CAMPAIGN JOURNAL : Brown Maintains Course on Victory Flight

FRESNO —  Her borrowed campaign plane had been grounded by mechanical problems, but Kathleen Brown wasn’t ready to quit.

As her entourage--including her husband, Van Gordon Sauter, and her son, Zeb--waited in the Fresno airport to board a new plane, the state treasurer got on the phone. She had fund-raising to do. But first, she owed one very important supporter a call: Vice President Al Gore.

“I do need your help. . . . You, Tipper and Hillary--you guys are big draws,” she told Gore, who had called to congratulate her on winning the Democratic nomination for governor. “This is going to be a tough race, but I’m ready.”

Before a broken wing flap cut short her two-day victory fly-around, Brown managed to deliver that same self-confident message in five cities. Whether she was touring a San Jose high school or sipping coffee in a Modesto living room, Brown hit again and again on a theme she unveiled on election night: “Restoring the California Promise.”

And at every opportunity, she tried to distinguish herself from Gov. Pete Wilson, whom she accused of “blaming, bullying and bashing” to get reelected.

“You have a choice,” she told about 200 students and faculty members at Fresno City College, “between the politics of yesterday and the politics of tomorrow, between the politics of fear and hate and the politics of putting the state and our people back together again. Tell Pete Wilson his time is up!”

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Wednesday began in San Francisco, where Brown and her family had spent the previous evening, including dinner with Brown’s brother, former Gov. Jerry Brown. Even at 7:30 a.m., the sun was hot, and as the plane lifted off, Brown’s husband announced that there was someplace else he’d rather be going.

“We’re going to Jackson Hole!” joked Sauter, an outspoken Republican who is an executive with Fox TV. “We could start a beachhead there for Kathleen.”

Brown rolled her eyes.

“Kathleen Connell’s husband said he was going fishing,” she said, referring to the Democratic nominee for state controller. “When he heard that, my husband got restless.”

But Sauter--natty with suspenders and a pocket handkerchief--played his part. When the plane arrived at the Modesto airport, Brown introduced Sauter as “my Republican supporter that I have converted to the cause.”

Sauter corrected: “I’m converted in her case.”

Brown laughed. “I’m getting my votes one by one,” she said.

From the airport, Brown headed to the home of Lee and Lisa Genetti, a police officer and a secretary, who had invited two other young couples over to meet Brown. When the candidate arrived, with a horde of reporters in tow, she asked the group to describe the California they had grown up in.

“Safe,” said Lee.

“We used to not lock our doors at night,” said Lisa.

“Opportunity,” said Paula Schmidt, a college professor who has been able to find only part-time work. “My parents were able to buy a home. We’re looking at 10 years before we can buy a home.”

“It’s a struggle,” said Todd Leonard, an accountant. “It’s tough to go out to dinner once a month. There’s just no money left.”

Brown nodded, and offered a few observations.

“There (used to be) a sense of personal responsibility,” she said. “We had to work hard and play by the rules. If you did that, there would be opportunity. It was a contract. But that contract is broken.”

Excluding the media and Brown’s staff, only six voters actually heard Brown’s message in person in Modesto--the Genettis and two other couples. But the cozy setting played to Brown’s strong suit: connecting with people one on one.

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Safe streets, good schools, new jobs--if the fly-around was any indication, these are the buttons that Brown will push between now and the general election in November.

On Tuesday, when she stopped at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Jose, Brown was greeted by a crowd of third- and fourth-graders from a nearby elementary school. As Brown stepped off her campaign bus, the children cheered and waved hand-drawn American flags.

“Who’s going to be the next governor of California?” Brown called out to them.

“You!” they screamed.

“I like this crowd,” Brown said.

Inside the high school’s multimedia computer labs, students showed her high-tech projects ranging from synthesized music programs to animation and interactive resumes.

Of all the displays, Neil Uhl’s caught Brown’s eye. The 17-year-old junior had called up a full-color image of Wilson on a TV monitor. Under Wilson’s face, a headline read, “Our Old Governor.” At the touch of Uhl’s computer keyboard, Wilson’s face contorted and transformed into a picture of Brown with a new headline: “Our Next Governor.”

Brown was ecstatic. “I’ve been morphed, “ she said, using the jargon for the process Uhl had demonstrated. Then she urged Uhl and his fellow technologically minded classmates to “stay in California. We need you.”