24TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Old-Fashioned, Hand-Shaking Finale to the Campaigning : Politics: Incumbent Anthony Beilenson and GOP challenger Richard Sybert express guarded optimism as they meet one more time with supporters.

It was relatively quiet, low-tech politics in the end.

After weeks of pumping tens of thousands of expensive, targeted mailers into district mailboxes, U.S. Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) met voters Sunday at the Calabasas home of a Republican supporter, while Richard Sybert, Beilenson’s GOP challenger, thanked squads of his volunteers scattered throughout the huge 24th District.

Both men were guardedly optimistic about their prospects in Tuesday’s election, one of the nation’s most hotly contested congressional races.

“You hear that people are supposed to be nursing a grudge against their representatives and are ready to throw them out, but I don’t sense it,” Beilenson told a reporter just before his wife, Dolores, gave him a hug and sent him out to speak to 40 voters at the home of Steven and Julie Fuld.

“I think it’s going to be close, but I’m confident,” said Sybert as he visited mortgage broker Ray Fausner’s office in Woodland Hills, where 10 volunteers had gathered to phone previously identified pro-Sybert Republicans and remind them to vote.

Together, both men have spent $1 million, with Sybert outspending Beilenson by more than a 2-1 margin.

Sybert, a former top aide to Gov. Pete Wilson, has put together a formidable challenge that has benefited from his own wealth (he has put more than $400,000 of his own money into the race) and from the help of a string of GOP political heavyweights--from Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kansas) to Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia)--who have trooped through the district to raise funds for the candidate.

*

On Sunday, Sybert’s day began with worship services at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks. But by early afternoon, campaign obligations had sent the 42-year-old challenger and his wife, Greta, to locations in Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills and Newbury Park, where volunteers were operating phone banks. About 75 of them were at the three locations.

“The most striking thing about the volunteers is that they want to see change, they think the country is going in the wrong direction,” Sybert said. “People feel very uneasy . . . about the loss of values, the sense of disorder.”

Although he supports modest gun control laws and does not believe the government should interfere with a woman’s right to choose abortion (nor subsidize her abortion if she can’t afford it), Sybert is hawkish on budget, defense and illegal-immigration issues and supports numerous congressional reforms, including term limits.

Among Sybert’s volunteers Sunday were Tarzana tennis instructor Joane Stewart and Ray Fausner, owner of Real Estate Access Inc.

“I hadn’t been involved much in politics until I started getting disgusted with what was happening to the state that I moved to 29 years ago,” Stewart said. “For example, I hate to see a ballot written in five languages. When my great-grandparents came to this country they had to learn to speak English.”

Fausner shared these frustrations and had some vitriol to add to the mix. “We’re living in what’s basically a communist society,” he fumed. “With all these taxes under Clinton, we are becoming more and more the slaves of government.”

*

Despite the light agenda, Sybert, working in his shirt sleeves, did manage some small indignation over a slate mailer, with a photo of former Sen. Barry Goldwater on the cover, from a group called Citizens for Republican Values. The mailer urged the election of the entire Republican ticket in statewide races, but it also endorsed Beilenson.

“This is a little disingenuous, I’d say,” Sybert said.

“Never heard of it,” said Beilenson campaign consultant Craig Miller later. The piece was traced to political consultant Fred Huebscher, who produces three slates, including those under the name of the California Democratic Alliance and the Independent Voters League.

Meanwhile, the 62-year-old Beilenson also had a light day of campaigning Sunday that included a two-hour “coffee” at the home of the Fulds in Parkway Calabasas Estates.

Steven Fuld, an insurance executive, said that while he is a Republican and a member of the National Rifle Assn., “I separate Tony Beilenson from the rest of the politicians.”

He first met Beilenson three years ago when he was in Washington on a lobbying trip for the Assn. for Advanced Life Underwriting, Fuld said. “I found he cared about the issues, was willing to learn, but not willing to take our money,” he said.

During 40 minutes of discursive remarks, Beilenson decried sensational journalism and talk-radio shows, contending they have debased political discourse and made it harder for the nation to be governed. He alternately praised President Clinton for addressing domestic reforms that had long been neglected in the Reagan-Bush era and criticized him for not seeking to work more closely with Republicans on bipartisan solutions.

As he has done countless times before, Beilenson also ticked off what he called a list of accomplishments of the recent Congress, including passage of a crime bill that is to put 100,000 additional police on the nation’s streets and provide federal aid to reimburse California for the cost of imprisoning illegal immigrants. He also cited the passage of the Clinton deficit-reduction plan.

Throughout, the incumbent soft-pedaled his own candidacy. He warned of the dangers of gridlock if Republican congressional victories are significant, touted the need to have experienced legislators like himself when so many veteran legislators are retiring and boasted that he does not take political action committee money.

Beilenson ended his talk by saying he and his wife, Dolores, hoped the election would prove that a “good guy” like himself can still be elected.