Challenger Rosenberg Off to Fast, Well-Financed Start : Badham Gears Up for a Tough Primary Race

Facing what suddenly appears to be his toughest primary election in 10 years, Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) has launched a major campaign effort that includes a poll, direct mail and possibly three fund-raisers before election day June 3.

Badham, 54, a conservative Republican in a conservative Republican district, doesn’t usually hold fund-raisers before a primary, and “he sometimes goes a couple of years without any fund-raisers at all,” Badham’s campaign coordinator Howard Seelye said Thursday.

But a challenge by Nathan Rosenberg, 33, a management consultant and former Young Republicans’ president, has forced the Badham campaign to shift into higher gear.

Rosenberg surprised Badham and angered Orange County’s Republican hierarchy by filing for Badham’s 40th Congressional District seat on the afternoon of March 7, the deadline for filing.

Since then, the Badham campaign has produced an occasional press release indicating that President Reagan and other Republican leaders support him. Meanwhile, Rosenberg has been running a high-profile and apparently well-financed campaign that has included frequent press conferences attacking Badham as a do-nothing congressman and “frequent flier.” (A February study by Congresswatch reported that Badham traveled more at taxpayer expense than all but one other member of the House of Representatives.)

Additionally, Rosenberg has opened a high-toned campaign headquarters in Corona del Mar and recruited more than 200 volunteer precinct walkers. Last week, blue and white “Nathan Rosenberg, Republican for Congress” signs sprouted in front yards from Laguna Beach to Costa Mesa. Surprised by Rosenberg’s fast attack, Badham on March 27 sent an unusual personal letter to his longtime supporters.

“Once again I have opposition in this year’s June 3 primary. However, unlike other times when challenges turned out to be little more than token opposition, this one appears by his own statements to be better-financed, better-organized and has some support, even from some dissident members of our own party!” the letter began.

“We will have to meet this challenge head-on and it will take substantial funding over and above that which we had previously committed to do the job properly,” Badham wrote.

Badham’s campaign has only $54,804 cash on hand, according to the March 31 report he filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

Because of Rosenberg’s challenge, Badham no longer plans to glide through the primary, largely ignoring it. Instead he is planning a series of fund-raisers that should raise “over six figures,” Seelye said. Because of Badham’s March 27 appeal, large sums of money are already flowing in, Seelye and Badham said, although they declined to be specific.

“If one can believe what my opponent says, he’s going to have quite a war chest,” Badham said from his office in Washington on Thursday. Badham spoke shortly before leaving for California for a campaign fund-raiser planned for him tonight by Irvine Co. President Thomas Nielson.

Rosenberg has vowed to raise about $200,000 for the campaign, and by March 31 he had raised nearly $40,000, much of the money from his connection with Werner Ehrhard & Assoc. Werner Ehrhard, also known as Jack Rosenberg, is the founder of est self-realization training and candidate Rosenberg’s older brother. The younger Rosenberg has been active nationally in Ehrard’s movement.

“In past years, I haven’t had to raise a lot of money, and I haven’t raised a lot money or spent a lot of money,” Badham said. “This time, since I didn’t have a fair amount of campaign money (on hand), I decided to raise a lot of money reasonably fast, and the way you do that is to bring out the big guns.”

About 10 days ago, Badham and Seelye said, Badham asked one of the “big guns,” his old friend Vice President George Bush, to help with a pre-primary fund-raiser in May.

Bush is coming to California May 3-6 to be host to fund-raisers for Reps. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) and Robert Lagomarsino (R-Ventura).

Bush Appearance Doubtful

However, barring some unusual arrangement, Bush probably will not be able to help Badham, according to Helen Cameron, political director of Fund for America’s Future, Bush’s political action committee.

“The trip was planned months ago on these three (other) events, and there’s no way to add another,” she said, noting that the arrangements were completed in January.

She said: “There’s a primary. We basically try to have a policy of not involving ourselves in a primary, a policy of involving all Republicans. We just have to play as fair as we can.”

Badham and Seelye said they were still hopeful that Bush would be able to work some sort of reception for Badham into his California schedule. Meantime, other fund-raisers were planned.

In addition, Badham has confirmed a date after the primary involving another “big gun,” Treasury Secretary James A. Baker.

‘I’m Always Nervous’

Asked if he had been complacent at first about this primary, Badham said no. “Other people have called the old pro complacent from time to time,” Badham said. “But it’s not true,” he said.

And Badham said that he was not worrying any more about this race than any previous campaign. “Ask my wife. I’m always nervous at campaign time,” he said.

Still, Seelye, a former Los Angeles Times political writer, said that this primary might be Badham’s toughest since 1976, which he (Seelye) covered as a newspaperman, when nine Republicans were running for Congress. Badham eked out a narrow victory, defeating former state Sen. John Schmitz by just 1,147 votes.