Developer Korman to Again Challenge Gallegly for Congress

Sang Korman, a Korean immigrant who two years ago spent $245,000 of his own money but got only 13% of the vote in a race against Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), announced Thursday that he will try again this June.

Korman said he was not discouraged by his poor showing in 1988, but rather had learned from his mistakes. He acknowledged that the campaign will be an uphill battle, but said he was ready to invest in himself once again.

“I love this country. It gives me so much,” said the 52-year-old Calabasas developer, who said he came to the United States nearly penniless 18 years ago. “I’m so pleased to spend my own money to be elected.”

Korman rehired the campaign manager he had in 1988, Bob Lavoie, who said this time more money will be spent on publicity, such as mailers, and less on overhead. Lavoie said “an inordinate amount of money”--about half of the $350,000 spent in 1988--went for an office and staff.

“This time we’re a lean, mean machine,” he said after a news conference at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza hotel.

Brad Durrell, Korman’s press secretary, said the candidate deliberately waited until April to kick off his campaign for the June 4 GOP primary, hoping that a shorter campaign will concentrate the effects of their publicity spending and draw more media attention.

Korman said this time he intends to concentrate on the differences between himself and Gallegly, who is in his second term. He criticized Gallegly for accepting contributions from political action committees--”I will never take money from any PAC”--and for voting for the congressional pay raise--”I will introduce and urge passage of a bill to repeal the unjustified pay hike.

“How can he say no to increasing the minimum wage and say yes to a pay raise for himself?” Korman asked at the news conference. “I cannot understand his logic.”

Korman’s more aggressive stance is a reaction to what he called “hit pieces” in the 1988 primary--flyers Gallegly mailed out close to the primary election date that described Korman as being “active with leftist anti-government groups as a youth.”

A liberal past could be a damning handicap in the Republican primary in the conservative 21st Congressional District. Korman maintains that although he did oppose South Korea’s right-wing dictatorship, he was never a leftist. His list of American allegiances, distributed Thursday, include the staunchly conservative Republican National Committee and the National Rifle Assn.

Only a handful of Korean-Americans live in the 21st District. Korman’s final 1988 campaign contribution tally showed that he raised most of his money from Korean-Americans outside the district, some from as far away as San Francisco.

Durrell said Korean-Americans have donated a significant portion of the $130,000 that he estimated has been raised so far.

“We’d like to point to that with some pride,” Durrell said. “There’s a lot of pride in the Korean community. This is a self-made man who has come over here and beaten the odds.”