Re-Pete

Many, maybe most of us, do not perceive “The Wilson Gambit” (by Daniel M. Weintraub, Sept. 25) as a change but rather as a continuation of concepts and policies espoused by Gov. Pete Wilson during an illustrious career. Perhaps that’s why he won seven elections out of eight, soon to become eight out of nine, a damn fine batting average in any league.

John Carl Brogdon

Long Beach

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One of Wilson’s first gubernatorial acts betrayed his gay constituency. He vetoed SB 101, intended to protect gays from economic discrimination, a bill he had pledged to support. Other highlights of his administration: budgetary chaos, apathy to urban problems and alienation from the concerns of working-poor families.

Lately, Wilson is relying on the standard vote-getters: the death penalty, undocumented immigrants, those lazy welfare cheats. His emphasis on toughness is no more than veiled sexism: as a woman, Kathleen Brown simply couldn’t be tough enough for the job.

But unlike Weintraub, I know who the real Pete Wilson is. If the pollsters came back to him with news that Satanism was the latest trend among Californians, I’d expect to see him in the middle of Dodger Stadium, conducting a Black Mass.

Joanne G. Murphy

Los Angeles

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By now, most Californians have forgotten Wilson’s campaign promises. Drug abuse and the well-being of children and women were two of the most important election issues. This year, you won’t hear Wilson say much about either issue.

Wilson has kept not one of his 1990 campaign promises, reason enough for voters to doubt that he’ll do any better this time. Unfortunately, politicians don’t need to fulfill campaign promises; they need merely make new ones in response to the changing winds of public opinion.

Mark P. Petracca

Irvine

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The governor has the bully-pulpit approach of a Teddy Roosevelt, the ideology of a Reaganite, the credentials of a professor and the guts of a winner. I like Pete Wilson.

Clarence B. Santos

Adelanto

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Wilson has replaced the c-word compassion with cynicism . That his campaign of fear and hatred through television manipulation has raised him in the polls is an alarming trend.

Bill Kaiser

Los Angeles