Baker's campaign finance violations and charges of immorality at the raucous 1918 Oregon Auto Dealers' Convention were both brought in front of a grand jury, who declined to indict him.

Additionally, the KKK's leader (exalted cyclops) in Portland claimed to have blackmail material on Baker, which could have been any number of things.

Johannsen and Gross began a recall effort against city commissioner John Mann, Baker, Riley, and Langley.

Baker was acquitted on the market corruption charges days before the recall vote, which narrowly failed to remove him from office.

[3]: 120 The October 18, 2012 edition of the Portland Mercury listed Baker as the Second Worst Mayor in Portland history because he had "proudly posed for a photo shoot with hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan and felt his greatest accomplishment of mayor was 'removal of subversives'," particularly members of the Industrial Workers of the World union.