ELECTIONS / 24TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Beilenson and McClintock Stick to Issues

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson and Assemblyman Tom McClintock wrangled politely over taxes, abortion and special-interest campaign donations during a radio debate Tuesday, again displaying wide ideological differences in their tight race for a new congressional seat representing most of Thousand Oaks.

The debate was the second between Beilenson, a liberal Democrat from Los Angeles, and McClintock, a conservative Thousand Oaks Republican. The two are scheduled to meet in an unusually lengthy series of at least eight more debates and question-and-answer forums before the Nov. 3 election.

They are running in the newly created 24th Congressional District, which stretches from Sherman Oaks to Malibu to Thousand Oaks. Beilenson, 59, who has represented Los Angeles’ staunchly liberal Westside since the early 1960s, opted to run in the more conservative suburban district rather than face powerful Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), a longtime colleague, in another Westside district.

The 45-minute exchange between the professorial, Harvard-educated Beilenson and McClintock, a polished orator elected a decade ago at age 26, was unusually issue-oriented. So far, both men have refrained from personal attacks, hoping instead to use the numerous public forums to highlight their opponent’s “extremist” views.

During Tuesday’s debate, broadcast on KGIL-AM, both candidates stayed close to their campaign themes, with McClintock repeatedly criticizing Beilenson for supporting tax increases and Beilenson faulting McClintock for not supporting the pending Freedom of Choice Act, an abortion bill, and for accepting campaign donations from special-interest groups.

Citing a report by the National Taxpayers Union, McClintock said Beilenson “voted against the taxpayer two out of every three times.” McClintock also said Beilenson “introduced $269 billion of new spending bills” in the most recent congressional session.

“That’s about $1,000 of new spending for every man, woman and child in the country,” said McClintock, who has garnered a reputation in Sacramento for vehemently opposing tax increases, even those backed by Gov. Pete Wilson, a fellow Republican.

Beilenson called the National Taxpayers Union a “very hard right” group that “does not speak for all Americans,” but added that even the NTU did not include him on a recent list of congressional big spenders.

He said almost all of the $269 billion in tax increases cited by McClintock is attributable to a single bill he is co-sponsoring to create a system of universal health care. The plan, he said, would be financed by new taxes but most Americans would save money because they would not have to pay private health insurance and medical fees.

But McClintock continued to press his tax attack against Beilenson, forcing the nine-term incumbent to defend his record through much of the debate.

McClintock criticized Beilenson for telling a newspaper interviewer in April that “we have got to raise taxes.” He also attacked the congressman for voting in favor of President Bush’s tax hike package two years ago.

Beilenson responded that the quote came during a discussion of the budget deficit, and said he does not believe the budget can be balanced “by simply cutting spending.”

Beilenson called Bush’s support for the tax increases “the most responsible thing he’s done during the course of his presidency,” saying the federal budget deficit would grow by half a trillion dollars over the next five years without that legislation.

The candidates also split on the Freedom of Choice Act, which would forbid states from imposing restrictions on most abortions and overrule a 1989 U. S. Supreme Court decision that allowed some limits in Missouri.

Beilenson supports the act while McClintock opposes it. The assemblyman said he could not vote for the measure because it contains no provision for parental consent or a 24-hour “cooling off” period before a woman could obtain an abortion.

The abortion discussion provided a moment of rancor between the candidates, as McClintock told Beilenson: “You’re not the surrogate parent for my children” and said the abortion-rights bill would deny parents “the right to be consulted” before their teen-age daughters underwent the procedure.

Beilenson said the legislation would do no such thing.

“If you’re a decent parent and you have a decent relationship with your child, quite obviously you or your wife would be the first person that child would consult,” he said.

“There are enormous numbers of young women who get pregnant but have no decent relationship with their parents--whose parents would want to in fact punish them if they came to them with this particular problem.”

As the program ended, Beilenson, one of the few members of Congress who does not accept campaign donations from special-interest groups, faulted McClintock for taking such money.

McClintock replied afterward that Beilenson accepted $30,000 from trial lawyers earlier this year. The figure was disputed by a Beilenson spokesman.