LOCAL ELECTIONS / 77th ASSEMBLY : Cox, Baldwin Poles Apart in Ideology : Elections: Two Republicans are battling it out in the primary. A consultant calls it ‘the clash of the titans--the conservatives versus the liberals in the Republican Party.’

In a microcosm of Christian fundamentalists’ crusade for upward political mobility, longtime conservative activist Steve Baldwin faces former Chula Vista Mayor Greg Cox in a 77th Assembly District primary that one consultant terms a “battle for the heart and soul” of the Republican Party.

On the surface, the race pits Cox’s lengthy public resume against Baldwin’s bedrock conservatism and army of Christian activists, for whom the primary is a critical test of their goal to move several rungs up the political ladder from the dozens of low-level school and other community boards that they captured throughout San Diego County in 1990 campaigns orchestrated by Baldwin.

But the Republican primary also has another layer of political drama: a compelling struggle between the party’s moderate wing of Gov. Pete Wilson and ultra-conservative ideologues who hope to move the state GOP’s agenda to the right on issues ranging from abortion and gun control to education and the environment.

“It’s the clash of the titans--the conservatives versus the liberals in the Republican Party,” said Pete Kanelos, Baldwin’s campaign manager. “We’re putting our best against theirs, and we’ll see who’s left standing.”

Voters in the southeastern San Diego County district, which stretches from El Cajon to the South Bay, should have no difficulty choosing between Cox and Baldwin, who are diametrically opposed on most major issues. Democrat Tom Connolly and two minor-party candidates--Libertarian Jeff Bishop and Peace and Freedom Party member R.M. (Monty) Reed Kroopkin, are unopposed in their respective June 2 primaries.

Baldwin, a 35-year-old property manager in a family real-estate business who lost a 1988 Assembly race to Democrat Steve Peace, opposes abortion and gun control and favors a voucher system to allow parents to use public funds to enroll children in private schools.

In contrast, Cox, 43, who recently resigned as Wilson’s local government liaison--the latest of a long list of public positions that he has held since being elected to the Chula Vista City Council in the 1970s--advocates abortion rights, favors a 15-day waiting period for gun purchases and argues that the voucher plan would decimate public schools.

“The choice really comes down to picking between a responsible moderate and a right-ring fanatic,” said Cox campaign consultant John Kern.

While that is hardly an unbiased analysis, even Baldwin concedes that it represents a widespread perception within political circles that poses an obstacle perhaps even more formidable than Cox himself.

Baldwin’s close ties to anti-abortion, pro-gun and anti-tax groups, combined with the hardball tactics employed by conservative candidates for whom he has worked, have left him with the dark image of someone intent on foisting his own religious and personal views on others, and willing to practice a take-no-prisoners brand of politics to do so.

“People on the other side really have a Darth Vader image of me,” Baldwin said. “I don’t know why, because I’m really a nice guy. They disagree with me on just about every issue, and they’ve turned me into some kind of evil symbol. But most average voters don’t feel that way, and when they hear me, they realize I’m not as scary as my opponents make me out to be.”

Although Cox generally focuses on his own record in his public appearances, he also has characterized Baldwin as an extremist who is “very dogmatic, very rigid in his positions.”

“That’s the last thing we need in Sacramento right now,” Cox said. “He’s never been in a position where he had to work with people, and it shows.”

Baldwin, who is alternately soft-spoken and strident in his campaign speeches, draws what he views as his defining contrast with Cox in another way.

“My opponent is comfortable with the Pete Wilson view that government can be used as a vehicle for good, while I’m not as comfortable with that idea,” Baldwin said. “I take the Reaganesque view that government doesn’t do that much good, so we ought to restrain it and privatize its functions wherever possible.”

His disdain for government is particularly acute in areas such as birth-control counseling and other social programs that he views as improper “state interference with families.”

“Under the guise of preventing child abuse or protecting teen-agers, the state has come between parent and child, justifying a swarm of social workers and pseudo-psychologists who split families rather than heal them,” one Baldwin flyer says.

With interest groups from across the state pouring money into the race, the 77th District contest will be among the most expensive Assembly primaries in San Diego County this spring. Cox, who already has raised just above $200,000, expects to spend about $50,000 more by Election Day, while Baldwin estimates that he will spend about $150,000.

That financial disadvantage could be offset, however, by the extensive grass-roots network that Baldwin can draw upon--one that he helped build into a potent political force in the 1990 contests in which Christian activists captured two-thirds of the nearly 90 low-level offices that they sought here.

