GOP accuses Baca of improper finance

The Rialto Democrat calls the complaint raised by House Republicans "politics as usual."

By Dan Lee
The Press-Enterprise

Republican Party officials have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, seeking an investigation into alleged campaign-finance violations.

In an Aug. 16 letter to the FEC, the National Republican Congressional Committee alleged that Baca accepted campaign donations that exceeded legal limits, failed to explain how he paid off more than $146,000 in debt and failed to respond to authorities' demands for information.

"Complete failures by Baca to respond indicate that he has no explanation for his violations, and they were done intentionally," wrote Donald F. McGahn II, general counsel of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Baca's behavior "should not go unpunished," McGahn wrote.

Baca said any concerns the FEC had have been settled.

"In the absence of any real issues my Republican opponent can talk about, he has his minions at the Republican National Committee rummaging through old inquiry letters we have received from the Federal Elections Commission," Baca said in a statement.

"But what he doesn't have is our answers to those letters, which have long ago been sent and evidently satisfied the FEC. If we wanted to waste the time, I'm sure we could find letters from the FEC to Mr. (Elia) Pirozzi, but that's just politics as usual," Baca said.

Pirozzi, Baca's Republican opponent in the Nov. 7 election, said Baca should "should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Baca defeated Pirozzi last November to fill out the remaining term of the late Rep. George E. Brown Jr.

Brown died of complications from heart surgery in July 1999.