Buffa Abandons Race for Badham’s House Seat

Costa Mesa City Councilman Peter Buffa, citing staff and financial shortcomings, dropped out of the race on Tuesday to replace Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) and endorsed C. David Baker, an Irvine councilman.

Buffa, 39, was among a crowded field of 14 Republicans scrambling to win the party’s nomination in the June 7 primary for the 40th Congressional District. He is the first to drop out.

The first-term councilman, who announced his candidacy two months ago, said he began his campaign too late to raise enough money and attract enough campaign workers. At his small storefront headquarters in a Costa Mesa shopping center, Buffa said, “It is obvious that the timing is not right, and timing is everything in politics.”

As of March 31, Buffa said, he had raised only $15,000 in a race that political experts believe will require at least $250,000 to win. He said that “in good conscience” he could not ask his family and supporters to continue waging the campaign.

Buffa did say, however, that he remains interested in running for Congress in the future.

In endorsing the 34-year-old Baker, whom he called a friend, Buffa said he placed the greatest importance on local elective experience. Of the other 13 Republicans in the primary, only Baker and Tustin Councilman John F. Kelly have been elected to local city councils. Then Buffa said: “And let’s get serious . . . Baker is the only choice.”

Baker, an attorney and considered one of the front-runners in the race, said Buffa told him last Thursday of his intention to drop out and endorse him.

Earlier in the campaign, Buffa had expressed concern that he and Baker might “cancel out each other,” leaving the race to Newport Beach businessman Nathan Rosenberg.

Referring to Rosenberg, Buffa said Tuesday, “Some people have been campaigning for this seat for two years,” and “I was just too far behind to catch up.” Rosenberg, who is expected to battle Baker, and possibly a third candidate, Newport Beach attorney C. Christopher Cox, for the party’s nomination, ran unsuccessfully for the congressional seat in 1986.