Brown Wins, to Face Wilson : Quake Relief Bonds Trail; Huffington Coasts : Election: ‘I will not let you down,’ the Democrat tells her supporters in the gubernatorial race. Newcomer Ron Unz is crushed in the Republican primary by the governor.

Kathleen Brown cruised to victory in the Democratic primary for governor Tuesday and said she is eager to begin a long-awaited showdown with renominated Republican Gov. Pete Wilson for the right to lead California through economic and social turbulence to the edge of the 21st Century.

State Treasurer Brown, 48, who becomes the third Brown chosen by Democrats as their gubernatorial standard-bearer in the past four decades, rode a well-heeled bandwagon to victory over Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, 49, and state Sen. Tom Hayden, 54.

Wilson, after being consigned to political oblivion by some pundits just a year ago, crushed upstart challenger Ron Unz, 32, a computer software entrepreneur who had never run for office before and spent about $2 million of his own money in a vain attempt to upset the governor.

Addressing supporters at the Los Angeles Airport Westin Hotel, Wilson said of his victory: “We have completed the first step. We are going to continue making the kind of change that will make California all that it can be and all that you deserve.”

Brown claimed victory at a Democratic Party celebration at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, telling supporters “how proud I am to be the Democratic nominee for governor. I will not let you down.”

Brown said her male opponents had teamed up against her during the primary campaign, but “I am stronger and more determined and tougher than ever, and determined to lead this party to victory in November.”

Garamendi reluctantly conceded to Brown, saying: “I suppose the die is cast and I wish Kathleen Brown well.” Hayden also congratulated Brown and urged all Democrats to unite behind her in the effort to elect what would be the party’s third governor in half a century--all of them Browns.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 60, who won the last two years of Wilson’s onetime Senate seat in 1992, was nominated by Democrats without major opposition for a full six-year term. She will face Republican Rep. Michael Huffington, 46, who defeated former Rep. William E. Dannemeyer in the GOP primary.

A generally lackluster campaign culminated Tuesday in possibly the lowest voter turnout for a California primary election since the secretary of state’s office began keeping such records in 1916. The turnout could be as low as 37% of registered voters, even smaller than acting Secretary of State Tony Miller’s official forecast of 39.8%.

In a brief talk to cheering supporters at the Los Angeles Airport Westin Hotel, Wilson did not refer directly to Brown, but said: “We have completed the first step. We are going to continue making the kind of change that will make California all that it can be and all that you deserve.”

The primary campaign was fought against the backdrop of a California in trouble: The Golden State now suffering severe recession, state services strained by illegal immigrants, and a public that is alarmed over violent crime. Since Wilson took office in 1991, California also was battered by a perplexing array of disasters, including the 1992 Los Angeles riots, floods, fires and earthquakes.

With the cachet of the Brown family name and a bi-coastal network of influential supporters, Brown established herself early as the front-runner. In mid-1993, she already had $3.5 million in her campaign treasury and by this spring, had raised about $10 million.

Wilson and Garamendi began the campaign in debt and the Hayden and Unz candidacies were not even on the horizon. Wilson also was taking a pounding in the opinion polls, suffering the lowest job approval ratings of any governor in modern California political history.

National commentators began writing Wilson’s political obituary and forecasting Brown as his successor.

Brown tried to reinforce this impression by focusing almost exclusively on Wilson, as if the primary election was already behind her. Until the final two weeks of the campaign, she virtually ignored her primary opponents, Garamendi and Hayden. She emphasized her family’s deep roots in California history and their determination to stay in the state despite adversity.

She alluded to the happier, booming days of California in the late 1960s under her father, Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr., now 89 years old and in frail health. Brown blamed Wilson for the state of the economy and adopted a theme of creating 1 million jobs in the first four years of a Kathleen Brown governorship.

Brown’s front-runner’s campaign began to backfire when it was beset by a series of miscues and questions by critics--and some prominent supporters--about her seeming lack of passion to be governor, and her inability to articulate what she would do if elected.

In response, Brown delivered a series of heavily promoted policy addresses, but they were criticized as shallow compendiums of familiar programs. Some of her proposals for reviving the California economy were strikingly similar to Wilson’s.

Finally, Brown dumped her campaign management team and hired a new strategist who repackaged her candidacy this spring under the motto of “America’s Best Treasurer to Revive America’s Worst Economy” and the theme of creating 1 million jobs. Brown went on the road via chartered bus to point out the impact the recession had on California during Wilson’s term.

Meanwhile, Wilson adopted a simple campaign strategy beginning last summer as his popularity was inching back to respectability in the polls. He used crime and illegal immigration as his key issues and dismissed Brown’s economic attacks by declaring that recovery was under way.

Wilson seized on the “three strikes and you’re out” campaign to impose tough new sentences--up to life in prison--for any criminal convicted of a third felony. The “three strikes” campaign caught fire after paroled convict Richard Allen Davis was arrested in the abduction-slaying last fall of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, who was taken from her home in Petaluma during a slumber party.

Wilson also attempted to blame much of the state’s budget problem on the federal government, charging that it was ducking its legal obligation to compensate California for the costs of providing services to illegal immigrants and their families--as much as $3 billion a year. But Congress and the White House never have provided more than a few hundred million dollars in compensation to the state, nor were they expected to.

Wilson also proposed a series of controversial restrictions on illegal immigration, including a U.S. constitutional amendment that would repeal the provision that any child born in the United States automatically enjoys U.S. citizenship, even if their parents are in the country illegally.

Wilson ignored his own primary foe, Unz--except for a single radio debate--and went after Brown, hoping to soften her up for the fall campaign.

Garamendi built his cash-poor campaign around what he called “workdays,” in which the candidate toiled by the side of some ordinary Californian for a few hours--in each of the state’s 58 counties.

The experience provided Garamendi with useful speech anecdotes, but he never afforded the sort of media campaign to make the workday idea connect with voters.

Garamendi forces also had looked forward to the three campaign debates--on consecutive days in late May--as the vehicle for a breakthrough against Brown. But Garamendi’s attacks--which were considered contrived and harsh--failed to ruffle Brown. Brown’s successful front-runner strategy was to survive the debates without making any major mistakes.

Hayden emerged as the real winner of the debates, in which he played the role of wry, avuncular conciliator between Brown and Garamendi as they pummeled each other. Hayden cited their charges and countercharges over alleged fund-raising indiscretions as absolute evidence of the need for ridding California campaigns of special interest money.

* ADDITIONAL ELECTION STORIES, TABLES: A3, A14-A18