35 Californians on House List of Overdrafts

WASHINGTON —  Led by high-profile Reps. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Berkeley) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), 35 current and former California lawmakers were among those cited Thursday in the long-awaited list of members who wrote check overdrafts at the now-defunct House bank.

Dellums ranked first on the list released Thursday of 303 current and former members of Congress who together wrote more than 24,000 overdrafts at the scandal-plagued bank, according to the House Ethics Committee report.

Dellums had 851 overdrafts during the 39-month period ending Oct. 3 that was reviewed by the panel. An earlier list of “worst offenders” was released April 1. Those on the new list were not labeled abusers by the Ethics Committee.

Waxman, who had not previously disclosed any overdrafts, ranked sixth on the new list with 434. He said that his overdrafts exceeded $100,000 over three years.

The much-anticipated list also shows four overdrafts for Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Palo Alto), who is seeking one of the state’s two GOP Senate nominations and had previously declared that his check record was spotless. Campbell said Thursday that he believes either he or the bank had erred. His primary opponents differed over whether the checks would be an issue.

In the House as a whole, the list included 252 incumbents and 51 former members. Democrats outnumbered Republicans, 187 to 115. Californians on the list included 22 Democrats and 13 Republicans as well as three former members. There are 45 members of the state’s congressional delegation.

Despite a preponderance of Democrats on the list--a reflection of their 100-member majority in the House--the scandal cuts across party and ideological lines. Democratic and Republican leaders are represented, along with four former members who are now in President Bush’s Cabinet and five GOP senators who wrote overdrafts while House members.

Widespread voter anger over the bank--as a reflection of Congress’ perceived elitism and ineptitude--has made the issue a political time bomb. The public backlash already has claimed one Californian: Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego), who wrote 300 overdrafts worth $103,968. He announced Tuesday that he would not seek reelection rather than endure a campaign focused on the bank issue.

Also high on the list were Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado), with 399 overdrafts; Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), ranking minority member of the Administration Committee, 199; Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae), 143; and George Miller (D-Martinez), 99. Hunter’s overdrafts totaled $128,378. The check issue has proven politically damaging to Boxer, a Senate candidate.

The California roster also included Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) with 67; Berman was also among those who had not disclosed any overdrafts.

In contrast, two prominent members received good news. Reps. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento) and Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who had each been told of a single overdraft, were dropped from the list after convincing the Ethics Committee that their initial inclusion resulted from others’ mistakes.

Release of the new list followed the disclosure of the 22 current and former members cited by the Ethics Committee as worst abusers of their banking privileges, including former Reps. Doug Bosco (D-Sebastapol), Jim Bates (D-San Diego) and Tony Coehlo (D-Merced), the former House Democratic whip. They were cited because they overdrew their accounts by more than their next paychecks at least eight times in the 39-month period reviewed.

The 303 individuals named Thursday, who wrote a total of 24,097 overdrafts, were not deemed to be abusers. The ethics panel disclosed only the number of checks written with insufficient funds; not the total amount of the checks or the size of the overdrafts.

The committee has determined that members were rarely notified that they had written checks with insufficient funds and that deposits were often held for several days before they were posted to a lawmaker’s account. Overdrafts were covered with funds from other representatives’ accounts; the practice, which some members call “overdraft protection” and amounted to interest-free loans, did not cost taxpayers any money.

“At the time I used it, I didn’t think it was a problem,” Waxman said in an interview. “Now, reviewing it with a different standard, the use of this special privilege of the House bank gives an appearance of impropriety, and that alone violates the standard I’ve set for myself.”

Waxman, chairman of the influential House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and the environment, said that he used his House account for routine expenses. He said that no checks bounced and that he made immediate deposits when he was periodically informed by the bank that he had insufficient funds.

In 81 instances, he said, he made deposits that would have covered checks he wrote, but the bank did not post them until the next day. The Ethics Committee found that the bank stopped crediting deposits as early as 11 a.m. On five occasions, Waxman said, the amount of his overdrafts exceeded his next month’s pay for several days.

Waxman, who had earlier maintained that his bank record was a private matter, does not appear to face trouble at the polls. The powerful lawmaker has only token opposition in a new, heavily Democratic Westside district that seems tailor-made for him.

Dellums declined to provide details regarding his overdrafts. A spokesman said that the lawmaker was unavailable for further comment. But he expressed anger in a prepared statement.

The Ethics Committee report, Dellums said, “is beyond comprehension because it neither corresponds with the very few times I actually was notified of any overdraft, nor does it take into account those occasions on which it was the bank’s failure to post deposits in a timely fashion that occasioned the overdraft.”

Although he voted to disclose the names to maintain the integrity of the House, Dellums said that releasing the names “is an unwarranted intrusion into our private family life.”

Campbell, who is running to succeed retiring Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), said that he had never been informed of any overdrafts. Nor do his records, which he had previously made available, reflect any checks written with insufficient funds, he added. The four overdrafts cited by the Ethics Committee, including three on one day, averaged $48, he said.

“It was possibly an error on my part and possibly an error on the bank’s part,” Campbell said. “My records show that it’s an error on the bank’s part, but I cannot prove that.”

Campbell said that he does not expect the checks to become a campaign issue.

A spokesman for conservative television commentator Bruce Herschensohn, one of his two opponents in the House race, agreed. He said that he would not make an issue of the overdrafts because he prefers to debate more substantive issues. But he took the opportunity to contend that Campbell’s credibility is already in question because he seeks to portray himself as more conservative than he really is.

In contrast, Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono, Campbell’s other opponent, said that the overdrafts raise serious questions about Campbell’s honesty in light of previous denials.

“It blows his credibility,” Bono said in a news release. “His earlier statement was simply false. Tom Campbell is part of one of the worst congressional scandals in history.”

One lawmaker said that he is taking action to demonstrate that he understands the concerns of those who believe that penalties should have been charged for House bank overdrafts. Rep. Miller announced that he would send $160--twice the interest penalties that he would have paid for bounced checks--to the Contra Costa Food Bank.

“At least in this way,” Miller said, “some good will have come from this episode.”

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this story.