Badham Calls His Opponent’s Ties to Est ‘Scary’

Drawing on his family tie to est founder Werner Erhard, a first-time congressional candidate from Newport Beach has been receiving help from est students and executives as precinct walkers, contributors and strategists in his campaign.

As a result, management consultant and former Young Republicans president Nathan Rosenberg, 33, who is Erhard’s brother, is mounting what five-term incumbent Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) concedes is the toughest primary battle he’s faced in 10 years.

Badham has called the Rosenberg campaign’s ties to Erhard, whose name was Jack Rosenberg before he changed it, “scary”; he has charged that the Erhard organization, a “human potential movement” founded in the 1970s, has used “brainwashing” in its training; he has said he suspects that Erhard backs his brother’s candidacy to foster “the tenets to the est program: to create a different world by mind revolution. And that is ominous in scope.”

“Brainwashing Techniques”

Both Rosenberg and spokesmen for Erhard’s San Francisco firm, Werner Erhard & Associates, say there is nothing ominous about Rosenberg’s campaign. Est and its current training, The Forum--far from using “brainwashing techniques”--use methods of inquiry that enhance personal effectiveness, said Rosenberg, who has taught Erhard seminars for years. “It’s really a very middle-class--kind of a mom, apple pie--kind of thing,” he said.

He said Badham’s charges “smack of McCarthyism.”

If Erhard students around the country have contributed to Rosenberg’s campaign, it was not because of any corporate connection, Erhard spokesman Dr. Jack Mantos said. They only did so because Rosenberg had met them through his seminars and so had “a lot of friends.”

Said one Badham supporter, a member of the Republican Party’s influential Lincoln Club and an avowed Rosenberg foe, “He’s like a skyrocket. He comes out of nowhere and bang-o, all of a sudden he’s highly organized.”

In challenging the Republican incumbent, Rosenberg defied much of Orange County’s Republican establishment. Still, some leading county Republicans are backing Rosenberg, agreeing with him that Badham spends too much time on junkets and misses too many roll-call votes.

The county needs an activist congressman, said developer Gus Owen, another Lincoln Club member; if Rosenberg has ties to est, those are only “a little thing.” In response to questions at a March 25 press conference, Rosenberg acknowledged that Erhard was his brother, that he expected to receive about $5,000 in contributions from Erhard executives and that another brother, Harry Rosenberg, 36, would take a leave of absence as seminar director with Erhard’s firm to be his campaign manager.

Rosenberg’s Activities

When asked about his own participation in the activities of Werner Erhard & Associates, Rosenberg said that he “did the est training and The Forum. I did The Forum one year ago.” However, in a subsequent interview, he acknowledged these further activities:

- On March 15, Erhard conducted a seminar that was beamed by satellite to 4,000 students from Los Angeles to Miami. In that broadcast, Erhard said he was “thrilled” about his brother’s campaign but cautioned that he and his organization would “stay out of politics.” Still, in case any viewers had questions, Erhard gave out Rosenberg’s telephone number and address.

- About 25% of Rosenberg’s 200 volunteers have taken est or Erhard’s current seminar, The Forum. Nathan Rosenberg frequently taught these courses and some of his students wanted to work for him, campaign manager Harry Rosenberg said.

- 42.8% of the $39,551 that Nathan Rosenberg received in campaign contributions by March 31 came from Erhard executives, students or seminar leaders.

- Rosenberg served as national chairman for 300 Erhard “seminar directors” from about September, 1984, to September, 1985. During this time, Rosenberg inspected the quality of seminars around the country, traveling once to New York, Florida and Texas, he said.