CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / 45TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Defense Cut Issue Defines 3 GOP Foes

It is one of Orange County’s most hotly contested race for Congress, but when the three Republican candidates took the stage to debate Saturday, their behavior was cordial and the disagreements were few.

It was the fourth debate of the campaign for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Costa Mesa City Councilman Peter F. Buffa and Huntington Beach Councilman Peter M. Green--the three Republicans competing in the June 2 primary for the GOP nomination in the remapped district, which stretches along the county’s northern coast.

The hourlong debate covered a range of issues, from the environment to taxes and the Los Angeles riots. But as Rohrabacher told the moderator: “It’s a Republican primary, so you’d expect people to be similar because they’re appealing to the same audience.”

The most spirited discussion among the candidates concerned defense cuts, a key issue in the 45th Congressional District, where hundreds of aerospace jobs are in jeopardy.

Buffa took a hard line, saying that he is opposed to a so-called peace dividend because the collapse of the Soviet Union has actually increased the foreign threat against the United States, not decreased it.

“Now is not the time to get soft on defense,” Buffa said. “Now is not the time when a threat to the United States is improbable. It is more probable, because of the continuing unrest.”

Rohrabacher said he agreed with the defense reductions proposed by President Bush and, echoing Green, the two-term congressman called for a reduction in foreign military aid and fewer bases overseas.

“Bush is on the right track,” Rohrabacher said. “What we have to do is prudently cut our defense budget.”

Buffa also criticized Rohrabacher’s vote in Congress to scale back the number of B-2 bombers planned for production. He said that is “one clear difference between Dana Rohrabacher and myself.”

Even though the B-2 program has roots in the district’s aerospace industry, Rohrabacher voted to build fewer bombers than originally planned because, he said, they are too costly and their need had been reduced by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“When you’re trying to come to grips with the defense budget, you can’t say yes to every weapons program,” he said.

On the Los Angeles riots, Rohrabacher and Buffa called for a severe crackdown on looters. In strong language, both dismissed those who have said there was any justification for the violence.

“I don’t think we should just take hundreds of millions of tax dollars and ship it into a place . . . where people have been totally irresponsible,” Rohrabacher said.

He added that the inner city has long been “the dominion of liberal Democrats at the local, state and federal level . . . (and) what they’ve been promoting is dependency, not empowerment.”

Buffa said the violence was not “a serious, thoughtful response to the Rodney King verdict.”

He and Rohrabacher both favor a program of enterprise zones to rehabilitate the inner cities.

Buffa blamed Democratic policies from the 1960s for the violence. “It was 25 years of liberal policies in Washington,” he said.

Green said his emphasis in resolving problems in urban Los Angeles would focus on improved relations between the police and residents in the community.

In response to the videotape of King’s beating by white police officers last year, Green worked with his own Police Department to improve community relations, he said.

The city opened two substations, gave police officers business cards to hand out and began teaching Spanish to some officers, Green said.

“There is no sense rebuilding a city (like Los Angeles) unless we rebuild that relationship,” he said.