The Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Congresman Jeff Denham may be in hot water after a series of campaign contributions with an embattled Sacramento Congressman raised red flags. 

According to the Oakdale Leader, on June 23 Turlock Democrat Michael Eggman’s campaign donated $1,000 to the campaign fund of Congressman Ami Bera, and seven days later Babulal Bera, Ami Bera’s father, donated $1,000 back to Eggman’s campaign. 

The issue stems from the fact that Babulal Bera, 83, pled guilty in Sacramento federal court earlier this year to two felony counts of election fraud – admitting that he recruited people to donate to his son’s campaign and reimbursed them out of his own pocket. 

When pressed about the donation, Eggman’s campaign said they believed that the donation was legal, but were donating it to Planned Parenthood anyway. 

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a D.C. political watchdog group, has filed a complaint against Eggman with the Federal Elections Commission and formally requested an investigation into the Eggman campaigns finance – alleging that the Bera donation amounted to a “straw donation” where a person illegally uses another’s money to make a political contribution in their own name. 

And it’s a serious offense. 

Conservative filmmaker and commentator Dinesh D’Souza – who just released his politically charged film “Hillary’s America” – was sentenced to eight months in a San Diego confinement center when he employed a similar tactic to help a friend that was running for Congress. 

And according to the Oakdale Leader, Eggman’s campaign stonewalled a reporter who showed up to a public function hoping to ask questions of the congressional candidate. 

Last week when a reporter from the newspaper arrived at his Modesto office where he had invited the public to watch the Democratic National Convention, he was advised by a staff member that the gathering “may be open to the public, but not the press” – then telling the reporter that they had to leave. 

Multiple phone calls to his campaign by that newspaper went unreturned. 

Eggman, who has support from the Democratic Party in his run for Congress, beat out Mantecan Michael Barkley to force a rematch of his unsuccessful 2014 challenge of Denham. 

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.