Baker Admits Marital Strife, Won’t Talk of Possible Affair

Saying he wants to put the issue behind him, congressional candidate C. David Baker on Saturday admitted his 13-year marriage has been “off course” in the past, but he again refused to say whether he has had an extramarital affair.

Baker, a leading contender in the Republican primary for the 40th Congressional District, invited the press to a reception with supporters to discuss the allegations of an affair, which have been rumored since the early days of the increasingly bitter campaign.

Baker, with his wife, Patty beside him, told 100 people at a Newport Beach home that “I wish I could tell you that there have never been any differences in my marriage with Patty, . . . but we can’t say that. And we won’t say that.”

Baker, a first-term Irvine councilman, said the couple had separated in the past, but that they had reconciled and renewed their commitment to each other.

Baker, 35, repeatedly has refused to say whether the rumors that he had an adulterous affair with an Irvine woman are true. The issue surfaced when an unidentified man confronted Baker at a candidates’ forum in Newport Beach on April 28.

There is widespread speculation that the man, who fled after the confrontation, was planted by one of the other candidates. But so far there is no proof of that.

After the reception Saturday, Baker declined to comment on why he and his wife separated or for how long. But he told supporters, many of them fellow church members in Irvine, that it is somewhat “ironic that it may have been politically more expedient to get a divorce” than “showing character and integrity for saving our marriage.”

Since the allegation was leveled, sources have said that Baker has been under increasing pressure to respond in an attempt to minimize potential damage to his campaign. Baker said Saturday that he waited more than a week to discuss the issue because “I felt it was appropriate to address my supporters directly, not through the newspapers.”

At an Irvine fund-raising event attended by 500 people on Thursday, Baker made similar remarks about his troubled marriage, but he made no specific mention of the allegations of an extramarital affair. He has campaigned on family values and talks often about his religious beliefs and role as a family man.

Baker, who met his wife in high school, said Saturday that “as far as I am concerned the issue is now behind us. . . . The issue may be important to my opponent and the media, but it is not an issue to the Baker family.”

Baker is one of 12 candidates in the June 7 primary seeking the Republican nomination to fill the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Robert E. Badham of Newport Beach.

Badham, who has endorsed Baker, said Saturday at the reception that he continues to support him.