Badham May Be In for Race in Primary

The chairman of the Orange County Republican Party felt it was bad enough to look down the counter in the registrar’s office and see a candidate filing papers to run against a Republican congressman in the June primary.

But it was worse in the chairman’s eyes to see that the opponent was the head of the county’s Young Republicans.

“It was just an off-the-wall revelation that he was running,” county GOP Chairman Thomas Fuentes said Monday, recalling his efforts to persuade Nathan Rosenberg not to run against Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) in the June 3 primary election.

“We look for loyalty to our incumbent Republican officeholders from our clubs and organizations and the leaders thereof,” Fuentes said.

Rosenberg, 33, is credited by fellow party members with leading the transformation of the county Young Republicans from a lackluster group with only a handful of members into an energetic organization of nearly 300 men and women ages 18 to 40.

No Decision Yet

A former Navy aviator, graduate of the Air Force Academy, one-time real estate investor and now a management consultant, Rosenberg said that although he filed to be a candidate last Friday, when Fuentes saw him at the registrar’s office, he still hadn’t actually decided to run against Badham.

Rosenberg said he is unhappy that Badham is second among all members of Congress in the amount of taxpayer-financed travel abroad, and he complained about congressional votes that Badham has missed.

“More important than what’s happening in Paris or Germany is what’s happening here at home,” Rosenberg said, charging that Badham has lost touch with the folks back home.

Still, Rosenberg said he wanted to see how many other people felt as he does, declaring, “I’m not interested in being Don Quixote. . . . I’m not interested in tilting at windmills.”

Rosenberg said he would take a week to consult 150 people and ask: “Will people come out and work for me? Will people come out and volunteer for me? Will there be support, and will it translate into dollars?”

If the answers come up “yes,” he’ll quit as president of the Young Republicans and battle Badham, who has not had meaningful primary opposition since 1976, when he was first elected to Congress.

If the answers are “no,” he’ll drop the idea and “probably” vote for Badham, Rosenberg said.

Despite the much-touted “11th Commandment” that warns Republicans not to speak ill of fellow members of the GOP, Rosenberg said the party would not be harmed by competition in the primary.

“The issue is do the people in the county want a choice,” he said. “I know the party is strong enough to withstand a Republican primary,” though it may not be “convenient.”

Some fellow Young Republicans shrugged off Rosenberg’s possible candidacy.

‘Not Certain This Helps’

“I’m not upset about it,” said Martin Ageson, a Newport Beach lawyer, “except I am very much motivated about what helps the party the most, and I’m not certain this helps the party to have opposition to an incumbent Republican.”

But another Young Republican, Jeff Wallack, said he learned about Rosenberg’s candidacy at the state GOP convention in Santa Clara over the weekend and “was taken totally by surprise.”

“A Republican shouldn’t run against an incumbent Republican,” Wallack said.

Badham said Monday that politicians are always prepared for opposition in the primary and that he will take any opposition seriously.

Can’t Recall Last Foe

“We will do what we have to do to expose our campaign as much as possible for what it is,” Badham said. He said he has had primary opposition “more times than not” since being elected to Congress but couldn’t recall who his last primary foe was.

“I’ve never remembered them after the primaries,” he said.

Rosenberg said he expected to need $500,000 to wage a primary battle against Badham. Since deciding at the Friday deadline to file and at least keep his option of being a candidate open, he has received pledges of $70,000 and $4,000 in cash, he said, some of it from family members.

But at a press conference in his Newport Beach home, the possible candidate admitted that “I’ve been in politics long enough to realize the analogy is I’m jumping out of an airplane with a parachute in my hand, and I’ve got to get it on and get it open” before hitting the ground.

Contributing to this article were Times staff writers Jeffrey A. Perlman and Lanie Jones.