Wilson TV Ads Attack Brown on Issue of Rapist’s Release : Politics: The governor says the Democratic candidate deceived the public by trying to blame him for freeing sex offender Melvin Carter.

Gov. Pete Wilson launched his first advertising push of the 1994 campaign Tuesday, unveiling a 30-second television spot that accuses state Treasurer Kathleen Brown of deliberately deceiving the public about a serial rapist’s release from prison.

The ad, which Wilson’s camp is spending $500,000 to broadcast statewide, opens with a mug shot of Melvin A. Carter, who confessed to raping more than 100 women in Northern California. State law required Carter’s release last month, the ad states, but Brown tried to blame Wilson.

“The press condemned Brown’s deception as ‘a bum rap,’ ‘demagoguery,’ ‘desperation’ and (a) ‘cheap shot’. . . ,” continues the ad, which paints Brown as soft on crime. “Kathleen Brown is opposed to a one-strike law (for rapists). And she’s even against the death penalty. Kathleen Brown--Wrong on Wilson, Wrong on Crime.”

The ad focuses on an issue that some might have expected Wilson to try to put behind him. Brown alleged that Carter’s release could have been avoided but for the bumbling of Wilson’s Department of Corrections and, faced with a public outcry, Wilson changed the location of Carter’s release to a rural area.

But George Gorton, who is managing Wilson’s reelection campaign, said the decision was made to “set the record straight” because Brown’s campaign has done its best to keep the issue alive. Gorton said the Wilson campaign will be airing ads nearly “nonstop” between now and the June 7 primary.

“She’s misleading people,” said Gorton. “It’s not honest. It’s wrong.”

In response, Michael Reese, the spokesman for Brown’s campaign, issued a statement accusing Wilson of trying to divert attention from more important issues.

“Pete Wilson’s campaign to run away from his failed record on crime in California has begun,” the statement said. “Wilson can blame and attack all he wants, but the bottom line is, he’s the one who’s wrong. He’s wrong for California.”

A Los Angeles Times poll conducted late last month found that Brown’s allegation that Wilson was derelict in allowing Carter’s release from prison has had little impact. Most Californians, whether they live in the southern or northern part of the state, said Wilson was not to blame for Carter’s release.

But Wilson’s hold on the crime issue was not firm. Although 37% of the 1,608 adults interviewed said Wilson has the best ideas about crime and only 16% said that of Brown, the margin narrowed significantly when Wilson and all the Democrats were compared. Then, Wilson barely eked out an advantage--37% compared to 33% for Democrats as a whole.

One of those other Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, stands to benefit greatly from Wilson’s advertisement.

As fate would have it, that staff was holding a strategy meeting in the same hotel as the Wilson campaign’s news conference Tuesday. Wilson officials invited Garamendi staffers to join the media in watching a screening of the ad, and the result was some uncommonly friendly banter.