Sybert Says He Won’t Make a 3rd Run for Congressional Seat

Rich Sybert, a Republican congressional candidate who almost unseated Tony Beilenson three years ago then lost to Brad Sherman last year, announced Monday that he will not run for Congress again.

“I’ve had two shots at it and maybe it’s time to let someone else step up,” Sybert said in a statement.

But Sybert may not be giving up on his political career. Sources say he is planning to run for the state Assembly seat held by Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard), who would be forced out of office next year if the federal courts uphold voter-approved term limit laws.

Although Sybert would not comment on the Assembly post, he said he plans to move from his home in Calabasas to Ventura County to be closer to his work as a toy company executive in Oxnard.

Such a move would be required for Sybert to represent Takasugi’s 37th Assembly District, which runs from Thousand Oaks to Oxnard to Moorpark.

Sybert said the move has “nothing to do with politics,” adding that most of his wife’s family live in Thousand Oaks and that he attends church there, as well.

Although he remains reticent about his plans, Sybert said he doesn’t believe his political career is over.

“The most frustrating part of this is that I feel I have a contribution to make,” he said.

If Sybert does run for the Assembly seat, he will have to face fellow Republican Tony Strickland, a Thousand Oaks resident and aide to Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) who announced in January his intention to run for the Takasugi post.

Strickland has already raised at least $20,000 for his election bid, including a $2,500 donation from McClintock.

Sybert was an attorney in Los Angeles from 1978 to 1990 before becoming Gov. Pete Wilson’s director of planning and research. He moved back to Southern California in 1993 to run for Congress and work for a toy company as general counsel and manager of its design shop.

Narrowly losing to Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) in 1994, Sybert made a second bid for Congress last year against Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), but lost again. Sherman’s 24th congressional district stretches from Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley to Thousand Oaks in Ventura County.

In a prepared statement issued Monday, Sybert noted that in both elections he “carried the Ventura County portion of the district handily, but was overwhelmed by heavy Democratic turnout in Los Angeles.”