Baker Criticizes 2 Rivals for No Stand on Growth Initiative

In a swipe at his two closest challengers in the 40th Congressional District race, Irvine Councilman C. David Baker on Wednesday challenged the conservative credentials of C. Christopher Cox and Nathan Rosenberg because they have not taken a position on the countywide slow-growth initiative.

Baker opposes Measure A on the June 7 ballot because he says he believes it is an attack on private property rights.

“The initiative dictates how one can develop his land,” Baker said. “And as a conservative who wants less government, I can’t support that, and I can’t believe any other conservative could support it either.”

Baker was referring to Cox and Rosenberg, who declined to take a position on the slow-growth measure when questioned during a television show Wednesday.

The issue of growth in Orange County and the Citizens’ Sensible Growth and Traffic Control Initiative surfaced during the taping of a candidate’s forum for the 40th Congressional District at KOCE-TV Channel 50, the county’s public broadcasting station in Huntington Beach. The half-hour shows will be broadcast May 30, 31 and June 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Baker, Cox and Rosenberg are considered the leading contenders among 12 candidates seeking the Republican nomination in the June primary. Two Democrats and two minor party candidates are also in the race to replace retiring GOP Rep. Robert E. Badham of Newport Beach, who is not seeking a seventh term.

Of the slow-growth initiative, both Cox and Rosenberg said it is not a federal issue and have declined to take positions on the measure.

Cox, a former senior associate White House counsel, said it is wrong for the federal government to get involved in what amounts to a “local issue that must be decided by local officials. . . . That’s their role.”

Upset by Baker’s contention that not taking a position was sidestepping the issue, Cox said in an interview after the taping that Baker “must be having a difficult time distinguishing the role of a councilman and county supervisor from a congressman.”

Cox added that Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev “would be delighted to know that one of the leading candidates in one of the most conservative districts in the country is more worried about land-use planning than arms talks.”

Baker agreed that growth is a local issue but said that in a county where growth and traffic have become the overriding issue, “it is important for all of us who are community leaders to address the issue.”

During the show, Baker acknowledged that it would be politically expedient to support the initiative but said he will not because it does not resolve the real issue--traffic and the need for more roads.

The solution to the traffic crisis, Baker said, is not to halt development but to reduce the density of future projects and to begin building more roads with money already collected for that purpose.

Cox and Rosenberg agreed that traffic--not growth--is what triggered the initiative and that efforts must be focused on securing more financing for roads rather than curbing development.

Among the other candidates present at the taping who oppose the initiative were Republicans Kathleen B. Latham, Peer Swan, Dave Williams and Larry F. Sternberg, Democrat Henry Margolis and Libertarian Roger Bloxham.

Republicans Adam Kiernik and William Yacobozzi favor the measure, as does Democrat Lida Lenney. Republican Patricia G. Kishel did not take a position.

Meanwhile, the show’s moderator, Jim Cooper, asked Baker during the taping about allegations that he had had an extramarital affair. The accusation has dogged Baker since it surfaced April 28 when an unidentified man confronted Baker at a candidate’s forum in Newport Beach.

Baker, who has campaigned on family values, has refused to say whether he had the alleged affair.

When asked by Cooper on the air for a reaction to the allegation, Baker would say only that he has already “addressed the issue” and does not believe the issue is “relevant or proper” in this campaign.

“I want to assure you that I am faithful to my wife, and I love my wife,” said Baker, who added that he believes the allegation is politically motivated.