ELECTIONS / 24th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : McClintock Faces a Surprisingly Stiff Challenge

Assemblyman Tom McClintock, seeking to take his hard-edged brand of anti-tax conservatism to Washington, faces a surprisingly stiff test in the June 2 Republican primary.

McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) finds himself in a crowded congressional field in the newly drawn 24th District that extends from Sherman Oaks through the south and west San Fernando Valley to Malibu and up through Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks in Ventura County.

He is opposed by eight other Republicans. The party’s nominee will challenge eight-term Los Angeles Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Registered voters are evenly divided--45% Democratic and 44% Republican--in the largely suburban district, which is dominated by middle-class and affluent Anglo homeowners. It is considered Republican-leaning since Republicans tend to turn out in heavier numbers and to be more loyal party voters.

In general, the district’s voters appear to be fiscally conservative and socially progressive. Residents overwhelmingly backed the tax-cutting Proposition 13, but various polls indicate that they heavily favor abortion rights and are concerned about the environment. In addition, as many as 20% of registered voters are Jewish and tend to be high-turnout Democrats or Republicans who are more liberal on social issues.

The November election is expected to be one of the most hotly contested in the state. Beilenson, the former head of the House intelligence committee, has represented 55% of the new district for a decade. He hopes to raise close to $500,000 and has $182,751 thus far, campaign consultant Craig Miller said.

McClintock, 35, who has been his party’s most vitriolic critic of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson’s fiscal policies, including the 1991 tax increases to close a huge budget deficit, is largely running on his record of voting to reduce government spending and oppose tax increases. He is also stressing his anti-crime initiatives, including his proposal to replace the gas chamber with lethal injection for state executions.

“The public is looking for representatives who will stand by their word, stand by their campaign promises, and . . . I have very dramatically stood by promises to cut government spending and cut the tax burden that has crushed American families,” McClintock said.

But at a time of widespread dissatisfaction with politics-as-usual, McClintock’s opponents are trying to turn his experience against him by painting him as a longtime insider and a right-wing extremist. He was first elected to the Assembly in 1982 at age 26 after serving as chief of staff to state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita).

“If you looked in the dictionary and it said ‘career politician,’ I think you’d have a picture of Tom McClintock,” candidate Jim Salomon, a Calabasas trade consultant, said during a Century Cable televised debate last month.

McClintock’s response is that he has been on “a crusade” to reduce the size of government and was the first legislator to support Proposition 140, which limited state lawmakers’ terms. Those positions, and his intense, often abrasive style, have antagonized some fellow Republicans within his district as well as in Sacramento.

McClintock has long wanted to go to Congress. He contemplated seeking an open seat in 1986 but backed out because he believed that attorney Tony Hope, entertainer Bob Hope’s son, would be too formidable in the primary. McClintock was deeply remorseful when Hope ran a lackluster campaign and lost to former Simi Valley Mayor Elton Gallegly.

At this point, none of the Republican candidates are well known districtwide. Even McClintock, who represents one-fifth of the district’s voters in the Assembly, still must introduce himself to most people in the district. About 73% of its 125,553 registered Republicans are in Los Angeles County.

McClintock’s two major opponents are Sang Korman, a wealthy Calabasas entrepreneur who lost two previous GOP primaries against Gallegly, and Salomon, who fared badly in two general-election races against Beilenson.

By most accounts, Korman, 54, has emerged as McClintock’s chief rival. The conservative Korean-American immigrant, who made a fortune developing shopping centers in downtown Los Angeles, has put together a high-powered campaign team and has already sent five slickly produced mailings and 40,000 individually addressed letters to registered Republicans.

He has touted his opposition to tax increases and to the Equal Rights Amendment.

Korman spent $550,000 of his own funds in his two previous races and has vowed to endow this campaign with “whatever it takes to win.” Neither Korman nor his handlers will divulge the campaign budget, but he had loaned it another $130,000 as of April 1.

Korman “has the ability to package himself in a very expensive media campaign,” McClintock said. “And, although he has no creditability as a candidate and no constituency base within the district, the ability to spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on media makes him a formidable candidate.”

Korman’s consultants have attempted to make virtue of necessity. Seeking to capitalize on their candidate’s status as the ultimate outsider, they have sent one brochure invoking Jimmy Stewart in Frank Capra’s classic film, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” It depicts Korman, whose English remains clipped and so heavily accented that he is sometimes difficult to understand, as “another Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

They have also attacked McClintock in another mailer for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from special-interest political action committees. McClintock, who raises a large percentage of his money from political action committees, says he expects to spend $200,000 on the primary.

Korman said he would not accept any such special-interest money, which he says is given “to influence the votes of politicians.” For many candidates, that kind of purity would be expensive. That is not true for Korman, however. He can cite only one political action committee contribution he has been offered in his three campaigns--$1,500 that he returned to a Korean committee.

