Bilbray's Bajagua Boondoggle

The only thing the plan needed to work was $156 million (that's now $600 million and growing) to build the second water plant in Mexico. And a rewrite of U.S.-Mexico treaties, none of which allowed for this kind of thing.

So Bilbray got to work: with another lawmaker, he crafted a bill in 1999 that forced the State Department to renegotiate with Mexico to allow for the project. It also handed the Bajagua brains the keys to a sole-source contract to build the Mexican plant. (Bilbray explains it all in this letter, which POGO obtained.) The bill passed in 2000.

Never mind the complaints coming from the Mexican government that the United States was making decisions about a Mexican project that it had never signed off on.

In 2000, Bilbray lost his Congressional seat. For $35,000, the Bajagua guys snapped him up as their lobbyist. He pressed State to get the OK's from Mexico and to issue his backers a contract to start building their plant.

Bilbray even testified before Congress on behalf of the Bajagua project. He didn't bother to mention he was being retained by the project's creators to sell the thing in Washington, however.

To date, the State Department has yet to let the contract to the developers -- probably because Mexico has yet to agree to the State Department's requests, Nick says. Could Bilbray be more helpful with that from behind a Congressional desk?

GOP's Bilbray in CA Runoff, But Ethics Questions Swirl

As a congressman, Bilbray traveled to the Marianas Islands on a junket arranged by disgraced GOP superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. The island government, controlled by a handful of wealthy manufacturers, was pressing to keep the U.S. from imposing wage and labor laws on their factories.

Bilbray took up the Marianas' cause with aplomb, although he has denied knowing Abramoff. "I assume I've run into him during the process," he said. "But when I see him on TV, it's not someone I recognize."

Bilbray lost re-election to Congress in 2000; he immediately declared himself a lobbyist. Congress prohibits former members from lobbying their former colleagues for one year, so Bilbray lobbied the State Department and the White House until he was allowed back in the Capitol. (More on that soon.)

Once there, folks have said he had trouble keeping to the rules. "Several sources, including one GOP lawmaker, said [Bilbray] uses his floor privilege to lobby in the House chamber," which is not permitted, the Hill newspaper reported last June. Bilbray denied the charge: "I've never done that. That's not right."

Also as a lobbyist, he once testified before Congress about a water treatment project, but failed to reveal he was paid to lobby for the group whose project was being discussed.

Needless to say, it's not the spotless record a party would hope for to fill a seat held most recently by possibly its most corrupt congressman in recent history.