Decision ’94 / Local Offices : Sybert and His Cash Loom Large in GOP Primary : Congress: In the competitive 24th District, the former Wilson aide seeks to attach an aura of inevitability to his bid to oppose incumbent Beilenson.

In a costly and high-profile congressional primary, three little-known Republicans are vying to overcome the financial clout of newcomer Richard Sybert in their bid to oppose veteran Democratic Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson in the fall.

Sybert, a businessman and former senior aide to Gov. Pete Wilson who has amassed numerous GOP endorsements and sought to create an aura of inevitability around his candidacy, has already received national media coverage as a potentially formidable challenger.

More significantly, the Calabasas Republican may well spend more money--much of it his own--than his three major competitors combined in the June primary . He has loaned his campaign $430,000.

The 24th District, which extends from Sherman Oaks to the western San Fernando Valley and Malibu and out to Thousand Oaks, is considered one of the most politically competitive in California. Republicans covet this turf, where Democrats have only a modest registration advantage and many voters are affluent and independent-minded.

In other Valley congressional districts, none of the incumbents face significant primary opposition. Three of the challengers are engaged in low-key, low-cost primary contests in pursuit of rematches from the general election of 1992.

In the 25th District, attorney James Gilmartin is seeking the Democratic nomination to oppose freshman Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) for the second time; in the 26th District, Sun Valley businessman Gary E. Forsch is running for the Republican nomination to take a second shot at six-term Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) and in the 27th District, Altadena businessman Doug Kahn is competing for the Democratic nod to make another run at 11-term Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale).

Beilenson, who faces only nominal primary opposition, has proven resilient during his nearly 18-year congressional career. The Woodland Hills lawmaker, who ranks third on the powerful House Rules Committee, defeated former Republican Assemblyman Tom McClintock by a surprisingly decisive 17% margin in 1992 in a newly drawn district.

Each of the Republican candidates maintains that he is uniquely qualified to turn that outcome around. Beilenson had the benefit of a strong California campaign by then-Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992. In contrast, in a midterm election such as this one, the President’s party generally loses seats.

“Mr. Beilenson is a tough opponent and I’m the one Republican who I believe can beat him,” said a confident Sybert, 42. On the other hand, he said of his primary opposition: “I don’t consider it substantial.”

In addition to Sybert, the GOP field includes Mark Boos Benhard, owner of an Agoura public relations firm; Robert Hammer, a Newbury Park banking consultant, and Emery Shane, an Oak Park commercial real estate broker. Sang Korman, a Newbury Park businessman who has lost three previous Republican primaries, is also on the ballot but has not campaigned.

None of the candidates is well-known. As the primary approached, most acknowledged they were still introducing themselves to the district’s 125,000 registered Republicans through community forums, door-to-door stumping, campaign mailings and radio and cable television ads.

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Sybert said he expected to spend $200,000 to $300,000. Hammer said he hoped to raise close to $100,000. Benhard and Shane planned to spend less than that.

Benhard, 29, who has been endorsed by the rightist California Republican Assembly, the Young Republicans of California and the California College Republicans, appears to be the most conservative candidate. He is touting his experience as an aide for three years to former Rep. William Dannemeyer, (R-Fullerton), a crusader against homosexuality and abortion.

Benhard says his message is similar to Ronald Reagan’s. “We need to cut taxes, we need to get government off the backs of families and business, we need to maintain a strong defense.”

Hammer, 44, who describes himself as “very conservative and a little more moderate on social” issues, is stressing his experience as a businessman and community activist. His priority if elected would be to reverse the “tax-and-spend” policies of the Clinton Administration and reduce government regulations on business. His slogan is “One of Us.”

“This run is simply an extension of a lifetime dedicated to the community,” said Hammer, who moved to Newbury Park in 1985. “What people want is someone who has given, not taken.”

Shane, 36, calls himself “a Reagan conservative with a bigger heart,” particularly in regard to small businesses, labor unions and inner cities. He counts among his supporters 20 of the past 26 presidents of the San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors.

“The people who vote are people who have a stake” in an economic turnaround for Southern California, he said. “Realtors have been hurt. The defense industry has been hurt. And businesses have been hurt. And those are my strengths.”

Sybert, meanwhile, describes himself as a conservative on fiscal, defense and foreign-policy issues but “a social libertarian” on such issues as abortion. A Harvard-educated attorney, he headed Wilson’s Office of Planning and Research for nearly three years and is now president of Lanard Design, a small toy-design firm in Santa Barbara.

“I’m not a career politician,” Sybert said in a letter to voters. “I’m a local businessman and native Southern Californian who recently served as director of California’s Office of Planning and Research, where I tackled tough issues like crime, illegal immigration, economic development and transportation.”

Sybert’s roots, as well as those of his opponents, have become a major issue in recent weeks.

Sybert moved into the 24th District from Sacramento in November. Records show that he owns homes in Pasadena, Sacramento and Washington, D.C., but not the house in which he resides in Calabasas. He said he has put his three houses on the market and plans to buy a residence in the district.

His opponents have sought to paint Sybert as an opportunistic carpetbagger. Hammer called him “the gentleman fresh from Sacramento.” Benhard said: “You ought to have a stake in your community before you want to represent it.”

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Noting that he lived in Pasadena and Westwood before joining the Wilson Administration, Sybert called this “a manufactured issue. . . . I’ve got much deeper roots in Los Angeles than any other candidate. What’s important is not where someone’s been. It’s where they’re going.”

And he said he is the only candidate who lives in Los Angeles County--along with 75% of the district’s voters. The other Republicans reside in the Ventura County portion of the district.

Sybert has fired off countercharges of his own. Among other things, he has attacked Hammer for voting infrequently in local elections.

Hammer was not registered to vote at his new residence until nearly two years after he moved to Newbury Park and has missed voting in four elections since. Hammer said the reason was business travel; Sybert pointed out that he could have voted as an absentee.

In the Democratic primary, Beilenson is opposed by Scott Gaulke of Sherman Oaks.

In the 25th District, Gilmartin, who received 33% of the vote in 1992, is opposed by William H. Horning, a Lancaster clerk, in the Democratic primary. McKeon faces Sandra Tully, a Lancaster manager/technician, in the Republican primary.

In the 26th District Democratic primary, Berman is opposed by G. C. (Brodie) Broderson, a Mission Hills political activist, and Jose P. Galvan, a Sylmar librarian. In the Republican primary, Forsch, who won 30% of the tally in 1992, faces Bill Glass, a Sherman Oaks accountant, and John A. Furutani, a Los Angeles attorney.

In the 27th District, Moorhead is being challenged by Elizabeth Michael, a Pasadena businesswoman, in the Republican primary. Kahn, who received 39% of the vote in 1992, is running against Roger A. Kulpa, a Burbank accounting business owner, and Daniel I. Hurst, a Glendale systems analyst, in the Democratic primary.

And in the 29th District, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) is opposed in the Democratic primary by Jon Rappoport, a Los Angeles free-lance journalist and author. In the Republican contest, Los Angeles businessman Paul Stepanek faces Patrick Regan, an assistant film director from Santa Monica.