Korman has been knocking on doors for months, seeking to win, one by one, some of the 25,000 to 35,000 votes political experts say will be needed to win the primary.

Salomon, 36, has shelved his business and moved from Beverly Hills to a Calabasas apartment to run. In previous campaigns he has raised large sums but has been criticized for spending relatively little of it on direct voter contact. He won only 34% of the vote in 1990--2% less than the district’s GOP registration.

Salomon said he hopes to raise $250,000 for the 1992 race but acknowledged that the effect of the recession makes hitting his goal “a major effort.”

Salomon is a moderate Republican who supports a woman’s right to an abortion, strong environmental protection, education reform and mass transit for Los Angeles. He has attacked McClintock as being out of touch with mainstream Republican voters as well as for taking a partially taxpayer-funded trip to Washington for a Supreme Court hearing on Proposition 13.

“He’s an anti-environment, anti-education, anti-choice, anti-flood control career politician who claims he’s the taxpayer’s friend but then spends taxpayer money on a trip to Washington where he could have no opportunity for any input,” Salomon said.

McClintock responded that he voted against statewide bond issues for school construction and flood-control projects because such initiatives should be handled at the local level. He said he went to Washington for the Proposition 13 hearing with other anti-tax leaders.

On abortion, McClintock said he does not favor proposals to outlaw the practice, but he opposes government funding for abortions for poor women and favors restrictions such as requiring parental or spousal consent and a 24-hour waiting period. He also backs the so-called “gag rule” prohibiting abortion counseling at federally funded clinics.

McClintock considers himself “pro-life” and is supported by the National Right to Life Committee of Southern California and opposed by the California Abortion Rights Action League. Korman opposes abortions except in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is in danger. He is seeking to emphasize McClintock’s refusal to call for such a prohibition.

The other candidates start out as political unknowns or lesser known.

Attorney Nicholas T. Hariton of Sherman Oaks also casts himself as a moderate Republican who favors abortion rights. He maintains that McClintock’s conservatism and Salomon’s past losses make him the most viable candidate in November. Hariton, 35, says he has raised nearly $80,000, including $20,000 that he’s loaned the campaign.

Bill Spillane, a Thousand Oaks airline pilot who ran for Congress in Hawaii in 1978, is touting his experience as a decorated fighter pilot and stressing the need for fresh political faces. He is relying heavily on his own funds and expects to spend $50,000 to $100,000.

Rob Meyer is promoting his two military tours in Vietnam and stint as a volunteer for Desert Storm and his background running small businesses and practicing real estate law as “the right kind of experience.” Meyer, an Encino attorney, says he’s raised $60,000.

The other Republican candidates are Harry Wachtel, a West Hills attorney; Stephen M. Weiss, a Calabasas attorney and business consultant, and Robert Colaco, a Van Nuys businessman. John Paul Lindblad, a North Hollywood health environment architect, is the Peace and Freedom candidate.

Beilenson will be running for the first time without his liberal base of support on the Westside of Los Angeles. He decided to run in the 24th District after the Westside portion of his current 23rd District was combined with the heart of a district now represented by politically powerful Los Angeles Democrat Henry A. Waxman.

He has been keeping a heavy schedule, meeting with community groups in both the Valley and Ventura County, Beilenson consultant Miller said. He has also been raising money more aggressively than he has previously, although he is continuing his policy of not taking contributions from political action committees.

“I feel fairly comfortable that we can withstand a challenge from whoever the Republicans put up,” Miller said, declining to state a preference.

Congressional District 24

Overview: For more than a decade, Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) has represented parts of the San Fernando Valley. But now he is running in a district that has no Westside communities, where he has enjoyed strong support. Beilenson faces no primary opposition in the district, which includes Thousand Oaks. Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) and eight other Republicans are vying for the right to challenge Beilenson in the November election. Although the district has slightly more Democrats than Republicans, it is considered a swing district.

Where: The district includes Oak Park and Thousand Oaks in Ventura County and the Los Angeles County communities of Agoura, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Encino, Hidden Hills, Malibu, Tarzana, Topanga and Westlake Village, and portions of Chatsworth, Northridge, Reseda, West Hills and Woodland Hills. To find out if you live in the district, call the Ventura County elections office at 654-2781.

Demographics Anglo: 78% Latino: 13% Black: 2% Asian: 6%

Party Registration Demo: 45% GOP: 44% Others: 11%

Candidates: Democrat Anthony C. Beilenson, congressman Peace and Freedom John Paul Lindblad, environmental health-care architect Republican Robert Colaco, businessman, computerized bookkeeping Nicholas T. Hariton, attorney, businessman Sang R. Korman, businessman Rob Meyer, attorney, Navy reservist Tom McClintock, assemblyman Jim Salomon, national trade adviser Robert Spillane, airline fighter pilot Harry Wachtel, attorney Stephen M. Weiss, attorney, business consultant