LOCAL ELECTION ROUNDUP : Competition Returns to November Races : Congress: Voters will have ideological choices between Flores and Harman in the 36th District and Beilenson and McClintock in the 24th District.

After an absence of a decade, competitive congressional elections will return to portions of the Westside in November.

Voters in Venice, Westchester and Marina del Rey will help decide a fight to represent a GOP-leaning congressional district between Republican Joan Milke Flores and Democrat Jane Harman, who differ on abortion rights, government spending and other volatile issues.

Malibu voters, too, will be offered an ideological contrast, as liberal Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) takes on conservative Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) in a contest to represent a district where party affiliations are equally balanced between Republicans and Democrats.

Elsewhere on the Westside, congressional politics will be more of the same old stuff, with veteran Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) facing little-known Republican challenger Mark A. Robbins after picking up 84% of the Democratic primary vote against Scott M. Gaulke, a supporter of jailed political maverick Lyndon LaRouche.

Waxman’s 29th District covers an area stretching from Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades to Hollywood. In the 32nd District to the south, Rep. Julian C. Dixon, unopposed in the Democratic primary, will face no more than token opposition in November by challengers from the Libertarian and Peace and Freedom Parties.

But in the coastal 36th District, which stretches from Venice to San Pedro, it appears that Flores will be in for a serious challenge despite a comfortable 46%-41% Republican advantage in voter registration.

Some experts say her conservative ideological stance may open the door for Harman, whose motto is “Pro-Choice, Pro-Change,” to pick up some of the 31% of voters who favored former First Daughter Maureen Reagan in the crowded Republican primary.

“Republicans in this district are less doctrinaire than in Orange County,” H. Eric Schockman, a USC political science professor, said Wednesday. “In the fall, many of those voters will come to a major crossroads on the abortion question.”

But others pointed to the tendency of Republicans to turn out more strongly and show more party loyalty than Democrats.

“Whoever wins the Republican primary will be the next congressman,” said Alan Heslop, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

Flores, an 11-year Los Angeles City Council member who started out as a City Hall stenographer, won the primary with 34% of the vote despite Reagan’s better performance as a fund-raiser. Reagan collected just over $251,000 through mid-May, compared to $185,000 for Flores.

The third-place finisher in the 11-candidate GOP field was Bill Beverly, son of state Sen. Robert Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach), who won 12% of the vote.

During the campaign, Flores stressed her support for government curbs on abortion and her opposition to the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. She also advertised herself as the only candidate with real government experience.

Reagan, a former talk show host and Republican Party official, campaigned with the support of her famous father despite her differences with him on women’s rights issues. In a statement issued two weeks before the election, the former President said he shared his daughter’s agenda of business incentives and limited government.

He also appeared at a Memorial Day campaign picnic for her.

But Flores sent out mailings stressing that Maureen Reagan, who is considered a member of the GOP’s moderate wing, was no Ronald Reagan.

Appearing taciturn on election night, Maureen Reagan said she agreed with supporters who accused Flores of conducting a dirty campaign. She cited Flores mailings that bluntly questioned her qualifications and carried titles including “What’s In a Name” and “Ronald Reagan and Bob Beverly Are Not Running for Congress.”

Flores, however, said the mailings were genuine comparisons of the two candidates. She charged it was Reagan who crossed the line when she sent out a mailing last weekend picturing Flores with Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. She charged that the mailing--titled “Whose Team is Joan Milke Flores On?”--was “untrue and racist.”

The reason for Tuesday’s election results, she asserted, was that the electorate wasn’t dazzled by the Reagan name.

“What it shows,” said Flores, “is that not everyone can grow up to be the President’s daughter . . . but almost anybody can grow up to be a Congressperson.”

On the Democratic side, Harman was the best-financed candidate by far, picking up just under $157,000 in campaign contributions, most of them from out of state.

A Washington attorney who moved into the district this year, the former congressional aide and Carter White House official outpolled her closest rival--Ada Unruh, daughter-in-law of the late state Treasurer Jesse Unruh--45% to 15%.

She was attacked by Democratic rivals as someone whose loyalties and obligations would link her to inside-the-Beltway Washington interests, a theme that Flores may find appealing as well.

But Harman said she has strong connections to California, having lived in the state until 1970 and served as an aide to former U.S. Sen. John V. Tunney in the 1970s.

In a district hit hard by the post-Cold War shrinkage of the aerospace industry, she came out for a “federal partnership” in which government would help companies diversify into projects such as mass transit and nuclear waste disposal.

In the 24th District, McClintock won a spirited primary to set up a showdown with Beilenson that is expected to be one of the state’s most hotly contested races.

Beilenson, who has represented Westside communities for 16 years, was unopposed in the Democratic primary. As a result of reapportionment, the progressive lawmaker will be fighting for his political life in a district that incorporates parts of the south and west San Fernando Valley, Malibu and southern Ventura County. Registration is 45% each for Republicans and Democrats in the district.

McClintock, an anti-tax firebrand, won 35% of the vote total. His closest rival was free-spending Calabasas businessman Sang Korman, with 24%.

Korman’s intensive media campaign may have been hurt by a late push by retired Thousand Oaks airline pilot Bill Spillane, who poured $300,000 of his own funds into attacking McClintock. Spillane won 18% of the votes. In contrast, Jim Salomon, a trade consultant who had opposed Beilenson in two previous races, received only 7%.

Both political parties vow to target the fall campaign as a top priority.

“It’s a key race,” said Les Francis, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “And it will be a real slugfest.”