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Rep. Joe Baca [D-CA43]
U.S. Representative, California’s 43rd District

Photo of Baca
State:California [map]
District:43rd Congressional District [map]
Party:Democrat
Birthday:Jan 23, 1947 / 62 years old

To contact Joe Baca, visit his official website. (Read our tips for communicating with Congress.) See the Project Vote Smart page for Baca for more biographical and issue information.

On the Floor
Latest Floor Video from MetaVid

Congressional Service

Joe Baca has represented California’s 43rd congressional district since 2003.

Below are the past and present terms in the Senate, House, and White House held by Joe Baca:

WhenRoleRepresenting
2003-2010
U.S. RepresentativeCalifornia’s 43rd
(was preceeded by Rep. Ken Calvert [R-CA44])
1999-2002
U.S. RepresentativeCalifornia’s 42nd
(was preceeded by George Brown)

Sponsorship Analysis

"Ideometer"Baca is a rank-and-file Democrat according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship.

These labels come from the Political Spectrum statistical analysis that we have carried out. The statistical analysis puts members of Congress on a scale based on patterns of bill sponsorship, and is blind to party affiliation and the content of bills. From there, we have somewhat arbitrarily divided the Members of Congress into far-left/right, rank-and-file, and moderate (i.e. centrist). For each party, the most extreme 23% of Members of Congress are labeled far-left or -right. The most centrist 30% (i.e. those closest to the other party) are labeled moderate. The remaining 47% are labeled as rank-and-file.

"Leader-Follower Score"
Baca is a leader according to our statistical analysis of bills in this legislative session. Other Members of Congress tend to cosponsor Baca’s bills. For more, see congressional statistics.

To compute the leader-follower score for Baca, we make a table that lists all other Members of Congress. Each row has the number bills sponsored by Baca and cosponsored by the other Member of Congress divided by the number of bills sponsored by the other Member of Congress and cosponsored by Baca.

This is a measure of who is following who. The higher the number, the more times others are cosponsoring Baca's bills without Baca returning the favor. We then take the mean of (the logorithms of) these ratios. Thanks to Joe Barillari for the idea.

Voting Record

Voting RecordJoe Baca missed 208 (3%) of 6812 votes since Nov 18, 1999. The graph to the left shows the number of missed votes over time. Click for a larger chart and a list of recent votes.

Money & Influence

The top campaign contribution to Baca in 2007-2008 was $16,700 from employees of San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. Joe Baca’s net worth was between $3,004 and $46,000 in 2007, according to Baca’s mandated financial disclosure statements. For more information, see the Center for Responsive Politics’ page for Baca.

Committee Membership

Joe Baca sits on the following committees:

Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship

Joe Baca has sponsored 115 bills since Jan 6, 1999 of which 109 haven't made it out of committee and 2 were successfully enacted. Baca has co-sponsored 1468 bills during the same time period. (The count of enacted bills considers only bills actually sponsored by Baca and companion bills identified by CRS that were themselves enacted, but not if they were incorporated into other bills, as that information is not readily available.)

Some of Baca’s most recently sponsored bills include...

H.R. 1243: To provide for the award of a gold medal on behalf of Congress to Arnold Palmer in recognition of his service to the Nation in promoting excellence and good sportsmanship in golf.
H.R. 3855: Every Person Counts Act
H.Res. 89: Supporting and encouraging greater support for Veterans Day each year.
H.R. 2316: Inland Empire Perchlorate Ground Water Plume Assessment Act of 2009
H.Res. 230: Recognizing the historical significance of the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo.

View All... (including bills from previous years)

Photo from the Congressional Pictorial Directory.