UPHILL ROAD FOR CAMPBELL IN SENATE RACE

He's Optimistic Despite Trouncing By Feinstein

CALIFORNIA -- Rep. Tom Campbell won the Republican nomination for the U.S.
Senate Tuesday, but he finished 20 points behind incumbent Democrat Dianne
Feinstein in the open primary, losing every county in the state, including
his home turf of Santa Clara County.

Campbell, 47, a Stanford law professor in his fifth term representing a
South Bay congressional district, says he's got Feinstein right where he
wants her.

What he plans now, with a unified Republican Party behind him, is a steady,
relentless grassroots effort to take his message of fiscal conservatism and
social liberalism directly to the voters.

And when they compare him to Feinstein and her record, he will catch her,
he said.

The problem is, practically no one else believes it.

Feinstein, 66, seeking her second full term in the Senate, is so
comfortable about her lead over Campbell that campaign officials say she's
even willing to debate him.

``She is vulnerable and Campbell is the kind of Republican who can win
statewide -- pro-choice, socially moderate and fiscally conservative,''
said GOP consultant Kevin Spillane, who has worked on past Campbell
congressional campaigns.

``The problem is convincing the donor community he can win and to give him
the funds he needs to get his message out,'' Spillane said.

Campbell trumpets the fact that he held Feinstein to only 51 percent.

``I've already got half of the voters agreeing with me'' that Feinstein
ought to be turned out of office, Campbell said.

``What I have to do is tell them who I am,'' he said.

He says his own internal polling shows him trailing Feinstein by only 8
percentage points when voters are given a solid sense of who he is and
where he stands.

But Campbell got only 23 percent of the vote in the open primary.

``You could say 77 percent of the electorate agrees they don't want Tom
Campbell,'' said Feinstein campaign manager Kam Kuwata. ``I thought he
might declare a moral victory because the senator only beat him 2 to 1, and
not 3 to 1.''

``I don't see how you could avoid reading it as a vote of confidence for
Sen. Feinstein,'' said Democratic consultant Mary Hughes, who has run past
congressional campaigns against Campbell.

``I'm not sure what he can do. I think she is formidable in every sense,''
Hughes said.

So formidable, said Hughes, that Feinstein is likely to win, even if she
were also a candidate for vice president on the same ballot.

Early speculation has included her name on the list of possible Democratic
nominees for vice president, but Feinstein dismisses that as ``just talk.''

She said she'll consider the possibility if it is presented to her, but her
abiding political interest is re-election to the Senate.

If she does end up on the ticket, Campbell said that would bolster his own
chances. He predicted that voters would react with deep skepticism to a
candidate seeking two offices at the same time.

Beyond that possible sideshow, Campbell wants to make the campaign about
his approachability, his outsider status and his beliefs in minimalist
government.

``The McCain candidacy has demonstrated there is a fascination and a bit of
a hunger for the direct contact, look-'em-in-the-eye,
tell-them-what-you-think, unvarnished candidate,'' said Hughes.

But Feinstein appears eager to respond by telling voters about two early
elements of Campbell's candidacy -- his call for replacing the federal
income tax with a national sales tax and his proposal that local
governments be given the option of creating a program that would distribute
heroin to addicts.

``I view a sales tax as regressive,'' Feinstein said, adding that the
proposal would cut government revenues by $150 billion, wipe out the budget
surplus and jeopardize the short-term solvency of Social Security and
Medicare.

``Frankly, I'm puzzled by his proposal to legalize drugs,'' Feinstein said.
``I don't know anyone who has used drugs who believes the solution is
legalization.''

Campbell defended both positions, saying they will resonate with the voters
and demonstrate he is outside what he called the entrenched, do-nothing
interests that control Congress.

``I think the voters of California deserve a senator who is prepared to
address the terrible problem of drugs, and not say the same old things,''
he said. ``Abolishing the income tax could be very popular. If she wants to
defend the current system as fair . . . she risks her credibility,'' he
said.

Because of Campbell's unique maverick status within his own party, the
campaign ``won't be so much an ideological matchup as a matchup over who's
going to be more effective,'' said Hughes.

``He's asking people to trade in a senator who has proven to be effective .
.. . for someone who has a tough time arguing his effectiveness in the
House. It's tough to see the rationale for that trade.''