Beilenson Tending New Political Turf : Politics: Progressive Democrat who long served liberal Westside represents a decidedly conservative district after remapping scramble. He relishes the give-and-take.

Facing a sea of mostly conservative, frequently skeptical constituents, Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson was defending both President Clinton’s embattled economic stimulus program and himself one recent night. And performing a delicate balancing act to boot.

“It’s not so much stimulus, it’s, as I tried to suggest, investment, “ the bespectacled Woodland Hills Democrat said as he stood in shirt-sleeves in the Westlake Hills elementary school.

“You don’t have to agree with me,” Beilenson responded when many of the 140 or so assembled began hooting derisively. “I don’t have to agree with all of you. I’d like to find a few of you I could agree with.”

So it goes for Beilenson these days as he begins living with the reality that he now serves such decidedly right-of-center bastions as Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks rather than such staunchly liberal enclaves as Beverly Hills and Westwood.

“I’m a relatively, moderately liberal, progressive Democrat in many areas, and I’m one of the most conservative Democrats in the entire House of Representatives on fiscal matters,” Beilenson told the town meeting. “I voted against an awful lot of stuff that most of my Democratic and many of my Republican colleagues voted for.

“But the truth of the matter is--I think most economists of all stripes believe this--the great tragedy of the ‘80s was that we borrowed all this money and we spent it and we didn’t invest it” in education, transportation, job training and communications, he said. “That’s what the President’s trying to do. And, I’ve said earlier, I’m trying to be fair to him.”

The give-and-take reflected the sometimes contentious get-acquainted process under way between Beilenson and his new constituents in the scenic Las Virgenes and Conejo valleys.

After Beilenson’s 30 years representing the solidly Democratic Westside of Los Angeles in the state Legislature and Congress, redistricting after the 1990 census left him with a 24th District that goes from Sherman Oaks to Agoura, extends up to Northridge in the West San Fernando Valley and spills out to Malibu and over to Thousand Oaks in Ventura County. This pushed the cerebral veteran into some areas in which he had barely set foot.

And it presented political peril. Only 46% of the registered voters in these affluent, heavily Anglo and largely suburban communities are Democrats--potentially making it one of the state’s most competitive seats.

Beilenson, 60, survived a tough reelection fight by a wide margin last November. And now he’s hard at work further introducing himself to those who will decide his fate again in 1994. In addition to the new areas, he continues to represent West Valley communities such as Tarzana and Canoga Park that made up 60% of his former district during the past decade.

The lawmaker’s move up the Ventura Freeway has gone surprisingly smoothly. He insists that he’s delighted, even energized, by the change of scene. A longtime friend confirms that, after some initial trepidation, Beilenson has “found a new comfort zone. He probably hasn’t worked that hard in years.”

And based on the reaction of many of those interviewed at the Westlake Village town meeting and around the district, his new constituents appear fairly receptive to him--even if they don’t always concur with his philosophical stands.

Take Robin Willis, a Thousand Oaks Republican who voted for George Bush and Beilenson’s Republican opponent, former Assemblyman Tom McClintock, in November.

“He presents himself well,” Willis said of Beilenson after the town meeting. “I just hope he will have heard a lot of dissent.”

Beilenson heard, all right. But those dissidents just told him that he’s got to keep working to bring his new constituents along--to educate them.

“For a group of people, many of whom probably feel quite differently than I do on a number of subjects, they were relatively rational and good-humored,” Beilenson said moments after the nearly 2 1/2-hour session. “I’m not sure I made as much progress in persuading them to my point of view, but if they give me a few more times, maybe we’ll do better.”

Beilenson’s courtship of his new constituents extends to fellow elected officials. The congressman, his wife, Dolores, and an aide joined six Westlake Village officials over cookies and punch at the new City Hall this month. Mayor James E. Emmons was there, as were council members Douglas Yarrow, Bonnie Klove and Kenneth Rufener--Republicans all.

The officials shared their concerns about an environmentally sensitive property the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has acquired. Beilenson vowed to help encourage public agencies to buy the land surrounding the Westlake Reservoir so it remains open space.

The opportunity to work with councils such as this one is a reason Beilenson seems buoyed by his new turf. He helped the Thousand Oaks City Council and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy acquire the Linfin property to preserve it as open space last year--well before he was elected to represent the new district. City officials give him high marks.

In contrast to his experience in Los Angeles, which has so many congressional representatives to turn to, Beilenson says he is delighting in his contacts with officials of smaller municipalities as well as with his experiences in Ventura County, which he shares with only Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley).

“It’s nice to be needed, to be wanted, to be helpful,” Beilenson said during an interview in his Thousand Oaks office. “There’s a certain lack of community” among Los Angeles’ loosely demarcated jurisdictions.

Beilenson, whose year-round residence is in Chevy Chase, Md., visits his district about once a month. (He also rents a home in Woodland Hills.) But he makes the most of his trips through town hall meetings and a full schedule of public and private meetings.

In three days during the recent Easter recess, he addressed the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce; toured Amgen, the Thousand Oaks pharmaceutical company; taught classes at Calabasas High School and Pierce College; stopped at Westlake Village’s City Hall; presided over two town halls, and held numerous smaller meetings in his Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks district offices with groups ranging from a Cub Scout pack to Planned Parenthood.

He told about 60 Conejo Valley business people assembled over breakfast at the Mediterranean-style Westlake Plaza Hotel that they should feel good about Clinton because “he’s involved, he’s interested, he’s very bright” and “we are grappling, for the first time in years, with some of the major problems.”

But, again, he balances: “I am a Democrat and many of you are not. Those of you who know me know I tend to be as least partisan as a congressman can be.” And he says he doesn’t blame the Senate Republicans for conducting a filibuster of Clinton’s stimulus program.