Gallegly Gears Up Early for Race Against Perennial Foe : Elections: Incumbent congressman blasts undeclared candidate Sang Korman in a fund-raising letter.

Republican challenger Sang Korman has yet to declare his candidacy in a district that has yet to be drawn, but Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) has already come out swinging.

In a now perennial GOP primary battle in eastern Ventura County and the western and northern San Fernando Valley, Gallegly and Korman are heading toward Round 3 in June--with the gloves off.

Gallegly, a three-term lawmaker, has sent a letter to several thousand past contributors asking them to fortify him for a well-funded challenge by Korman, a Calabasas businessmen who has vowed to oppose the incumbent for the third time.

The letter seeks help against “a personal vendetta” and “dirty campaign” by an opponent “who seems determined to buy a seat in Congress.”

In the process, Gallegly blasts “the liberal media” and invokes the name of Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco, who he speculates must “love every minute” of Korman’s campaign run by consultants who have been affiliated with the Democratic Party.

“I’ve got to work now to build my campaign funds so that I’ll be ready when the mudslinging comes,” Gallegly wrote. “Please send your maximum contribution today!”

Korman responded this week by suggesting that the congressman doth protest too much.

“Elton Gallegly is already running scared, and I haven’t even started campaigning yet,” Korman said in a news release distributed with a copy of Gallegly’s letter. “The only thing Gallegly didn’t accuse me of is having been born with a silver spoon in my mouth.”

In an interview, Gallegly said that his appeal was appropriate “when you had somebody who spent $1 million against you of his own money and said he’s going to do it again. Certainly, it’s a very common fund-raising mechanism to prepare yourself for a race.”

Korman, a Korean-American immigrant who gained wealth in commercial real estate in Los Angeles, spent $871,663 against Gallegly in the 1988 and 1990 primary races combined, according to Federal Election Commission records.

In the process, he loaned his campaign a total of $560,429 and contributed another $1,000, records show.

A total of $559,139 has not been repaid, according to Korman’s most recent campaign report.

During the same four-year period, Gallegly’s campaign spent $914,978 in primary and general elections in the heavily Republican 21st District.

He has faced only token Democratic opposition but maintains a campaign headquarters throughout the two-year election cycle.

Korman, a political neophyte, won just 13.9% of the vote in the 21st District in 1988.

But, aided by anti-incumbent sentiment that cut lawmakers’ victory margins nationwide, Korman improved his total to 32% in 1990.

Gallegly’s tally, meanwhile, dropped from 82% to 68%.

Given the national picture, Gallegly maintained that the drop “shouldn’t be anything to be alarmed about.”

Nevertheless, politicians familiar with the process say, Gallegly sought to have Korman’s home community of Calabasas removed from his new district during the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional boundaries following the 1990 census.

The reapportionment is now in the hands of a court-appointed panel that is expected to put forward its plan later this month.

Korman, who has yet to announce his intentions formally but has told reporters that he plans to run, promised to relocate if necessary to continue his pursuit of Gallegly’s seat.

But a spokesman denied Friday that Korman bears a personal grudge against the lawmaker.

“After reading his letter,” Korman’s statement concluded, “it is clear to me that it is Elton Gallegly who has decided to begin his reelection campaign by making personal attacks on me.”