For Forlorn Sybert, Absentee Ballots Make the Heart Beat Faster

IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER: The election is over, but not the knuckle gnawing in the camp of GOP congressional candidate Richard Sybert. The Sybert camp was still hoping Thursday that his apparent narrow defeat at the hands of U.S. Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) could be reversed.

The bottom line for the Sybert camp is overcoming the nearly 3,200-vote deficit it suffered on Election Day. Their hopes of doing this rest on an as-yet-undetermined number of absentee ballots that were not counted on Election Day, cast by 24th Congressional District voters in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Altogether, about 170,000 absentee ballots remain to be counted in Los Angeles County, another 26,000 in Ventura County. They were cast either on Election Day or a few days earlier, when election officials were too busy to count them (the signature and address of each absentee voter is checked against voter affidavits).

No one knows for certain yet how many of these uncounted ballots are from 24th District voters. The Ventura County registrar-recorder’s election division estimates that only about 5,000 to 5,500 of their uncounted ballots are from the 24th District, while Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Beatriz Valdez won’t venture an estimate.

The basic hope underlying Sybert’s calculations is that he will pick up his victory votes in Ventura County, where he received nearly 64% of the vote in counted absentee ballots.

So how long do we have to wait to know the final returns? Los Angeles County officials say they expect to be finished by Nov. 23, Ventura County by Nov. 18.

As it monitors the tallying process and prepares for a possible challenge of the final results--if they get tight enough--Sybert’s camp is getting technical help from national Republican Party election experts, said James Vaughn, Sybert’s campaign manager.

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PUBLIC WORK: It’s been more than a year since voters in the northeast San Fernando Valley elected Richard Alarcon to the Los Angeles City Council and he has already developed a niche for himself in City Hall.

In fact, it has been months since anyone confused him for Councilman Richard Alatorre.

Alarcon has earned a reputation as a lawmaker who fights hard to get his district its fair share of city services, such as police patrols, street sweeping and parks maintenance. City bureaucrats who fail to include his district in any new funding projects can expect an earful from the former teacher and mayoral aide.

But Alarcon now has an opportunity to make a new name for himself as a champion of less government.

City Hall sources say Alarcon will soon be named to head a committee to reorganize and streamline the massive Public Works Department, which oversees street paving and sanitation, among other things.

The work he does with the committee will be watched closely by Mayor Richard Riordan, who promised during his campaign to streamline the Public Works Department and eliminate its full-time board.

Alarcon may find himself butting heads with the mayor because the councilman has opposed eliminating the department’s appointed five-member panel.

City Hall insiders say Riordan is willing to give Alarcon full credit for the streamlining effort if he moves the project along swiftly without questioning every proposal to reorganize made by consultants and city administrators.

Alarcon, who also campaigned on the promise of streamlining the department, said he has promised the mayor only that he will seriously consider doing away with the board. “We are both in agreement that the Public Works Department has to be reorganized,” he said.

Granted, reorganizing a large municipal department is not a sexy topic that draws big headlines, but insiders say the new role offers Alarcon the opportunity to get himself in the mayor’s good graces and at the same time save tax dollars and eliminate time-consuming bureaucracy.

“It may not be all that exciting but it’s crucial toward improving the efficiency of city government,” he said.

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POST-BATTLE PLANS: Adam Schiff’s impending wedding became an unconventional issue in his battle to unseat Assemblyman James Rogan (R-Glendale), and even when the votes were counted and Schiff had lost, both candidates were talking about the upcoming event.

The wedding came up after Schiff knocked Rogan for supporting a $20,000 pay raise for legislators. Rogan struck back during a debate, suggesting that by taking the raise he was providing for his wife and young twin daughters--a family that the bachelor Schiff did not have. Said Rogan: “Before criticizing me for exercising my family responsibilities, perhaps you ought to get one.”

In response, Schiff featured a photograph of him and his fiancee, Eve Sanderson, holding hands in his campaign literature. Feb. 19, the brochure revealed, is the day they will wed.

This week, Rogan, putting the bitter campaign for the 43rd Assembly District behind him, praised Schiff’s aggressive fight and congratulated him on his upcoming wedding.

In a telephone interview, Schiff said he had not yet worked out a plan for his next move. But his fiancee has apparently saved him the trouble. She could be heard in the background telling Schiff there was plenty of wedding planning for him to do.

Still up in the air: Will Rogan be on the invitation list?