Rep. Beilenson to Run for New Valley District Seat : Politics: Veteran Democratic lawmaker’s current region was divided up in reapportionment.

Veteran Democratic Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson announced Thursday that he will run in a proposed new district in the West San Fernando Valley and Ventura County this year, avoiding a costly primary battle with powerful Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) on Los Angeles’ Westside.

Beilenson had pondered the politically painful decision for weeks after a panel appointed by the state Supreme Court proposed new congressional district maps last month, carving up his current district. The court is expected to adopt the basic features of that plan later this month, although congressional Democrats have filed a legal challenge to it.

Beilenson currently represents much of the Westside and the central and western San Fernando Valley--including Canoga Park, Woodland Hills, Reseda and parts of Encino.

Under the proposed changes, many of Beilenson’s current Westside constituents would wind up in a heavily Democratic district that includes the heart of Waxman’s Hollywood-based district. At the same time, about 55% of Beilenson’s constituents were put in the new Republican-leaning district that extends from Sherman Oaks and Canoga Park in the Valley 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.”

Beilenson, who has represented parts of the Westside since he was first elected to the state Assembly in 1962, maintained that he could win in either new district. But he said later that even if he had prevailed in an uphill primary contest against the politically formidable Waxman, “I’d feel terrible in many respects.”

Beilenson, 59, also vowed to continue his policy of not accepting special-interest contributions from political action committees even though he will need to raise considerably more campaign funds for his reelection race this year. He said he expected to spend about $400,000 by November--double his total for the 1990 election.

Beilenson’s announcement, anxiously awaited by Democrats, set off a political chain reaction, knocking three other potential candidates out of the race. Democratic Assemblyman Burt Margolin of 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.

Although international trade consultant Jim Salomon of Beverly Hills and businessman Sang Korman of Calabasas have said they will seek the GOP nomination, some Republican strategists said this week that they are still hoping for a prominent figure to emerge as a prospective candidate.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) and former Ventura County Supervisor Madge Schaefer also are considering the race on the Republican side.

McClintock, a conservative, maintained that Beilenson’s decision won’t affect his plans. But he quickly fired a shot across the liberal Beilenson’s bow--a likely prelude to GOP attacks on the veteran Democrat.

“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 knock-down 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,” said Waxman, a veteran of more than three decades of Westside politics. “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 aid that Waxman and Berman might provide before Beilenson made his decision. Margolin, a Waxman-Berman associate, said Beilenson is “very strong and I have no interest in challenging an incumbent.”

Yaroslavsky, who had already formed a campaign committee and started raising money for a 24th District race, said, “In a sense I’m disappointed that I won’t have the opportunity, but I’m delighted that we won’t have two senior Democrats running against each other.”

Picus, meanwhile, said it would be “very destructive for Democrats to run against each other.”

Beilenson’s current district is 53% Democratic. The proposed new district includes additional Democratic precincts in Sherman Oaks and Encino, but also brings in conservative parts of the West Valley, Calabasas, Agoura Hills and most of staunchly Republican Thousand Oaks.

Overall, registered Democrats would make up 45.6% and Republicans 43.5% of the new district.

But Democratic political consultant Parke Skelton maintained that the new 24th District could be more promising than it first appears for Beilenson. Skelton said that although the new district has fewer Democrats than Beilenson’s current district, suburban Democrats tend to be highly loyal and likely to vote.

In addition, some Democratic strategists say that 24th District residents tend to favor abortion rights and be pro-environment. Beilenson wrote the measure legalizing abortion in California and has fought for federal funds to buy land in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

But Republicans contend that Beilenson faces some harsh new realities. Salomon, who lost decisively to Beilenson in 1988 and 1990, said the incumbent is “incredibly vulnerable” because he supports a 50-cents-a-gallon increase in the gasoline tax phased in over five years and opposed U. S. military action against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

GOP political consultant Paul Clarke of Northridge jokingly compared Beilenson to “a condemned man who’s given the choice of whether he wants to be hung or shot. He didn’t run against Waxman because he’d lose. Now he’s going to come out here where he has a minimal chance of winning.”