POLITICAL NOTES : ‘Republicans for Harman’ list is one antidote to the ‘L-word’ label.

HELP FROM THE ELEPHANTS: In a district split almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans, it doesn’t help to be branded a liberal.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Marina del Rey) already has been branded with the L-word by Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Susan Brooks and Former Palos Verdes Estates Councilman Ron Florance. Both are vying for the 36th Congressional District Republican nomination.

But at a recent rally, Harman struck back. She unveiled a list of more than 40 “Republicans for Harman,” including former Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert, former Rolling Hills Councilwoman Ginny Leeuwenburgh, GM Hughes Electronics Chairman C. Michael Armstrong and TRW Space and Electronics Group General Manager Tim Hannemann.

Geissert, for one, supported Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores in her unsuccessful bid against Harman two years ago. But she has changed her mind about Harman.

“She’s produced,” Geissert said, noting Harman’s efforts to keep Los Angeles Air Force Base and secure a federal defense conversion grant for Hi-Shear Technology Corp., a Torrance company.

Both of her potential opponents, however, said that crossover political coalitions are nothing new. And both campaigns predict they’ll get a “Democrats for . . . “ group for the general election.

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REAGAN LEGACY: Much of his career may be in running a restaurant, but Jeff Earle says that he’s an heir to the Reagan legacy.

His most recent proof: former Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese, who has endorsed Earle in his 54th Assembly District race against Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Steve Kuykendall. Meese appeared at a fund-raiser for Earle last week.

“This is exactly the kind of person we need, and he has the right idea,” Meese said. “He believes in the citizen legislature, where people who are successful in business or professions like he is take time out in their lives for a few years and go up and serve in Sacramento.”

Kuykendall, who is backed by former Gov. George Deukmejian, didn’t have a competing fund-raiser of his own. A Reagan supporter himself, he doubted that voters would connect the Reagan legacy to Earle.

“I don’t know if I can define what the Reagan legacy is,” he said. “I don’t know if the voters will either.”

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ECO-STARS: Torrance Councilman George Nakano already has the backing of the Sierra Club and the California League of Conservation Voters.

But the help of such groups only goes so far. So last week, he held a campaign event to announce the backing from an eco-conscious star, Ed Begley Jr.

Begley, a member of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s environmental commission, rode Torrance’s electric bus and showed off his own battery-powered VW Rabbit. The event was intended to underscore Nakano’s support for electric cars and clean-fuel technology.

But Nakano’s competitors, Venice attorney Mike Sidley and incumbent state Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-El Segundo), have said they would also push for the creation of “green technologies” in the South Bay.

And Dills recently helped shepherd an anti-oil-drilling bill through a Senate committee, although his past environmental record did not always please the Sierra Club.

Begley said he lobbied the senator to pass a recycling bill several years ago, but Dills was unresponsive. “Don’t tell me what you’re going to do, tell me what you’ve done,” Begley said.