In those 1990 races, an alliance of anti-abortion, pro-gun and other conservative organizations quietly but effectively promoted a slate of “pro-family” candidates--organized by Baldwin--among church groups and their own memberships.

Dubbed “stealth campaigns” by opponents, those races saw far-right candidates focus on minor offices that typically draw little public or press attention, allowing them to reach likely supporters while remaining all but invisible to opponents. Some fundamentalist candidates skipped all or most public forums, or downplayed the intensity of their anti-abortion and religious convictions whenever they were before non-church groups.

Baldwin’s relatively high public profile would have made such “stealth” tactics impractical even if he had wanted to use them in his own campaign--which he does not, judging by the fervor with which he tells audiences: “I’m a conservative and proud of it.” Even so, he expects to benefit from variations of the well-disguised strategic moves used in 1990.

“In war, they tell you about the enemy, ‘If they aren’t where they’re supposed to be, look out,’ ” said Cox consultant Kern. “That’s the way I feel about the Baldwin campaign.”

With Republicans holding a relatively narrow though still comfortable 47%-39% edge among registered voters, either Cox or Baldwin will be a heavy favorite in November in the 77th District, which includes most of El Cajon, La Mesa and Lemon Grove, along with parts of southeastern San Diego, Chula Vista and National City. The district’s current representative, Republican Assemblywoman Carol Bentley, is vacating the seat to run for the state Senate.

Although the lingering recession and political scandals in Sacramento and Washington have caused many career politicians to fear a backlash at the polls this year, Cox views his long public service as a valuable asset in his campaign--though he admits being thankful that he is not an incumbent.

“I always remind people of that,” said Cox, who completed his two terms as Chula Vista mayor in 1990. After leaving office, he formed a business consulting firm, and then joined the Wilson Administration for 11 months, resigning this spring to run for the Assembly.

In his standard stump speech, Cox emphasizes economic themes, noting that during his tenure as mayor, nearly 22,000 new jobs were created in Chula Vista and that he helped bring an Olympic training center to the area. That economic growth, he adds, helped fund many city services while allowing Chula Vista to maintain a relatively low public employee-to-population ratio.

Both candidates adamantly oppose new taxes and say they would reduce costly regulations that they contend have created an anti-business climate, causing an exodus of jobs out of California. Like Baldwin, Cox has called for repeal of the so-called “snack” tax enacted last year to help close the state’s budget gap, but he has refused to join Baldwin in calling for elimination of Wilson’s entire fee and tax hike package.

“The tax increases last year were regrettable, but if you look at the problems that were facing the state, you realize some accommodation had to be reached,” said Cox, who has been endorsed by Wilson.

“People don’t want excuses, they want their taxes cut,” responds Baldwin, who counters with endorsements from several major statewide anti-tax groups and chides Cox for not signing a large “tax-cut pledge” placard that he carries to forums. “I’m not a captive of Gov. Wilson, so I don’t have to defend the biggest tax increase in state history.”

Beyond supporting a plan by arch-conservative Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Camarillo) that he claims would cut state expenses by billions of dollars annually, Baldwin also has proposed a 10-point “Taxpayers Declaration of Independence” that includes tax cuts, a freeze in spending, a moratorium on regulations and “permanent downsizing” of government through elimination of some services and shifting others to the private sector.

Cox, meanwhile, offers his own program to entice businesses to locate or expand in California: reform of a worker’s compensation system “run amok,” streamlining environmental reviews, full economic analysis of any bill before the Legislature and a requiring state mandates on local government to be reviewed every five years.

With Baldwin’s advocacy of “family values”--a theme that includes tougher pornography laws and opposition to gay rights laws--as a backdrop, the controversial educational voucher plan also has emerged as a major issue.

Baldwin, whose family founded a Christian grade school in Chula Vista, favors a proposed ballot measure that would give families a voucher worth roughly $2,800--half of the current per-student cost in public schools--”that goes where the body goes,” meaning that public funds could be used to send students to private schools. The increased competition, Baldwin argues, would force public schools to improve, while an “explosion” of private school construction would ultimately lower public costs.

Dismissing Baldwin’s financial reasoning as “voodoo economics,” Cox contends that the voucher plan would “start out $1.5 billion in the hole” because of the 531,000 students already in private schools in California. That loss of revenue would be “a real threat to education as we know it,” Cox charges, adding that his proposal for a five-year sunset on all state mandates would be a better path toward educational reform.

Their differences on that issue, Baldwin concludes, underline their overriding philosophical distinctions.

“My opponent thinks you can solve California’s problems by tinkering a little here and there with existing government programs,” Baldwin said. “I think we’ve reached a point where we have to throw out a lot of what we have now and just start over.”