Former staff accuse Baca of 'forced volunteering' (Culture of Corruption Alert)

Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) sent six of his Washington staff members to California in February 2004 to campaign for his son, Joe Baca Jr., who at the time was locked in an intense primary battle for a seat in the California Assembly.

The staffers divided their time between the elder Baca’s San Bernardino congressional office, where they were holding a staff retreat, and the younger Baca’s campaign office, often engaging in campaign activities during official work time or under pressure from Baca or his chief of staff, according to the accounts of two former staff members and another source with knowledge of the trip. No member of the staff took leave to do campaign work, the sources said.

Although congressional staffers routinely volunteer on political campaigns, they may do so only under strict guidelines to ensure that the work is voluntary and that no taxpayer money, including that allocated for their congressional salaries, is used to fund their work.

The allegations could represent a violation of House ethics guidelines or of federal statutes barring intimidation to secure political contributions.

While in California, a number of staffers became disillusioned with the arrangement and raised concerns in written office evaluations.

“It was basically forced volunteering,” one former staffer said. “Personally, I had problems with it. I felt uncomfortable going out there. ... I felt a little taken advantage of.”

Another former staffer echoed those comments: “There was a lot of dissent once we got out there. It left a bad taste in staff’s mouths.”

In an e-mailed statement, Baca asserted that all the campaign work was voluntary:

“In 2004, staff members from my Washington DC office traveled to California for the purpose of an official staff retreat — not to engage in campaign activities. The staff retreat was a legitimate and beneficial event, enabling staff to engage in important training, meet with District Office staff and become familiar with the region’s geography and constituencies,” Baca said.

“Some staff members chose — voluntarily — to participate in campaign activities or took time to visit their friends and family members. They were not pressured to campaign and did not engage in campaign activities during the work day,” Baca added, saying that records exist to back up the assertion. “If anyone campaigned improperly, they would have done so of their own volition.”

Baca noted that the staff also toured forest-fire damage in the San Bernardino National Forest.

Last year, Baca directed the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) to contribute $3,300, the maximum allowable donation, to each of his two sons’ Statehouse campaigns, drawing charges of nepotism from other CHC lawmakers. Jeremy Baca, the congressman’s second son, is running for the Statehouse seat being vacated by Joe Baca Jr., who is running for the state Senate.

In the winter of 2004, Joe Baca Jr. was making his first bid for elected office. With no political experience and a lackluster career as a substitute teacher, he was counting on his family name to help him overcome stiff primary competition from another politically well-connected candidate, David Roa Pruitt, the chief of staff to the mayor of San Bernardino.

As the March 2 primary approached, political observers were expecting a dead heat. But instead of the photo finish everyone was expecting, Baca Jr. trounced Pruitt 59-27 percent.

Leading up to the primary, Baca had received more than $60,000 in campaign contributions from out of state, more than 10 times the out-of-state donations Pruitt collected.

Baca Jr. also received $835 in donations from four of his father’s congressional staff members. Some of those same staffers volunteered with the campaign.

On Feb. 12, a Thursday before a congressional recess, the elder Baca flew three of his Washington staff members to California at a cost to taxpayers of more than $1,500, according to House disbursement reports. Later, three other Washington staffers flew out to California, enjoying a day’s layover in Las Vegas before joining their co-workers in San Bernardino. That left only two staff members to handle the Washington office’s workload.

While in California, the staffers worked at Rep. Baca’s district office and at the younger Baca’s nearby campaign office, where they made calls on behalf of the campaign and engaged in other get-out-the-vote activities.

A source based in California, who asked to remain anonymous because of continued involvement in local politics, remembered seeing the elder Baca’s congressional staff out on the campaign trail frequently.

“There were events when the congressman wasn’t even there and the congressman’s staff was there. His staff was heavily involved. ... But I don’t think anybody made it an issue.”

The congressman’s longtime chief of staff, Linda Macias, spent nearly five weeks in the district between mid-January and the March 2 primary, racking up $3,000 in hotel bills, according to disbursement reports. The congressman faced no opposition in his primary that year.

Macias’s lengthy stay in San Bernardino contrasts markedly with the rest of the year. Disbursement reports indicate that after the primary Macias spent only 10 days in the district for the rest of 2004.

A Democratic aide with knowledge of the trip said Macias was instrumental in ensuring staffers helped with campaign work.

“She was deeply involved. She enabled it,” the aide said. “They were using staff as de facto campaign employees.”

In his statement, Baca defended Macias’s long presence in the district that year.

“As chief of staff, Linda Macias is responsible for managing all of my staff in both my Washington DC and San Bernardino offices. While she was in the district, she was engaged in appropriate and necessary activities including staff orientation, training and supervision.”

The other staffers spent between several days and several weeks in the district. They did not stay in hotels but lodged with host families, the sources said. Two of them stayed with Joe Baca Jr. himself.

As one part of the staff retreat, staffers were asked to fill out office evaluations about “how to make it a better place,” recalled one staffer. Several said they disliked doing campaign work.

After returning to Washington, most of the staffers began to seek new employment. Within a year, five of the six had left.

“Shortly after we got back, everyone started to leave,” a former staffer said. “After [the trip], I became very skeptical. I didn’t trust anything. I just felt jaded. ... You don’t like getting suckered in.”

Born Joe Natalio Baca in Belen, N.M., in 1947, the elder Baca was the youngest of 15 children of a railroad laborer. He worked odd jobs before being drafted into the Army at 19. After a two-year tour, he went on to college, earned a degree in sociology and worked for a telephone company in the San Bernadino area for 15 years. He was elected to the California Assembly in 1992 and entered Congress in 1999.

In 2004, Joe Baca Jr. took his father’s previous seat in the state Assembly’s 62nd District, campaigning as “Genuine” Joe Baca, a play on his father’s preferred slogan, “Working” Joe Baca. The younger Baca has his sights set on a seat in the state Senate this year, vacating his Assembly post for the next Baca scion, “Reliable” Jeremy Baca.

“The Kennedys, the Rockefellers, the Bushes and now the Bacas!” the congressman quipped at an April 5 awards dinner in Washington.

THIS IS JOE BACA:
Limits sought on Border Patrol
August 17, 2004

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The Department of Homeland Security wants to restrict the U.S. Border Patrol's arrest of illegal aliens in the nation's interior, concerned that the recent apprehension of 450 illegals by agents in inland areas of Southern California failed to consider the "sensitivities" of those detained.
According to department sources, a formal written policy under review would limit Border Patrol arrests to areas along the nation's 7,000 miles of international border and give U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws in the nation's interior.

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