L.A. Lawmaker to Run in 24th : Politics: Democratic Rep. Anthony Beilenson turns to a proposed 2-county district to avoid a showdown with an ally.

A veteran Democratic congressman announced Thursday that he will run in a proposed new congressional district that lumps Thousand Oaks with southwestern portions of Los Angeles County, giving Democrats a strong contender in the tossup district.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) said he decided to run in the proposed 24th Congressional District to avoid a costly primary battle with powerful Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) in Los Angeles’ Westside.

His announcement set off a political chain reaction among Democrats, knocking three other potential candidates out of the race. Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles City Council members Zev Yaroslavsky and Joy Picus--all of whom had expressed interest in the new 24th District seat--said they would defer to Beilenson and drop their own campaign plans.

Republican strategists said this week that they are still hoping a prominent figure will emerge as a prospective candidate. Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) and former Ventura County Supervisor Madge Schaefer are considering the race. International trade consultant Jim Salomon of Beverly Hills and businessman Sang Korman of Calabasas said they will seek the GOP nomination.

Beilenson had pondered the politically painful decision for weeks after a state Supreme Court-appointed panel last month proposed a new congressional district with political territory now represented by both he and Waxman.

By moving to the 24th Congressional District, Beilenson will be campaigning in a district considered a tossup because it is nearly equally split between Republican and Democratic voters.

As proposed, the boundaries link Thousand Oaks to Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Malibu, Hidden Hills and part of Los Angeles. The court is expected to adopt a fundamentally similar plan later this month, although congressional Democrats have filed a legal challenge to it.

McClintock, a conservative, maintained that Beilenson’s decision won’t affect his plans. But he quickly fired a shot at Beilenson.

“He has a lot of explaining to do to middle-class, suburban voters,” McClintock said, citing “16 years of tax increases (and) opposition to liberation of Kuwait” by the United States and its allies last year.

Democratic activists greeted Beilenson’s decision with relief. In addition to avoiding a divisive knockdown battle between two party stalwarts, it improves the Democrats’ chances of winning a marginal seat that is expected to be a priority for both parties.

“Tony Beilenson and I are allies on most issues. We’ve been friends for over 30 years, and the idea of running against each other was a terrible one,” Waxman said. “I’m going to do everything I can to help him get elected, and I’m sure all Democrats will unite to make this a priority.”

Waxman, a partner with Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) in a potent Westside-San Fernando Valley political alliance, said he and Beilenson did not discuss any assistance that he and Berman might provide before Beilenson made his decision. Beilenson and Berman reiterated the point.

“They knew, too, that I was having a difficult decision to make, and, to their credit . . . they understood what I was going through and they gave me some space and some time,” Beilenson said of his Westside colleagues.

Many of Beilenson’s current constituents would wind up in a heavily Democratic Westside district that also had included the heart of Waxman’s Hollywood-based district. At the same time, about 55% of Beilenson’s constituents would be in a new Republican-leaning district extending from Sherman Oaks and Canoga Park in the West Valley and westward through Malibu and Thousand Oaks in Ventura County.

“Either race would involve a great amount of personal effort and a great amount of money,” Beilenson said during a news conference at the Valley Hilton Hotel in Sherman Oaks.

“When I asked myself whether I preferred to apply all my energy and the help of our friends to defeating a fellow Democrat with whom I agree on so many important issues, or to assuring that my constituents in the San Fernando Valley, Malibu and Topanga continue to have good representation, the decision became clear.”

Later, Beilenson, who has represented parts of the Westside since he was first elected to the state Assembly in 1962, said that even if he had prevailed in an uphill primary contest against the politically powerful Waxman, “I’d feel terrible in many respects.”

Miller reported from Washington and Cheevers from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss in Ventura contributed to this story.