Wright Breaks With Tradition in Giving Double Endorsement

for whatever it’s worth--to only a single candidate in a race.

State Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), who is herself running for lieutenant governor, clearly did not feel bound by such constraints in a recent Republican primary campaign.

Last summer, Wright endorsed Richard Sybert, a Calabasas resident and former senior aide to Gov. Pete Wilson, in the 24th Congressional District contest to nominate an opponent to Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills). Sybert used Wright’s support to help establish his initial bona fides.

“Rich came to me before he even formally announced,” Wright recalled this week. “I thought he was well qualified.” And, she said, it helped that he was willing to commit substantial personal funds to his campaign.

Then, two weeks before the June 7 primary, Wright received a call from Newbury Park businessman Sang Korman, who Wright had endorsed in the 1992 GOP contest in the same district. Korman, who filed to run months after Sybert, had done no active campaigning to that point.

“I really admire him for the reason that he came to this country without a dime in his pocket,” Wright said of Korman’s immigrant tale. “He feels he was successful because of this country and he wanted to give something back.”

So, even though she felt that Korman “didn’t have a chance,” Wright agreed to endorse him as well.

Korman capitalized by sending a letter to voters during the last week of the campaign touting Wright’s fulsome praise: “I am convinced Sang Korman will become a great congressman for the 24th Congressional District. I am delighted to endorse Sang Korman for Congress and urge you to vote him.”

And what if some voters felt misled by Wright’s unconventional multiple endorsement?

“They could,” Wright acknowledged. “But you have to understand you have some loyalty.”

Sybert, who won the primary with 47% of the vote, said he learned of Wright’s endorsement of Korman when he saw his opponent’s mailing. Still, he sought to be philosophical.

“I thought it was a little odd,” he said. “But that’s her choice.”

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STEALTH CAMPAIGN: Korman, the Korean-American businessman and Newbury Park resident who has run for the Republican nomination for Congress four times since 1988, was traveling in Asia on business throughout much of the primary campaign. But he returned shortly before the election and decided to wage a last-minute, low-key campaign.

Korman, who had previously spent more than $750,000 of his own money on his unsuccessful campaigns, sent out five pieces of mail to Republican voters in the 24th District. He did no fund-raising or door-to-door campaigning, made no public appearances and gave no interviews.

He won 5,981 votes, or 15.5%, and finished third in a five-person field. He won 13,884 votes, or 23.7%, and placed second among nine candidates after campaigning vigorously in 1992.

Bob Lavoie, Korman’s friend and former campaign manager, decided shortly before the election to attempt to capitalize on his residual name recognition.

“He thought he was going to have an impact,” said Lavoie, who did the mailings. “I thought he’d do better than that.”

Korman left for Korea after the primary and could not be reached. Asked whether this would be Korman’s final congressional bid, Lavoie replied, “I hope so.”

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ENDORSEMENT ABSENCE: Vanquished primary candidates usually fall into line behind their party’s nominee, putting aside the rhetorical slings and arrows of the prceding campaign.

This is not so with the runner-up to Richard Sybert in the Republican contest in the highly competitive 24th District congressional race. Robert K. Hammer, a Newbury Park investment banker and first-time candidate, pointedly vowed to withhold his backing. He won 17% of the vote.

Hammer had questioned his opponent’s commitment to the area that he seeks to represent because Sybert moved into the district last fall to run there. Sybert, who grew up in Southern California, in turn, cited Hammer’s failure to vote in a number of elections. The two locked horns on other issues as well.

“While I will give the devil his due and the 15 minutes of fame he will demand, the man fresh from Sacramento will receive no endorsement from this camp; nor, given the way that campaign was run, can he legitimately expect one,” Hammer said in a note to this reporter.

Not surprisingly, Sybert did not see things quite the same way.

“That’s obviously just sour grapes,” Sybert said. “I’m sorry he feels that way. That is not proper behavior and I hope, after he calms down, that he will come to the same conclusion.”

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ISRAEL OVERSIGHT: Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) says he was surprised last week when news accounts of his annual financial disclosure report failed to mention a trip to Israel that he took with his wife last August.

It turned out that the House clerk’s office had neglected to include an amendment McKeon made to his initial report correcting the inadvertent omission of the trip.

“It was just an oversight,” said Janice Glossen, senior reports examiner in the clerk’s office of records and registration. “The report should have been part of the public record.”

McKeon made the one-week, introductory trip to Israel, his first, as part of a 14-member freshmen group that was sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, an arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.