Voter Choices May Reshape the Assembly : Legislature: Democrats are fighting to keep control. On the GOP side, moderates and conservatives battle each other.

With new district lines scrambling the political map and term limits in effect for the first time, California voters on Tuesday chose the combatants who will fight in November for control of the state Assembly, which has been in Democratic hands for more than two decades.

All 80 seats in the Legislature’s lower house were up for grabs, and in 24 districts, no incumbents were on the ballot.

In early returns, several of the Republican races were shaping up as battles between moderate candidates endorsed by Gov. Pete Wilson and a list of more conservative hopefuls with the backing of a group of Assembly Republicans who have been at odds with the governor.

In the 37th District in Ventura County, Wilson-backed Nao Takasugi, the Oxnard mayor trying to become the only Japanese-American in the Legislature, held a slim lead in the Republican primary over former county Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer and political newcomer Alan A. Guggenheim.

Another candidate with Wilson’s blessings--Poway Mayor Jan Goldsmith--held a wide lead over anti-abortion activist Connie Youngkin in the 75th District.

But in San Diego County’s 77th District, conservative businessman Steve Baldwin had a narrow lead over former Chula Vista Mayor Greg Cox, who has worked for Wilson and had the governor’s support. And in the 44th District north of Los Angeles, conservative William E. Hoge was leading Barbara Pieper, a county school board member backed by the governor.

In Los Angeles County, two veteran Democratic assemblymen--Richard Floyd and Dave Elder--who thought they were battling each other for the right to represent the 55th District found themselves trailing Carson Councilwoman Juanita M. McDonald. The district includes Carson, Compton, Wilmington and parts of Long Beach.

With 24 open seats and several incumbents in danger of losing in the fall, this year’s elections, the first in which the winners will be limited to three two-year terms, are certain to produce one of the largest turnovers in the history of the Assembly. After district lines were redrawn in 1981, the following year’s elections sent 24 new faces to the Assembly.

The primary selections will set up a showdown in the fall between the Republicans, led by Wilson, and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown’s Democrats. In speeches to business and community groups throughout the state, Wilson all year has been calling on voters to throw out the Democrats because, he says, they have blocked his efforts to enact new laws on automobile insurance, workers’ compensation, forestry regulation and other issues.

In the primaries, Wilson wanted to nominate Republicans who shared his support for abortion rights and more moderate stands on government regulation and the environment.

The governor endorsed 11 non-incumbents, eight of whom were running for open seats. Four of Wilson’s chosen candidates were running against conservative Republicans backed by gun-owner groups, anti-abortion activists and conservative Assembly Republicans. The governor also backed eight incumbent Assembly members seeking reelection.

But there was some question about the value of a Wilson endorsement. One candidate in Ventura County turned it down.

Another, Assemblyman Paul Horcher of Hacienda Heights, may have been hurt by it. Horcher was fighting off a challenge in the 60th District from Diamond Bar Councilwoman Phyllis Papen. Papen aired a commercial showing a dog rolling over and a trained seal at play to deride Horcher for a key vote he cast to help Wilson enact the budget last summer.

As Horcher built a big lead in early returns, Papen complained about the lack of financial support her campaign received, particularly from Republican women.

“If Republican women want to see Republican women elected, they’re going to have to contribute to their campaigns,” she said.

In the Democratic races, three Latino factions were backing candidates for five open seats in Los Angeles County. A sixth Latino-leaning seat was expected to go to Democratic incumbent Richard Polanco of Los Angeles.

One typical Latino-dominated contest was the 46th District race between legislative aide Berta Saavedra and lawyer Louis Caldera to replace Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, who ran for Congress. Saavedra, who worked for Roybal-Allard, got backing from her boss and Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina. Caldera, on the other hand, had the support of Molina’s foe in last year’s supervisorial election, Democratic State Sen. Art. Torres of Los Angeles.

In several races around the Southland, the new district lines drawn by the state Supreme Court prompted incumbent Assembly members to battle each other in a single district or move to unfamiliar territory to seek reelection.

In the 55th District’s Democratic primary, Assemblyman Floyd of Carson, a 12-year veteran, spent an estimated $600,000, far more than his two rivals, on an aggressive mail campaign that included at least two dozen flyers sent to every household in the district. Assemblyman Elder of San Pedro focused on the reopening of that area’s Todd Shipyards--a facility that had employed more than 6,000 workers before it closed in 1989. McDonald, Carson’s first African-American councilwoman, based her campaign on an anti-incumbent appeal to voters.

In Orange County’s 67th District, three conservative Republican incumbents--Tom Mays and Nolan Frizzelle of Huntington Beach and Doris Allen of Cypress--were all seeking the GOP nomination.

Allen received more than $100,000 in the final week of the campaign, more than half of it from a committee composed of traditionally Democratic contributors. Mays complained that Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco was trying to influence the Republican primary, but Allen also got the endorsement of a group of conservative Republican leaders.

Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman, a first-term Los Angeles Democrat, moved to the San Fernando Valley to run in the 40th District after the district she had represented was shifted from its Hollywood base and Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) announced his retirement. Friedman raised more than $170,000, giving her a commanding fund-raising edge over her Democratic rivals.

The lower house now has 47 Democrats and 33 Republicans. It takes 41 votes to pass most bills and to elect a Speaker.

The GOP has not been the Assembly majority party since 1970, when former President Ronald Reagan was governor.

The Republicans could make significant gains in this fall’s general election, partly because of the reapportionment of all 80 seats by the state Supreme Court, which drew the revised district lines in a manner more favorable to Republicans.

Legislative term limits imposed by the voter passage of Proposition 140 in 1990 also helped prompt some lower-house incumbents to leave the Legislature for private life or run for Congress.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Bill Billiter, Howard Blume, Anna Cekola, Marla Cone, Sam Enriquez, Ken Garcia, Gary Gorman, Greg Hernandez, Nancy Hill-Holtzman, Bernice Hirabayashi, Richard Holguin, Barry Horstman, Lisa Macaro, Gebe Martinez, Patt Morrison, Jim Quinn, George Ramos and Mike Ward.