ELECTIONS / 24TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Sybert Begins Drive, Denounces Beilenson

Republican Richard Sybert, a former aide to Gov. Pete Wilson, kicked off his campaign Tuesday to unseat U.S. Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), denouncing the incumbent as a “tired and ineffective” liberal, while urging the use of the National Guard to bolster local police forces.

Sybert, 41, announced his candidacy in separate news conferences in front of two earthquake-damaged buildings--the Thousand Oaks Library and a store on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.

Pointing to recent violence at schools in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, Sybert said fear of worsening crime binds the disparate communities of the 24th Congressional District together. Three-quarters of the district is in the San Fernando Valley.

“We are faced with an epidemic of crime, of violent crime, in areas that we thought were oases of tranquillity,” Sybert said at the Thousand Oaks conference. “Places like the Conejo Valley are not immune . . . We’re starting to see gang activity in the Conejo Valley. We’re seeing juvenile crime on middle-class campuses. It can happen here unless we do something about it.”

Sybert was surrounded by local backers, including Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

Bradbury said he supports Sybert because he has made crime-fighting a top priority.

“Public safety is the first and paramount duty of responsible government,” Bradbury said.

Sybert criticized Beilenson at the news conference in the San Fernando Valley, where he was introduced by former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Bob Philibosian.

“Let’s be candid,” Sybert said. “Tony Beilenson is a Westside liberal--he’s not from the Valley.”

Afterward, Sybert accused fellow Republican Robert Hammer, who is also running for the Beilenson seat, of being unfit to serve in the Congress because Hammer has been an infrequent voter.

“Since he moved to California in 1985, Robert Hammer has almost never voted and I think he will have to explain that to the people who do vote,” Sybert said in an interview.

Sybert, an attorney, was director of Wilson’s Office of Planning and Research from 1990 to 1993 and is currently the president of Lanard Toys of California. He has a $430,000 campaign war chest and a long list of endorsements from GOP elected officials.

A native of Whittier and a Harvard Law School graduate who has been with a downtown Los Angeles law firm for 12 years, Sybert lives in Calabasas with his wife and daughter.

Sybert said Tuesday it was time to rebuild the state’s economy and a sense of public safety. “When you ask my opponent (Beilenson) about crime, he throws up his hands and says it’s a local problem,” Sybert said.

Instead of such despair, he said he would offer solutions--including making the National Guard and military police units available to patrol crime-plagued cities. Such resources are already being paid for and there should be no reluctance to use them, Sybert said, especially in the fight against gang activity.

When it comes to the economy, Beilenson has “never seen a tax hike he didn’t like,” Sybert contended, referring to the incumbent’s vote for President Clinton’s five-year economic package and a federal income tax increase to implement it. Citing recent news reports, Sybert noted that Beilenson’s 24th District constituents will be hit harder by the tax increase than the constituents of all but eight other congressional districts nationwide.

Beilenson spokesman Craig Miller said that Beilenson’s votes to raise taxes have served “to reduce the deficit by historic proportions, and if that means the nation’s wealthiest are called upon to pay their fair share, then so be it--middle Americans will greatly benefit.”

Miller also noted that Beilenson has frequently enjoyed the endorsement of rank-and-file police groups, has backed the death penalty for drug kingpins and terrorists and currently supports the President’s crime bill, which would provide 100,000 additional police.

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Meanwhile, Hammer admitted that he had not been--as Sybert charged--a diligent voter.

“I suppose you could fault me for that,” Hammer said. “But during this time, I was working 16-hour days making acquisitions for my company that produced jobs here locally and traveling around the country.” Hammer said absentee voting was established to help meet such contingencies.

Hammer, a banking consultant, in the late 1980s was a top executive with First Interstate Bank. Hammer has boasted that his work of acquiring credit card assets for First Interstate created or preserved more than 100 jobs in Southern California.

John Schwada is a Times staff writer and Brenda Day is a Times correspondent.