy aircraft carriers at anchor in the background. After her midday Universal City appearance, Feinstein went on to San Francisco to speak--surrounded by her oldest and best political friends--at a low-cost housing project she helped sponsor on the Embarcadero.

“I was a can-do mayor and I’ll be a can-do senator,” Feinstein said at Universal City with her banker-financier husband Richard Blum standing nearby.

Feinstein said she has met with workers in every part of the state in three years of campaigning, ever since she announced for governor in 1989--from fishermen and loggers on the North Coast to high-tech workers in Southern California.

“I see things differently than they do in Washington. I see them from the front lines of the economic battle for survival of working men and women and their families in every part of our state.”

Official Washington has responded with gridlock and stalemate, Feinstein said.

Feinstein said her revitalization program would be financed by a “peace dividend” of reduced defense expenditures, including funds used to keep American troops in Europe.