Rep. Thomas Admits He Overdrew House Account 119 Times : Ethics: The Republican who represents part of the Antelope Valley says he always deposited funds to avoid bouncing checks.

Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), who represents part of the Antelope Valley, has said in an interview that he overdrew his House bank account 119 times in three years.

But a Thomas aide said late Monday that the $157,000 figure given in the interview was misleading because it represents the face value of the checks, not the amount by which they exceeded the funds Thomas had in his account. That sum cannot be determined, the aide said.

None of the checks written between 1988 and 1991 were returned due to insufficient funds, Thomas said in an interview published Saturday by the Bakersfield Californian. Instead, the now-defunct bank simply held the checks until the congressman’s paycheck was deposited or until he made another deposit.

Thomas said the biggest overdraft--$16,200--was registered in October, 1989, when Thomas wrote a $15,300 check to buy a car, according to the newspaper.

But his bank statement shows that a $21,500 deposit, loan money from a credit union, was made the same day. The House bank “had the money, but they were sloppy in their posting,” Thomas said.

He did not check with the House bank to find out if the credit union money had been credited to his account before writing the check, he said.

Thomas aide Cathy Abernathy said Monday that the amount of the overdrafts is impossible to determine because the House bank did not keep such records and Thomas “didn’t get called that many times” by the bank about individual overdrafts. In cases where he did, she said, “he went down that day and put in” covering funds.

“Virtually all checks were covered the day they were drawn or in a day or two,” she said. “No checks bounced, no checks were returned to him and no checks were kited.”

Part of the problem, Abernathy said, is that the bank credited deposits “when they felt like it, five days later or seven days later,” meaning that some checks were held even though enough money was in Thomas’ account.

Thomas asked for information about his account Thursday from the House Ethics Committee, which plans to release the number of overdrafts made by 355 former and present House members.

The panel has already released the numbers for the 24 worst abusers of the system, prompting angry responses from voters nationwide.

Thomas said he would accept the Ethics Committee figures but refused to release the bank records, saying they were personal. “I am simply accepting the number so I can move on to a campaign based on issues,” he said.

The congressman also said he never wrote a check on the House bank to pay for campaign expenses.

Thomas’ opponent in the Republican primary, Bakersfield investment adviser Carlos Murillo, said he was surprised that Thomas kept his money at the House bank if it was so inefficient.