Beilenson, Gallegly Expect Fall Campaigns to Be Easier

Fresh from overwhelming primary victories, Reps. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Tarzana) and Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) say they are looking forward to fall campaign challenges that will be neither as costly nor as vigorous as the battle for their party’s nomination.

Both incumbents emerged from Tuesday’s balloting strengthened with landslides of 5 to 1 or more despite being heavily outspent by political unknowns. Their opponents’ attacks in campaign mailings apparently failed to erode their solid partisan bases of support.

Beilenson won 84.1% of the 23rd District vote, while his challenger, West Hollywood businessman Val Marmillion, got 15.9%, according to complete but unofficial returns. Beilenson received 66,094 votes; Marmillion 12,476.

Gallegly tallied 82% in the 21st District to trounce his major opponent, Newbury Park real-estate devel oper Sang Korman, who received 13.9%. The remaining 4.1% went to David Desko, a Canoga Park caterer. Gallegly won 55,721 votes, Korman, 9,467, and Desko, 2,774.

The Democratic turnout in the affluent 23rd District, which extends from West Hollywood to Malibu and over the Santa Monica Mountains to the West San Fernando Valley, was 49.8% of registered voters. The Republican turnout in the suburban 21st District, which includes southern Ventura County and parts of the West San Fernando Valley, was 42%. Statewide, turnout was 47%.

In another contested Republican primary in the 43rd Assembly District, Beverly Hills attorney Tom Franklin bested Sherman Oaks attorney Edward Brown, getting 71.9% of the vote to Brown’s 28.1%. Franklin received 13,151 votes and Brown 5,147 in an extremely light turnout of 28.4%.

In the fall, Franklin, 29, faces freshman Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Tarzana), who will enter the campaign with an enormous fund-raising and name-identification advantage in a district where Democrats have a 53.9% to 36.1% registration advantage.

Beilenson, 55, seeking a seventh term, will face Republican businessman Jim Salomon of Beverly Hills, a political unknown, in the fall. Beilenson won 66% of the vote in the 1986 general election in the moderately Democratic district against a well-financed GOP opponent.

“I don’t expect the challenger to be a serious one,” Beilenson said Wednesday as he returned to Washington.

“If somehow I had not done very well yesterday, Republicans might think there’s some vulnerability there, and there would have been the prospect of them contributing a decent amount of money to Mr. Salomon. I hope this will discourage my Republican opponent.”

Salomon, 32, responded: “I’m not in the slightest bit discouraged. This is the most Republican district in the state that’s represented by a Democrat. . . . I believe it is a winnable campaign.”

Salomon said his fund raising “is actually going as planned” and stands at $15,000.

Gallegly, 44, an ex-Simi Valley mayor running for a second term, will be opposed by Democratic attorney Donald E. Stevens of Westlake Village. Stevens, who plans to limit his campaign contributions, says he has raised less than $5,000. Gallegly won 68% of the vote in the 1986 general election, in one of the most staunchly Republican districts in the state.

Though he vowed to campaign hard, Gallegly said during his victory celebration Tuesday, “Everything else being equal, a victory in the primary is tantamount to a victory in the general” for a Republican in the 21st District.

Stevens, 56, said Wednesday that if Gallegly is so confident of reelection, “he should be willing to enter into an agreement to restrict the level of expenditures as a waste of people’s money.”

Beilenson and Gallegly were expected to be renominated. But they said the margins of victory took even them by surprise, particularly since each was outspent. Marmillion, who won accolades as a political consultant in his previous home state of Louisiana, said he spent $130,000; Beilenson reported spending $75,000.

Gallegly placed his campaign budget at $165,000; Korman said his campaign cost $330,000. Korman lent his campaign $245,000, which he said represents a quarter of his net worth.

For all their money and effort, both challengers did only slightly better than they would have been expected to do without any campaigning, political analysts said. GOP pollster Arnold Steinberg said an unknown candidate in a primary race generally starts out with an anti-incumbent vote of at least 10% to 12% in most polls.

This is supported by the results of two previous Beilenson primary races. Two 1986 Democratic opponents, each of whom spent less than $10,000 in low-profile campaigns, won a total of 12% of the vote--only about 4% less than Marmillion’s total. A 1984 primary challenger who spent less than $5,000 also won 12%.

Marmillion, who said Wednesday he had not realistically expected to win, vowed to remain active politically and left the door open to opposing Beilenson again in 1990. Korman, an immigrant from South Korea and a political novice who insisted he would beat Gallegly, said he did not plan to seek office again.

Marmillion, 38, had cast his campaign as an effort to foster a grass-roots political movement on the Westside. He told about 100 volunteers at his campaign headquarters Tuesday:

“I’m convinced this campaign is the beginning of a movement in Southern California. . . . If you want a better world, if you want a better country, then you’re going to have to take the obligation upon yourselves that you have the last four months and maybe say it will take four years.”

Marmillion, who will join the Ogilvy & Mather advertising firm as a senior vice president next month, said in an interview he is uncertain what form that activism will take. He pledged to back Beilenson this fall but didn’t rule out a future primary bid.

“If it seems an appropriate way for us to go to continue getting our message out, it will be a consideration,” Marmillion said.

He maintained that he had neither enough time nor money to introduce himself to voters, especially in the Los Angeles media market, where television is prohibitively expensive for a congressional race.

Korman, 51, was stunned by the lopsided defeat. A political novice who became a U.S. citizen only eight years ago, he hired Marathon Communications, a respected Los Angeles-based political consulting firm, and stumped door-to-door daily since February.

Shortly after voting Tuesday, he again predicted victory, adding “If I lose, it will be by a very small margin.”

In his concession speech to about 50 Korean-American friends, campaign staff and youthful volunteers, Korman pledged to support Gallegly, calling upon “all loyal Republicans to unite behind him and our party and work for victory in November.”

Then, he said, “Tonight I believe more strongly than ever that in America nothing is impossible. Working with all of you in this campaign has shown me that. Tonight my impossible dream lives.”

Wednesday morning, a subdued Korman said he was at a loss to explain the outcome. He said he had sent Gallegly a congratulatory $100 bouquet of flowers and planned to spend the afternoon on the golf course.

Complete election results in Part I; Pages 24, 25 and 26.