CONGRESS; SHERMAN RE-ELECTED IN 24TH.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman won a second term Tuesday, beating businessman Randy Hoffman in one of the country's most closely watched re-election campaigns.

``People thought I was doing a good job,'' said an exhausted, exhilarated Sherman after Hoffman called to concede the race shortly before midnight. ``I like hearing the fat lady sing.''

Hoffman said his campaign fell prey to a national trend, as voters vented their anger against Republicans for the party's aggressive handling of the presidential sex scandal.

``Clearly, they're displeased,'' Hoffman said. ``They blame the Republicans for making the Monica Lewinsky scandal into a personal attack against President Clinton.''

He also noted that the loss of GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren didn't help his chances.

``There was no help from the top of the ticket,'' he said.

Both parties considered the 24th District stretching from Sherman Oaks to Thousand Oaks an opportunity for a key congressional win. Well before the June primary, Republican strategists targeted it as one of a handful of Democratic-held seats nationwide that seemed ripe for seizing.

The contest pitted a freshman incumbent against a businessman who had built up a successful firm from scratch and was making his first entry into campaign politics.

The district has a voter registration that is 38.1 percent Republican and 44.6 percent Democrat. For years, the GOP had been repeatedly unable to wrest the seat from Democratic control, even in 1996 when longtime Democratic incumbent Anthony C. Beilenson retired from office.

Sherman won that open seat, earning 50 percent of the vote as President Bill Clinton swept the district in his re-election bid against Republican Bob Dole.

This year's contest was a test of the Democratic incumbent's political prowess in his first re-election bid, coming on the heels of his House vote for a limited impeachment investigation of the president.

The GOP also hoped to capitalize on the fact that Sherman has had only two years to develop name recognition as a congressman.

Sherman, a Harvard Law School graduate, previously had spent more than five years on the California State Board of Equalization, an elected tax panel little-known among voters. In that role, he had drawn notice for his success in killing a proposed tax on snack foods.

As a member of the minority party in the Republican-controlled Congress, Sherman secured federal funds for parkland and hiking trails, bike paths in the San Fernando Valley and a promised study of transportation improvements along the Ventura Freeway corridor.

His re-election opponent, Hoffman, is a political novice who won support from national Republican leaders even before besting two opponents in the June primary.

Hoffman helped found Magellan Systems Inc., a San Dimas-based company that makes satellite-based global positioning systems. Under Hoffman's guidance, the firm grew from five employees to more than 500 before Hoffman left to pursue federal office.

Both social moderates who consider themselves financially savvy, the two candidates spent the campaign staking out the same centrist ground.

Hoffman referred to Sherman as a career politician, despite the incumbent's 17 years of private-sector experience as a certified accountant and tax law specialist. Sherman called Hoffman evasive and vague, and delighted in attacking his endorsements from conservative Republicans.

Despite a series of heated debates, the race never developed a central issue.

The two men split over the future of Social Security, with Hoffman proposing that taxpayers place a fraction of their contributions into individual accounts managed by the government with some discretion over how the money was invested. Sherman said that approach could undermine payments for those currently drawing from the system.

In a heavily Jewish district, both men tried to play on that community's interests and fears. Hoffman criticized Sherman for supporting financial aid to Russia, saying Russia supplied missile technology to Iran. Sherman, who is Jewish, noted that the Russian government is cracking down on such illegal sales and argued that American interests would be ill-served by letting Russia's economy collapse.

For his part, Sherman complained that Hoffman's former company, Magellan, was supplying its technology to such Arab countries as Saudi Arabia, which Sherman termed a ``despotic regime.'' Hoffman then pointed out that Saudi Arabia is an American ally.

The contest grew increasingly bitter in its final weeks as the two candidates fought over the wording of each other's mailers and the technicalities of reporting their finances.

Hoffman circulated a letter from his wife complaining that their personal lives were being trashed. Sherman's campaign charged that Hoffman's workers were calling voters, claiming to be representatives of the Democratic Party and urging them to vote against the incumbent.

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PHOTO Rep. Brad Sherman has a smile on his face at his office in Tarzana with results in the 24th District showing him in the lead.

David Sprague/Daily News