Controversies
According to the Los Angeles Times, Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, directed Caucus funds from its PAC BOLDPAC (Building Our Leadership Diversity) to the unsuccessful California campaigns of his sons, Joe Baca, Jr. and Jeremy Baca. At the time, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) and five other members dropped out of the PAC in protest of these actions. They alleged that the funds, meant to elect Hispanic candidates, should not have been used to help Baca's sons run against Hispanic candidates and that in a previous race funded by the PAC, Joe Jr. had run against Hispanic candidates.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released a report stating that Rep. Baca had paid his daughter $27,000 from campaign funds and donated more than $20,000 to his sons' political campaigns from his own campaign funds. They reported accusations that were made in 2006 by former members of Baca's Washington staff that they were sent to California in 2004 for a staff retreat and pressured to work on Joe Baca, Jr.'s campaign for the state Assembly on their paid time for the senior Baca.
In January 2007, fellow Hispanic Caucus members including Loretta Sanchez, Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), Hilda Solis (D-CA) and Sanchez's sister Linda Sánchez (D-CA) wrote a letter to Baca asking for a new election with a secret ballot. They claimed that Baca was elected chair of the Caucus in a public ballot, despite Caucus rules for electing a chair that require a secret ballot election. On January 31, 2007, The Politico reported that Rep. Baca had called Loretta Sanchez a "whore". Citing Baca's alleged insult and the perceived impropriety in Baca's election to chairman of the CHC, as well as Baca's treatment of Latina members in the CHC, Loretta Sanchez resigned from the Caucus along with her sister, three other female California members and one female member from Arizona. Rep. Baca denied making the insult. Reps. Loretta Sanchez and Hilda Solis alleged Rep. Baca made the remark in the summer of 2006. The two congresswomen state that they heard the remark from unnamed sources, although The Politico identified California State Assemblyman Fabian Núñez as one of those who heard the insult firsthand and told Loretta Sanchez. She said that Baca confirmed the comments to her sister Linda Sánchez the day before Loretta Sanchez confronted him over the accusation.
In 2011, Rep. Baca became a co-sponsor of Bill H.R.3261 otherwise known as the Stop Online Piracy Act. The same year, he voted for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 as part of a controversial provision that allows the government and the military to indefinitely detain American citizens and others without trial.
In March 2012, Baca and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) introduced a bill that would force video game companies to put extreme warning labels on their products. H.R. 4204, the Violence in Video Games Labeling Act, would compel game companies to label their products with "WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior”.
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