CAMPBELL SAYS FEINSTEIN'S DRUG POLICY OFFERS NOTHING NEW

Republican Rep. Tom Campbell, running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Dianne Feinstein, said yesterday that Feinstein's criticism of his drug policy proposals was "inappropriate" and illustrates a fundamental difference between them.

"I think she has attempted to demonize (the issue) and thereby bring down the debate," Campbell told The Chronicle editorial board. "What I've heard is hyperbole, and when I've asked what's her approach, I do not hear anything new. I hear the status quo."

Raising the drug war as a central issue when public opinion polls show voters more interested in other matters is one example of how he'll challenge conventional wisdom and make decisions based on merits, rather than politics, Campbell said.

"I will strive for the nongovernmental answer. I will strive for the local governmental answer. And I think it's fair to say she will readily embrace the federal government answer," Campbell said.

The South Bay Republican is running against Feinstein, who is seeking her second six-year term in the Senate. During nine years in the House representing Peninsula and South Bay districts, Campbell has earned a reputation for political unorthodoxy, bucking the leadership of both parties on everything from the failure of Congress to approve American military operations in Kosovo to voting against Newt Gingrich as speaker and voting for the impeachment of President Clinton.

"In my public life, I've ended up with no friends," Campbell said, laughing.

"I've done what I think is right, even when it's not in my party's interest. I think I would be a breath of fresh air in the Senate."

Campbell's decision to make American drug policy a central theme of his campaign illustrates his independence, he said, adding that he is "thrilled" that he raised the issue at a time when no one was talking about it and against political advice.

Campbell's position is that the war on drugs has failed because it attacks the supply, rather than demand. Instead of spending billions on intervening in the drug trade in Colombia and sending American troops into a deep-rooted dispute, he says, the money should be spent on rehabilitating drug addicts.

Campbell says local governments should be given the authority to establish medically supervised recovery programs tailored to their own sense of what will work. That could include programs in which heroin is provided to drug addicts as part of a pattern of treatment, he said.

"Will it work? I don't know. I know the present (policy) isn't working and I know the federal government is way off," Campbell said.

That should appeal to "the legitimate sense of California that Washington shouldn't keep telling us they know best," he said.

Campbell believes the flood of drugs in America is a "correctable social problem, perhaps the most correctable social problem."

His position on drugs is indicative of a larger, philosophical willingness to take on the status quo, Campbell said.

His support of a right of privacy on the Internet and on software and e-mail is one example -- he says Feinstein has not been vigilant in protecting that right. Campbell also says Feinstein has been too accepting of American military excursions and failed to support congressional oversight.