ELECTIONS: 2012: BACA to run in the 35th Congressional District The Press-Enterprise By Ben Gold

ELECTIONS 2012: Baca to run in the 35th Congressional District

10:00 PM PDT on Monday, September 12, 2011

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

WASHINGTON - Inland Rep. Joe Baca said Monday he would run in the California's newly drawn 35th Congressional District.

"I have a proven track record and will continue to fight to create and keep new jobs here at home, lower the number of home foreclosures, and protect Social Security and Medicare for all Americans moving forward," the Rialto Democrat said in a written statement.

Baca lives outside the 35th, which includes Ontario, Chino, Pomona, Montclair, parts of Fontana and Rialto and unincorporated Bloomington.

There is no rule against living outside one's district and it was unclear Monday afternoon whether he planned to move his residence.

By declaring in the 35th, Baca finds himself in a more heavily Democratic seat than the 31st, where he now resides, and he sidesteps a potential showdown with 17-term incumbent Rep. Jerry Lewis. Lewis, R-Redlands, was also drawn into the 31st, which includes San Bernardino, Redlands, Colton, Loma Linda and Rancho Cucamonga.

Lewis has not yet made his intentions known and had no comment Monday on Baca's announcement or whether Baca's decision would weigh into a decision on whether to run in the 31st. Democrats outnumber Republicans in that district only slightly, by a margin of 41 percent to 37.5 percent. But in the 35th, where Baca has chosen to seek an eighth term, Democrats hold a 48.6 to 29 edge.

But Baca already has Democratic company in the race. State Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Chino, announced last week that she is running in the 35th. Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Pomona, is also eyeing a run there.

Baca now represents San Bernardino, Rialto and much of the western San Bernardino Valley. The new 35th, drawn by the state's redistricting panel, includes more than 60 percent of his current district. Baca also represented all of the territory in the 35th during his tenure as a state senator, he said.

"It has been my distinct honor to fight for the residents of the Inland Empire in Congress since first winning a special election in 1999," he said.

JOBS SPEECH: Inland Lawmakers cool to Obama Plan.. by Ben Gold Press-Enterprise

JOBS SPEECH: Inland lawmakers cool to Obama plan

		Download story podcast

10:56 PM PDT on Thursday, September 8, 2011

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

WASHINGTON - Inland Southern California's Republican House members panned President Barack Obama's job-creation initiative Thursday night, describing the $447 billion proposal as the latest in a series of costly economic stimulus initiatives that have failed to end the nation's unemployment crisis.

The cool reception from area Republicans underscores the difficult road ahead for Obama's plan to lower the country's 9.1 percent jobless rate through a combination of tax relief, extended unemployment benefits and an injection of federal infrastructure spending.

Republicans, who hold House's majority, favor an approach that would tackle the $14.7 trillion national deficit by slashing spending, and would spark hiring by cutting federal regulations that they contend are making it hard for companies to do business.

"$447 billion is real money; it's a second stimulus," said Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, referring to 2009's $787 billion American Recovery Act. "He's not going to get everything he wants."

While Obama maintained that the spending in his plan would be paid for, Calvert's sentiments appeared to be shared by most Republicans. They stood to applaud only a handful of times as Obama laid out his plan to a joint session ofCongress , in contrast to Democrats, who cheered throughout the 40-minute address.

Rep. Joe Baca, the Inland region's only Democratic House member, said the newly unveiled American Jobs Act would devote billions of dollars to fixing a host of problems that have hit the country as a whole, and Inland Southern California in particular including, home foreclosures, crumbling roads, bridges and schools and, most importantly, unemployment.

"There was a time when people had jobs and people felt good about going to work; he's trying to get us back to that," said Baca, D-Rialto. "He clearly outlined a plan to put our people back to work."

The Inland unemployment rate is much higher than the national average at 15.1 percent in Riverside County and 14.3 percent in San Bernardino County.

The centerpiece of the proposal, $140 billion for infrastructure and transportation projects, has, at least in theory, support from some Republicans who wanted to see more of that kind of spending in the original stimulus bill.

Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, said he was among those disappointed by the 2009 legislation and predicted Obama's new plan would have a difficult time passing the House unless "99 percent or more" of the cost were spent on transportation and infrastructure projects.

If the plan involves anything less, "somebody is nuts or smoking something,"Lewis said.

He said even popular infrastructure projects are regularly stymied by environmental red tape, and repeated that relaxed regulations would work better than increased spending.

Reps. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs , and Darrell Issa, R-Vista, also expressed disappointment in Obama's address in statements issued late Thursday.

Obama defended the bill's price tag. He said the legislation would revise targets of the new congressional deficit-reduction panel known as the "super committee," which is now tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions by later this year. Under his plan, the committee would have to increase that amount to $1.95 trillion to offset the jobs bill's cost.

Calvert said that idea amounts to "anteing up" on the committee's already difficult work, and lamented the ideological differences between the two parties.

"We're all interested in getting the economy moving again," he said. "Certainly the Inland Empire hasn't come out of the recession."