Sherman Endorsed by Police Groups

When it comes to courting the cop vote, congressional candidates Brad Sherman and Rich Sybert are pulling out all the stops in their efforts to represent the 24th District, which includes most of Thousand Oaks.

Sherman has won the support of the Assn. for Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs, the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs Assn., the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, the Border Patrol Supervisors Assn., the Professional Peace Officers Assn. of Los Angeles County, the Southern California Alliance of Law Enforcement, the International Union of Police Assns. and the Los Angeles County Safety Police Assn.

“Collectively,” said a statement from Sherman’s camp, “these groups represent virtually every line-level officer working on patrol and custody assignments in the 24th Congressional District.”

The response from Sybert’s headquarters: “It’s certainly stretching it, as Brad Sherman has been doing this whole campaign, to suggest that he has the endorsement of virtually every police group in the world,” said John Theiss, Sybert’s campaign manager.

The Sybert camp reports endorsements from the California State Sheriffs Assn., Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury, Ventura County Sheriff Larry Carpenter and Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block. Other groups have stayed out of the race, Theiss said.

While Sherman may have hauled in more endorsements from police groups, Sybert claims to have the support of more individual officers.

“You talk to any cop on the street and they’ll say they’re Republican and they support Rich Sybert,” Theiss said. Theiss also downplayed the importance of police groups altogether, saying many of them are “vintage labor unions” that typically back Democrats.

Harder to explain was why two of the groups that endorsed Sherman in this race, the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs Assn. and the Assn. for Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs, had endorsed Sybert for the job in 1994, when he tried to unseat Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson.