Orange County Elections : Badham Calls on Foe to Bare Funding Sources : Incumbent Displays Tax Returns, Charges That Rosenberg is Backed by Brother, est Founder

Displaying summaries of his tax returns, Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) on Friday challenged his Republican opponent to make the same information public and to explain “who is Nathan Rosenberg, who sent him here and where does he get his money?”

During a press conference at his home, Badham charged that Rosenberg is a “tissue-paper candidate who has wrapped himself in a thin layer of questionable or negligible experience, choosing to attack a 10-year incumbent rather than run on the merits of his own limited and unknown background.”

As he has before, Badham contended that his opponent in the June 3 primary, a 33-year-old management consultant, is backed by Werner Erhard, Rosenberg’s older brother and founder of the 1970s “human potential” movement known as est.

“Tell them to get some documentation” for that charge, responded Rosenberg. “That’s absolutely a lie. I’ve never ever, ever, ever taken a salary from Werner Erhard & Associates.”

Served at Erhard Chairman

Rosenberg, who has taught Erhard seminars for at least six years and served as a national chairman for Erhard seminars, said he has been reimbursed for expenses but has never received a salary from his brother’s firm.

He said later that reporters could inspect his tax returns at his campaign offices.

During his press conference, Badham also questioned Rosenberg’s statement that he has been a lifelong Republican.

Rosenberg worked for Democrats for 2 1/2 years, Badham noted, first under Secretary of Defense Harold Brown in the Carter Administration, then for Robert Byrd, U.S. Senate Democratic majority leader.

Cites Military Experience

Rosenberg countered that he worked for Brown when he was in the Navy and “you don’t operate on your politics when you’re in the military. . . . You operate on where’s the proper place for you to be.”

During the following six months, when Rosenberg worked for Byrd as an analyst, he said his Republican politics were not an issue.

Since he left Washington in 1981, Rosenberg said he has not been paid a salary.

From 1981 to about July, 1985, he said he worked for the Los Angeles management consulting firm of McDade & Shidler, first, as a “partner in training” receiving a percentage from deals he concluded, then as a full partner receiving a draw from the firm.

Worked as Consultant

Rosenberg added that, since September, 1985, he has worked as a management consultant based in Santa Ana. His major client was the J. Melvin Muse & Co., the small Santa Ana advertising firm which is handling his campaign.

Badham on Friday handed out copies of his tax returns in an effort to refute Rosenberg’s charge the day before that the congressman had used his office “for personal gain.”

Badham’s 1985 return showed income of $99,456, with $75,100 from his congressional salary and the rest from investments and his wife’s income from selling real estate

In another development, Rosenberg said he had changed a sign that formerly billed his Corona del Mar headquarters as “Republican headquarters,” after Newport Beach Republicans complained.

Greg Haskin, executive director of the Republican Party of Orange County, said that every year a group of Republican women in Newport Beach run a Republican headquarters for all candidates and that “a strong contingent” of these women were “a little miffed” that Rosenberg had used such a title in his sign.

Last week, after Haskin spoke to Rosenberg’s campaign manager, the sign was moved. Banners on Rosenberg’s Coast Highway headquarters now read: “Republican Nathan Rosenberg Candidate for Congress Headquarters.”