Primary Election Winners Out of Starting Blocks for November Finals

Dusting themselves off from primary election fights, Republican and Democratic nominees began on Wednesday to map out strategies for winning legislative and congressional seats in the November general election.

“I will do everything I can to make sure that Newt Gingrich is not in charge of the House of Representatives,” said Brad Sherman, the Democratic nominee in the 24th Congressional District that includes most of Thousand Oaks.

Sherman handily defeated six other candidates in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, emphasizing his concern about Republican attacks on Medicare, public education and the environment.

He now will face Republican Rich Sybert in the November contest that strategists in both parties see as one of the pivotal races to determine control of the House next year. The race could easily swing either way, given the district’s even split of Democratic and Republican voters who regularly make it to the polls.

Sybert, who won the Republican primary on Tuesday, is making his second bid for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills). Sybert came close to unseating Beilenson in 1994.

This time, Sybert said he hopes to ignore Sherman and run hard on the issues of improving public safety, economic growth and bringing illegal immigration under control.

“This is the fourth year that I’ve been running,” Sybert said. “I’m not about to let up.”

In the 38th Assembly District that includes Simi Valley and Fillmore, Republican nominee Tom McClintock said he will reach out to independents and conservative Democrats as well as Republicans to defeat Democratic nominee Jon M. Lauritzen in November.

Although the details have yet to be worked out, McClintock said he will run on his usual theme of shrinking the size of state government. “The problems facing Californians are not acts of God, but acts of government. We can change that.”

Lauritzen, a first-time candidate who easily won Tuesday’s primary, said he plans to campaign hard over the next eight months fighting for the “working man and working woman” as opposed to “working for big business like my opponent.”

A high school math teacher from Chatsworth, Lauritzen realizes that Republicans greatly outnumber Democrats in the 38th Assembly District, which reaches deep into the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

“It’s going to definitely be an uphill battle,” Lauritzen said of his run against McClintock, a former Assemblyman. “He’s got the money and he’s got the name recognition. But I’m building a big [campaign] organization.”

McClintock, who spent a decade in the Assembly representing Thousand Oaks and Camarillo, has been living in Sacramento in recent years, working as a taxpayer lobbyist and unsuccessfully running for state controller.

Upon the urging of one of the state’s most conservative political machines, he rented an apartment in Simi Valley and jumped into the Assembly race. On Tuesday, he breezed past a group of six rival Republicans to clinch the party’s nomination.

McClintock said he will be dividing time between Simi Valley and Sacramento, working part time at the conservative think tank called the Claremont Institute. He said he does not want to move his family until his daughter Shannah finishes kindergarten.

“We’re still trying to figure out how to keep the family all in one place,” he said.

In the 37th Assembly District, Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) said he is planning a vigorous campaign against Jess Herrera, the Democratic nominee. Takasugi clobbered Republican challenger Matt Noah in Tuesday’s primary by a 3-to-1 margin, while Herrera faced no opposition.