CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Brown Fires Up Campaign Style : The Democratic challenger, who has been criticized as too conservative, takes on Wilson and Prop. 187 in a free-wheeling new approach.

BURLINGAME, Calif. —  In a fiery speech to teachers union supporters Sunday, Democrat Kathleen Brown branded Republican Pete Wilson as a cynical career politician who will do anything to get reelected and who is pitting Californians against one another on the emotional issue of illegal immigration.

Brown, the state treasurer, assumed an aggressive, free-wheeling campaign approach that she claimed will defy the opinion polls and the pundits and carry her to victory on Nov. 8.

Forget precision campaign strategy, she told a cheering crowd of about 650 local and regional leaders of the California Teachers Assn. in the ballroom of a hotel near San Francisco International Airport.

Now is the time to motivate and mobilize undecided or uncertain Democrats to go to the polls, Brown said.

One of the major criticisms of the Brown campaign for months has been that it was far too conservative in hewing to a careful strategy aimed at middle-class California voters. As part of that scenario, Brown the candidate often came across as overly controlled, tentative and programmed.

Her appeal, which is heavy on budget cuts to keep the state solvent, was also failing to inspire traditional Democratic constituencies such as liberals and minority groups, her critics said.

Another shift over this past weekend was Brown’s seizure of Proposition 187 as a potentially winning issue, by aggressively opposing the ballot measure that would cut off state-funded health and education services to illegal immigrants.

Brown has never made a secret of her opposition to Proposition 187, but rarely mentioned it in her prepared speeches and often discussed it only after being asked by audiences or reporters.

But opposition to Proposition 187--and sharp criticism of Wilson by virtue of his support of the measure--was a keystone of Brown speeches to partisan and supportive audiences both Saturday night and Sunday.

Brown gave a preliminary address at a fund-raising event featuring President Clinton in San Francisco on Saturday night. There, she joined both Clinton and Sen. Dianne Feinstein in criticizing Proposition 187. Feinstein came out in opposition to the measure late last week.

A Brown aide said campaign polls had shown support for Proposition 187 “dropping like a rock” over the past several days.

After her California Teachers Assn. speech Sunday, Brown was asked whether she thought Proposition 187 had become the defining issue of the 1994 campaign, which has been dominated by crime up to now.

She replied that it is one of many issues, but then she added that Wilson is “a career politician who has used the issues of crime and immigration cynically just to keep his political taxpayer-paid job.”

In her speech, Brown accused Wilson of using his campaign to “divide us and identify us by the color of our skin, by our last name and the accents we have.”

“And it causes people to start to look at people differently, instead of looking at people and saying, ‘They’re Californians, and they’re Americans and they’re people.’ We need to have a governor who is going to reach out and play upon those things that will pull us together again, bring us together and inspire our hopes--not play on our fears . . . our anger,” she said.

Most statewide polls have shown Californians strongly behind Proposition 187--overwhelmingly, its backers claimed. The measure has been a bedrock campaign issue, along with crime, for Wilson, who has sued the federal government for compensation for the nearly $3 billion he says it costs the state to provide education, health care and other services to people who are in the country and the state illegally.

Brown has said Wilson’s posture is cynical because as a U.S. senator, he voted for the federal law that requires states to provide such services.

In recent days, Proposition 187’s opponents--including the California Teachers Assn., have become much more vocal and have launched an advertising campaign.

This past week, many GOP conservatives were surprised when former Republican Cabinet members Jack Kemp and William Bennett announced their opposition to the initiative.

In her attack on the ballot proposal, Brown said it would do nothing to control the U.S.-Mexico border or crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, nor would it save any money.

Asked for comment, Wilson spokesman Dan Schnur said, “It is disturbing that a candidate for statewide office like Kathleen Brown would intentionally blur the distinctions between legal immigration and illegal immigration for her political agenda.”

He said, “Most Californians understand that legal immigration is something to be applauded, to be rewarded. But illegal immigration is not. The people of California understand the difference and that’s why she is losing this campaign.”