Rep. Lowery of S.D. Explains Bad Checks

A contrite and apologetic Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) on Saturday explained to a curious San Diego constituency his role in the House banking scandal, admitting that both he and his wife, Katie, wrote 300 bad checks valued at almost $104,000.

The admission was a public reversal from Lowery’s contention in previous months that he had written “only a handful” of bad checks at the infamous House bank during a recent 39-month period.

On Saturday, an embarrassed Lowery said he had learned from Congressional officials only late Friday that his actual total of questionable checks was a large handful indeed.

“Everybody involved in this episode is very embarrassed,” he said during a telephone interview late Saturday. “We’re very private people and we feel contrition over this. But there was no way of knowing it was in this range, no way whatsoever.”

In recent days, congressmen and women nationwide have come forward with red-faced public explanations of their involvement in the embarrassing political miscue that’s become known as Rubbergate, trying to erase any impression among voters that their elected officials in Washington are immorally out of touch with the cold economic winter buffeting the rest of the nation.

All told, more than 20,000 rubber checks were written by 355 current and former lawmakers, while the so-called worst offenders were themselves responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in overdrafts, officials say.

On Saturday, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado) arrived in San Diego and immediately set up a makeshift folding card table at the airport to display some of the 407 bad checks totaling $129,000 that he reportedly wrote to the House bank during the last three years.

As bemused terminal passersby did double takes, Hunter steadfastly claimed that he had nothing to apologize for, that none of his checks were bad because the people to whom they were written all received every penny of their money.

For his part, Lowery said he had no explanation or comment for his congressional colleague’s handling of the matter. But he said the entire incident pointed a righteous finger at the arrogance of Congress.

“I’m only accountable for my own actions, and my constituents know that,” he said. “But I think that this is a symbol of the whole problem of the arrogance of this institution, the U.S. Congress. There has to be a number of changes instituted before Congress can regain credibility with the American public.”

At an impromptu press conference at his Scripps Ranch headquarters, Lowery pledged that the check-writing scandal would change the way all lawmakers went about their personal business in Washington--starting with him.

“Starting today, I will pay to the U.S. Treasury commercial rates for every benefit of office, including doctors, parking, the gym and tax services. And I’m going to send an accounting to my constituents each quarter year.”

At the noon-hour press conference, a teary-eyed Katie Lowery acknowledged that her own private checkbook-balancing methods were partially to blame for her husband’s very public predicament.

“I didn’t always tell him what I had done,” she said. “I want everyone to know it’s . . . it’s just mortifying. It wasn’t intentional. I’m sorry.”

Later, in a telephone interview, Lowery said, “We were two folks on different coasts, writing in the same checkbook. I lost track. I should have been more diligent in my own finances.”

When the check-writing scandal was first reported last fall, Lowery said he immediately called ex-House Sergeant at Arms Jack Russ and was told that he had been responsible for only a handful of bad checks.

On Friday afternoon, he said he learned “to his shock and dismay” that the actual total was an even 300 checks written for $103,968. Fourteen of the checks, he said, were written during 1991 and the remaining 286 were tendered between July, 1988 and the end of 1990.

“I just had no idea it was that many,” Lowery said. “In spite of how sloppy our sergeant-at-arms accounting was, I suspect that deposits got missed or delayed.”

Late Friday, Lowery flew to his home in Escondido and consulted with his wife, “who was as mortified as I was.” The following morning, he said he called staff members in Washington and held a press conference a few hours later.

Lowery said he made four additional public appearances on Saturday throughout his district and said that “obviously this was a prime topic.”

He said he planned to remain in San Diego at least through Wednesday, but added that he planned to make no more public appearances than usual to further explain his actions. Hunter has said he will set up his card table publicly so that constituents can have a look-see of his accounting procedures.

As have other lawmakers, Lowery has explained that the House bank is a 140-year-old cooperative institution that uses the collected funds of its members. In no way, he stressed, were public funds ever at stake in the overdrafts.

“I’ve been very candid and truthful in laying this all out,” he said. “Most often, the response is that people want to make sure that it wasn’t a story of their congressmen playing fast and loose with public funds. There were never any taxpayer dollars involved.”

In the end, Lowery said, his wife best summed up the probable public impression the check-writing scandal has left.

“Katie used the analogy that this whole thing is like a shoemaker’s kids having holes in their shoes,” he said. “While the shoemaker was taking care of the whole town’s needs, he wasn’t looking after his own personal affairs.

“Being out of touch, that’s the whole key to the story.”

Times staff writer Paul Chavez contributed to this story.