Sybert Courts FOTs--Friends of Tony--by Saying He’s One Too

Now that his rival is retiring, congressional candidate Rich Sybert is trying to portray himself as a chum of Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills).

And Beilenson is not exactly thrilled.

In a recent letter to Beilenson backers, the Republican Sybert downplays the differences between him and the outgoing congressman, long known for his liberal viewpoint.

“On matters of conviction, we shared many views,” Sybert says in the letter. He also quotes Beilenson as saying about Sybert: “You were a great candidate and I would be proud to serve with you in Congress.”

Sybert says the affectionate remark was made during a private conversation between the two when Sybert called Beilenson to concede the election last Nov. 18.

Beilenson, however, offers a somewhat different view.

Asked how he’d feel if Sybert is elected to replace him, Beilenson said: “It would not make me feel good. I thought about that when I made my decision [to retire] and I decided I couldn’t make the decision based on that. I thought maybe I should stay around two more years just to ensure that he is not elected. . . . I don’t think he’ll get here.”

The Beilenson camp was not gladdened by Sybert’s effort to make the pair seem like confidantes.

“Anyone who knows Mr. Sybert understands that this is just the latest example in his record of misrepresentation and hypocrisy,” said staffer Kaye Edwards Davis. “It’s just another calculated attempt to seem to be everything to everybody.”

The gulf between the two is likely to remain.

Beilenson said he did not particularly appreciate Sybert’s recent effort to have part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area named after him--especially because the gesture came while Sybert was pushing a libel suit against Beilenson accusing him of “sleaze-ball and gutter politics.” Sybert says Beilenson falsely and maliciously besmirched the contender’s reputation in campaign mailers.

Sybert said he offered Beilenson the opportunity to apologize before he filed the lawsuit but Beilenson refused. Even now, if Beilenson issues a public apology, Sybert said, it would help resolve the matter.

“I want to represent the whole district and rise above the partisan games we’re seeing in Washington,” Sybert wrote in his letter.

But Beilenson’s staff sees the lawsuit and the touchy-feely letter as a bit contrived.

“He is trying to make it appear to the congressman’s friends and longtime supporters that the congressman is his friend and supporter,” Davis said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The Virtual Mayor

It’s still a year and a half before the next city election, but anyone with a modem and a computer can see what appears to be Mayor Richard Riordan’s first reelection mailer.

In the city of Los Angeles’ site on the World Wide Web, the mayor’s page offers highlights of Riordan’s proposed budget for next year and a bevy of news releases.

But hizzoner’s page also offers a biography of Riordan that reads like it was written by his press deputy. If fact, it was.

The bio lists Riordan’s plans to add more than 3,000 police officers and streamline the city’s permitting process. It describes how he created L.A.’s Business Team, “a first-ever group of professionals working to attract and retain local businesses.”

Then there is his work to rebuild the city after the devastating Northridge earthquake. “Riordan’s energy, combined with his insistence on innovation and collaboration, contributed greatly to the city’s ability to respond to the devastating January 17, 1994, earthquake,” according to the biography.

The page also offers the “Mayor’s Photo Gallery,” with pictures of Riordan giving his State of the City speech, hanging out with police at the academy, officially opening a skating rink in the San Fernando Valley and hanging on the back of a trash truck to get a feel for how the working class lives.

Jim Crain, an information manager who oversees the city’s Web pages, said the information and photos on Riordan’s page was put together by the mayor’s office.

And yes, the taxpayers are paying for the hardware to maintain and update the pages to the tune of about $200,000 annually, Crain said. That technology is also being used to let city officials search the Internet for information needed to complete official reports and studies, he added.

Crain said his agency doesn’t regulate what each department or office can put on the Web. Any questions about whether the city-funded pages appear too much like campaign brochures is the bailiwick of the Ethics Commission, he said.

Leann Pelham, the Ethics Commission’s deputy director, said the commission hasn’t dealt with such questions because the city’s Web site is so new. But she added: “Those are issues that we will have to look at.”

“It does raise interesting questions going into an election year,” Pelham said.

But Riordan is not the only elected official with a Web site.

City Atty. James K. Hahn also has a page that includes news releases and a color photo. Council members Laura Chick and Mark Ridley-Thomas are currently gathering information and photos for their pages.

A Chick representative said her page will follow the design used by Riordan, sans the photo gallery.

Include Him Out

Jim Keysor’s curious candidacy ended this week with the former assemblyman saying he is pulling out of the race to succeed Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar).

In an interview with The Times, Keysor announced he is withdrawing from the Democratic primary because “I am not motivated.” It would take a sizable expenditure of his own wealth, derived from the family plastics business, to win, Keysor predicted. “My family would rather that I stayed out of politics,” he added.

“I believe I could win, but it’d cost $500,000 and six months of my life--and I’ve just turned 68,” Keysor said.

In 1986, Keysor, who served in the Assembly during the 1970s, spent $400,000 of his own money in an unsuccessful bid to make a political comeback and win election to the Los Angeles County assessor’s office.

Keysor’s withdrawal did not surprise political insiders, who have been watching his candidacy twist in a self-inflicted identity crisis in recent weeks.

Last month, Keysor and his veteran campaign consultants, Rick Taylor and Steve Afriat (the latter a Keysor friend for two decades), parted company. Keysor said he initiated the break because of a dispute over campaign strategy. But Taylor insisted that he decided not to participate in Keysor’s campaign after the candidate said he did not intend to run or that if he did run he would not seriously campaign to win.

Taylor and Afriat said Keysor toyed with ideas for using his candidacy to influence the candidacies of others. Both consultants said one scenario Keysor entertained was to stay in the race and split the Anglo vote, thus helping Tony Cardenas, a 32-year-old Latino Realtor from Mission Hills. Keysor, however, has denied considering such an option.

Lacey reported from Washington, D.C., Martin and Schwada from Los Angeles.