In Search of a Silver Bullet to Beat Wilson

State Democratic Chairman Bill Press was musing over lunch whether there might be a “silver bullet” Treasurer Kathleen Brown could use to bring down Gov. Pete Wilson. Not likely, I said.

Afterward, I realized this was wrong. A bullet with the magic to finish off Wilson indeed does exist, but more about that later.

First we pondered the bullets already fired at the Republican incumbent. In my view, some had wounded him, he had been grazed by others, and a few were duds. None was silver.

They included Brown’s charge that under Wilson’s cost cutting, “dangerous parole violators are escaping justice and innocent Californians are being murdered.” Also, she says, Wilson is the only western governor not to create new jobs. And he tried to keep 100,000 kids out of kindergarten, signed the biggest tax hike in history, still ran the state in the red and mismanaged the lottery. Plus, she asserts, he’s a “phony” on illegal immigration because as a senator he advocated allowing Mexican farm workers to remain in California fields.

Clearly, neither candidate has the corner on cheap shots.

Press agreed if there’s a silver bullet, it’s well hidden.

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Then on Tuesday I watched Brown give a speech on higher education. This plainly was a subject she knew and cared about, an issue close to her heart. She was at ease, smoothly mixing humor, poignancy and vision.

Her audience was a conference of community college students with a sprinkling of faculty--not a cross-section of the electorate, for sure, but a constituency Brown must turn out in droves to win.

She was frank: “I’d like to be able to stand here and tell you I’ll roll back fees . . . give you a free education again, as it was in my father’s day. But I have to be straight. We live in a new time. . . . We can’t go back.”

But she also was reassuring: “I can tell you one thing. We don’t have to balance our budget, as we have the past three years, on the backs of our colleges and universities.” She promised no fee increases next year for students at community colleges and state universities, and to fight any tuition hikes at the University of California. Under Wilson, she noted, community college fees have jumped by 290%.

She further pledged to abolish an “insane” additional fee of $37 per unit--on top of the standard $13--that students with bachelor’s degrees must pay to attend a community college. And she vowed to sign legislation guaranteeing that Sacramento will replace any property tax shortfalls for community colleges. This year, that amounts to an estimated $32 million.

But more significant politically than the promises was the connection Brown made with her audience, which frequently applauded.

All summer, Brown has been flailing away at Wilson on his turf--crime--trying to pare his advantage on an issue pollsters say is No. 1. Brown’s brain trust has delayed any substantive campaigning on her turf--education--until schools start. That’s traditional politics and straight out of the consultants’ manual.

The more she focuses the public’s attention on education, however, the more votes she’ll get on Nov. 8.

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But education isn’t Brown’s silver bullet. The silver bullet is Brown herself--all that tenacity and toughness and, more important, the charm and ability to relate. It’s the natural attraction that causes strangers to tug on her sleeve and ask if she’ll pose beside them for a photo.

People see this magic up close, one on one. They don’t see it in TV commercials. They don’t usually see it when she’s reading a speech and reciting a litany of position points packaged by her campaign staff.

Her professing unequivocal support for the “three-strikes” initiative--which nobody knows how to pay for but is pabulum for the public--sounds hollow. But when she talks of her “mission to deliver a higher quality of education to a greater number . . . at a lower cost”--as her father did as governor--she resonates with passion and sincerity.

In that speech, Brown ignored most of the prepared text and ad-libbed. Few politicians can do that and sound coherent. Wilson trips all over himself when he tries.

Brown now should accept any debate formula Wilson offers and get him onto a platform with her. Then she should throw away more scripts and ad-lib. Be herself. Talk about things heartfelt: education, teen-age pregnancy, family, the new entrepreneurs, rebuilding her native state. . . . She knows the list. Don’t be predictable; be exciting. People don’t want a poll reader, they want a leader.

Venture beyond the focus groups and the strategists. Be the silver bullet. That’s Wilson’s biggest fear.