Barcia indicted Senator charged in campaign money deal

[maddezmom]

abc12
Detroit — (04/22/04) Democratic state Senator Jim Barcia is accused of funneling campaign money to Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga.

A federal grand jury has handed down a total of nine counts against Marlinga, Barcia and real estate agent Ralph Roberts.

Marlinga is charged with using his office and position to to raise contributions for his unsuccessful congressional campaign in 2002. The U.S. Attorney in Detroit says Marlinga traded favors as Macomb County Prosecutor for money.

Barcia is a former congressman and a current state Senator. He is accused of funneling contributions to Marlinga through his Friends of Jim Barcia committee. The indictment also alleges Barcia was a conduit used to avoid campaign contribution caps.

According to reports, the indictment says Marlinga told James Hulet's lawyers that if they donated $2,000 to Barcia's state Senate campaign that Barcia would send $2,000 in unused federal campaign dollars to Marlinga.

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more: http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/042204_NW_r2_barcia_indict.html

Not good news... :(

[NewJerseyDem]

1. I guess Barcia's political career is over

He lost his seat in congress due to redistricting in 2002 and decided not to run against Dale Kildee in the primary. But, when Kildee retires sometime soon, Barcia might have succeeded him. That seems very unlikely now. But, he might not be that bad since Barcia was quite conservative and a more liberal democrat could represent that district.