Kathleen Brown Seen as Top Governor Hopeful : Politics: Democratic state chairman regards the state treasurer as the party’s best hope against Wilson in 1994. Garamendi is also expected to enter primary.

Democratic State Chairman Phil Angelides said Friday that at this early stage--22 months before the 1994 election--state Treasurer Kathleen Brown represents the party’s best hope of wresting the California governorship from Republican Pete Wilson.

But Angelides said he also expects state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi to seek the Democratic nomination for governor in the June, 1994, primary. “John is bright. He is capable. . . . He’s a good campaigner and he works very hard.”

The California governorship will be the biggest electoral prize in 1994. It will be an attention-getter as Brown seeks, as expected, to join Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as members of a female Democratic trio holding the state’s three highest electoral offices.

Wilson, 59, the former San Diego mayor and U.S. senator, has signaled aides and supporters that he will seek a second term in spite of plummeting political popularity during 1992 and a governorship that has been beset by economic crisis, natural disaster and riots.

Democrats may be euphoric after their 1992 victories, but Angelides said the governorship will not be theirs by default.

“The real test will be whether we can motivate voters to believe, like we did in the national election, that we are capable of governing,” Angelides said. “And that’s going to be a long, hard road.”

Brown and Garamendi are maneuvering toward gubernatorial candidacies, but neither is expected to make a formal announcement for some months. Angelides said he believes that they will be the only two major Democratic candidates in the contest.

State party officials usually remain neutral in preprimary battles, but Angelides, 39, a Sacramento developer, did nothing to hide his personal leanings toward Brown, 50. She is the daughter of former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown and the sister of former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., the only Democrats to win the governorship in the past half-century.

“Clearly the best possibility on our side appears at this moment to be Kathleen Brown,” Angelides said during a breakfast meeting with political reporters. “She comes from a background and she comes from a place in her life where she expects California to be the best and would want it to be the best.”

Angelides indicated that he would like to be on an election ticket headed by Brown. He said he will decide within the next two weeks whether to run in 1994 for state treasurer or lieutenant governor.

In terms of visibility, personal popularity and results, Angelides, a onetime state legislative aide, has been the most successful party chairman in decades. He took over a fragmented and dispirited Democratic structure from Jerry Brown two years ago and helped lead it to the biggest victory since 1958.

Angelides will not seek reelection at the Democratic State Convention in Sacramento in April. Speculation about a successor is focusing on Bill Press, an unsuccessful candidate for insurance commissioner in 1990 and now a Los Angeles television political commentator and radio talk show host.

Angelides described Wilson as “a terrible, dysfunctional governor,” but cautioned Democrats not to underestimate the difficulty of unseating him. “There’s nothing to say that this guy, who’s on the mat right now, can’t climb back. . . . He’s a very dogged guy.”

Among Democrats, Brown “has the greatest potential at this moment, but it is clearly unproven,” Angelides said.

In 1992, Angelides said, “I saw her doing a lot of things that you expect of a leader, which is helping good candidates around the state get elected.”

A reporter suggested that this was “inside” politics of little interest to the average voter, but Angelides responded: “It starts inside and it moves outside.”

Brown has gotten considerable attention since she began running for treasurer in her first statewide campaign in 1990. She defeated appointed GOP incumbent Thomas Hayes by fewer than 300,000 votes.

Garamendi, a 16-year veteran of the Legislature from the Sierra foothills, became the first elected insurance commissioner by 1 million votes.