WASHINGTON — Like some representatives before him, Rep. Pete Stark (D-Oakland) stood up in Congress last week and said he was sorry for repeatedly bouncing checks at the private House bank.
Like some of his 133 fellow check-bouncers, Stark also said he voluntarily paid a $15 administrative fee--albeit after the fact--to cover each overdraft.
But Stark's conduct stands out among his colleagues: He told of bouncing 17 checks over the span of a year, an average of about one overdraft every three weeks. So far that puts Stark in the upper stratosphere of congressional check-bouncers and well beyond anyone in the 45-member California delegation.
What makes the figure more surprising is that Stark has always handled other people's money along with his own. A multimillionaire, a bank founder by the time he was 31, a former member of the House Banking Committee and current member of the Ways and Means Committee, Stark undoubtedly was aware that ordinary citizens cannot bounce so many checks without placing their credit ratings and checking accounts in jeopardy.
His string of bounced checks "illustrates a certain lack of being in touch with the realities of today's world," said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "How can someone who doesn't appear to care about check-bouncing represent people in Oakland who don't even have money to put into a checking account?"
As a 10-term legislator, Stark appears to epitomize the battered incumbent who faces growing public anger--not to mention a 1992 reelection in redrawn districts--in the wake of the nation's banking crisis and a scandal over congressional perks. These concerns, some legislators suggest, may have led Stark to repent.
"I'm stunned and taken aback by his disclosure," said Rep. Frank Riggs (R-Windsor), a California banker himself who has been outspoken in assailing colleagues for abusing the House banking privilege. "I can only deduce that it is further evidence . . . that Congressman Stark is the classic limousine liberal who has lost touch with the interests and concerns of the average American."
At least five other California House members have acknowledged inadvertently writing a bad check or two, including Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who had previously denounced check-bouncers as "jerks."
Stark himself had no comment except for his remarks on the House floor:
