TIPOFF : CHECCHI SENDS CAMERA CREW TO TAPE RIVAL.

Byline: RICK ORLOV

IT is a routine practice for campaigns to send their own people to opponent's events to get a first-hand view on what is being said and to report back so any response can be prepared.

But this year's gubernatorial race has taken the practice to new heights - or depths depending on your view.

With his limitless resources, the campaign of millionaire Democratic businessman Al Checchi has decided it's not good enough just to have an aide in attendance.

Instead, it has hired a camera crew to appear at her events, tape her remarks and any news availabilities afterward and ship it back to the campaign's mid-Wilshire headquarters.

An aide offered condolences to a reporter for the cold and windy conditions at an event where Rep. Jane Harman, D-Torrance, officially launched her campaign.

How did the aide know the weather?

``I'm looking at the videotape right now,'' the official said.

The Checchi campaign has continued to hammer at Harman for her absenteeism in Congress while she is campaigning for governor.

Coming to Harman's aid last week was the third challenger, Lt. Gov. Gray Davis.

Davis' campaign faxed out a San Francisco Chronicle editorial chastising Checchi for his continued attacks, noting he had missed voting in four of the past six elections and that he had pledged to run positive campaigns.

Harman aides have said they are prepared for such attacks and acknowledge it is one of the penalties in waging a campaign 3,000 miles away from Congress.

Some of this tension between the campaigns might come out at the state Democratic Convention meeting in Los Angeles next week at the Bonaventure Hotel.

All three are scheduled to address the convention Sunday, which could provide a barometer on how party activists stand.

Unlike past conventions, however, there will be no attempt at a straw poll or endorsements that could divide the party faithful.

Also at the weekend meeting, Party Chairman Art Torres is expected to announce plans for a Democratic-sponsored series of commercials attacking the presumptive Republican nominee, Attorney General Dan Lungren.

The commercials are expected to deal with Lungren's opposition to abortion rights and his opposition to gun control proposals.

Peace, of a sort, broke out last week between Mayor Richard Riordan and the Los Angeles City Council, and the mayor has his new wife to thank.

In a rare show of unanimous support for Riordan, all 15 members of the council signed a proclamation congratulating the mayor for his marriage toNancy Daly.

``It wasn't that easy,'' said Council President John Ferraro. ``I had to make a lot of promises to get everyone to sign.''

MEDIA WATCH: L.A. Times publisher Mark Willes ran into a firestorm recently when he appeared before students and former Times employees at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.

Willes was given high marks by those in attendance for agreeing to appear, but it didn't make the session any easier.

A New York Times report of the session had one audience member asking Willes to write his own obituary and then offering her own:

``I'm afraid it would say: He killed a great newspaper but he raised the stock price.

``And I want to ask you, what does it profit Mark Willes or Times Mirror if they gain the world but lose their soul?''

Willes said he was sympathetic to the question, but felt he had no real alternative, that he had to respond to the needs of the shareholder.

``It is not a nice-do, it is a must-do,'' Willes said.