Turnout Light as Voters Go to Polls in Primary : Election: Transportation issues and the races involving women candidates attract national attention.

Californians turned out in light numbers Tuesday for a primary election likely to decide the future of the state’s legendary “tax revolt.” Voters also will choose nominees for a new governor and for the first-ever state insurance commissioner, and determine whether women will be positioned to make history and dramatically expand their profile in state government.

Experts had predicted about 44% of the registered voters would turn out at the polls. By late afternoon, state officials said voting in Los Angeles was running about the same as in the last gubernatorial primary election, in 1986, which produced a record low turnout of 40.45%.

If eligible but unregistered adults are considered, Tuesday’s far-reaching decisions on taxes, crime, ethics and the historic bid for power by women were left in the hands of about one-third of the voting-age population.

In the Democratic and Republican parties, women were in contention for nomination for half of the statewide constitutional offices. Leading the charge was former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who sought the Democratic nomination for governor against Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp.

California has never elected a woman governor. Also, California has never elected a governor in modern times who was not sized up for presidential potential. The combination has made Feinstein’s campaign a matter of keen national interest.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face two-term Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, who breezed through Tuesday’s primary without serious challenge.

Women also fielded strong candidates for the offices of lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state. Only one woman now holds statewide office, Secretary of State March Fong Eu.

Also of national interest, not to mention local concern, is the fate of a proposed doubling of the gasoline tax in the birthplace of the modern tax revolt.

If approved, Proposition 111 would start the state on a $15-billion-plus highway and transit building splurge--and signal the first real slacking of the anti-tax mood since the famous property tax rollback of Proposition 13 in 1978. Conversely, its defeat would spoil the hopes of politicians of both parties who face mounting problems of population growth, decaying services and budgetary restrictions.

Two ancillary propositions, 108 and 116, would add money to the transportation pot for rail services.

Crime victims took the public stage in an emotional and often dramatic campaign on behalf of Proposition 115, their measure to rework California’s criminal procedures. Proponents sought a faster dispensing of justice. Scattered but vocal opponents worried that the proposition would be counter-productive and cost defendants important safeguards.

Political professionals bit their nails all day Tuesday over a series of ethics, pay raise and reapportionment votes.

Propositions 118 and 119 would reduce the power of the Democratic majority in the Legislature to reapportion California’s Senate, Assembly and growing congressional delegations. Proposition 112 would impose new ethics restrictions on state officials and allow an independent commission to raise lawmaker’s salaries.

Similarly, Proposition H in the city of Los Angeles would impose new ethics restrictions on local officials and raise salaries for the mayor and members of the City Council.

In addition to the governor’s race, voters faced a lively lineup of primaries for other state offices.

Two Republican state senators from Orange County battled for the nomination for lieutenant governor. Marian Bergeson, of Newport Beach, took an anti-abortion position against the abortion rights stand of her opponent, John Seymour of Anaheim. The winner is to face incumbent Democrat Leo T. McCarthy.

Similarly, a Republican man and woman fought for their party’s nomination for treasurer--appointed incumbent Tom Hayes against former U.S. Treasurer Angela (Bay) Buchanan. On the Democratic side, Kathleen Brown sought her party’s nomination and the right to carry on her famous family’s political legacy: Her brother, Edmund G. Brown Jr., and father were elected to statewide offices and then elected governor.

The district attorneys of Los Angeles, Ira Reiner, and of San Francisco, Arlo Smith, waged a wild race for the Democratic nomination for attorney general. On the Republican side, former congressman Dan Lungren took his party’s nomination without opposition.

Secretary of State Eu sought nomination to a fifth term, and Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig asked for election to a third.

In Los Angeles County, two seats on the embattled Board of Supervisors were up for election.

For the 1st District seat left vacant by the retirement of veteran Pete Schabarum, his former aide Sarah Flores sought to become the first Latino to hold the office of supervisor. Other contenders for the San Gabriel Valley seat were former congressman Jim Lloyd and Superior Court Judge Greg O’Brien, who was Schabarum’s hand-picked successor.

In the other contest, Supervisor Ed Edelman ran for a fifth four-year term in the 3rd District, which includes East Los Angeles, Hollywood, West Los Angeles and part of the San Fernando Valley.

The results of both, however, are clouded by a federal judge’s ruling Monday that supervisorial district boundaries discriminate against Latinos.

In other county races, Sheriff Sherman Block and Assessor John J. Lynch both sought reelection.

Voters along the mountainous Malibu coast were voting on whether to become Los Angeles County’s 87th city.

The incorporation drive was the culmination of a long-running battle between area residents and the county Board of Supervisors. Cityhood advocates complained that the county has allowed too much development in the chic locale. If the 20,000-resident city is approved, voters also chose five new council members from among 30 candidates.

Meanwhile, in a race where the city-hopping hankerings of Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis became a major issue, Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson found himself fighting for his political survival against a field of younger opponents.

Leading the attack on the 75-year-old Wilson--the Bay Area city’s first black mayor--were two Democratic “young Turks,” Assemblyman Elihu Harris and City Councilman Wilson Riles Jr. Both attacked Wilson for his part in a failed, $600-million-plus deal to lure the Raiders back to Oakland.

Times staff writers Cathleen Decker and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this story.