ELECTIONS / 24TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Leader Withdraws GOP Organization’s Backing of Korman

In an unusual rebuke, the president of California’s largest conservative Republican organization has withdrawn an endorsement of GOP congressional candidate Sang Korman.

But Korman’s campaign consultant said the head of the California Republican Assembly had no authority to take that action and that Korman will continue to use the endorsement in his campaign.

Korman is among eight Republicans battling for their party’s nomination in the newly created 24th Congressional District, which encompasses Thousand Oaks and portions of the west San Fernando Valley. Korman, a wealthy Calabasas entrepreneur, has run unsuccessfully for Congress twice before.

Korman won the group’s seal of approval April 18 at a meeting in Camarillo attended by delegates representing five local chapters. Republican Assembly activists have long been instrumental in electing conservatives, including Ronald Reagan, in California and its endorsement is coveted by right-wing politicians.

Shortly after receiving the endorsement, Korman mailed out tens of thousands of brochures touting the endorsement to registered Republicans in the 24th District.

But California Republican Assembly President Michael J. Schroeder, a Santa Ana attorney, said Tuesday that three of the five chapters that voted on the Korman endorsement were never chartered and therefore do not officially exist.

Schroeder said he became suspicious of efforts to charter the three chapters--representing activists in Calabasas, Chatsworth-Northridge and Tarzana-Reseda--after noticing that membership lists from the different units bore similar names and addresses.

The three chapters were approved for membership at the group’s annual meeting in Newport Beach on April 5, Schroeder said. But they failed to turn in their membership lists to the assembly’s secretary, meaning they did not receive charters, he said.

Schroeder said the unchartered units all voted for Korman at the Camarillo meeting, allowing him to beat out other candidates, including Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), the best-known of the GOP candidates. Korman received 10 votes to three for Van Nuys businessman Robert Colaco and two for McClintock.

Another reason for the endorsement’s cancellation, Schroeder said, was that a legitimate local chapter--representing the mid-San Fernando Valley--should have participated in the endorsement vote but was not notified of the meeting. That unit is in the 24th District and should have voted under the group’s bylaws, he said.

Schroeder said that even after being told that the endorsement was being invalidated, Korman’s campaign sent out the mailers indicating that he had received it. He also charged that the whole affair was engineered by Korman’s campaign manager, Mark Thompson, who Schroeder said solicited local Republicans to join the new chapters.

“I think it stinks. I think that trying to preempt the volunteer process, and the way it was done here, is fairly cynical,” he said.

Thompson said he was at the Newport Beach convention but denied any involvement with the three chapters. He added that the mid-Valley chapter is inactive and its absence from the endorsement meeting is no reason to cancel the endorsement.

However, Thompson said it is common practice for conservative politicians to organize Republican Assembly units that support them in a bid to win the organization’s endorsement.

Korman’s campaign consultant, Carlos Rodriguez, charged that Schroeder does not have the authority to throw out the endorsement and pledged to appeal the action at a meeting of the group in July.

In the meantime, he said, Korman will keep using the endorsement.

“We got the endorsement and we got it legitimately,” he said.

Rodriguez charged that Schroeder withdrew it because he was pressured by McClintock.

“McClintock’s crying foul . . . What you’ve got here is a young guy who’s a career politician and he’s used to getting his way,” Rodriguez said.

Schroeder said he did receive complaints from McClintock and others but denied bowing to any pressure.

“I don’t need anything from McClintock. . . . He’s not in a position to pressure me,” Schroeder said.

McClintock also charged that Korman was behind the creation of the three new units, calling it a “somewhat pathetic” maneuver.

Schroeder said that he was unaware of any California Republican Assembly endorsement being withdrawn in the four years he has been a statewide officer.

Whoever wins the GOP nomination will face veteran Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) in November.