Laura Richardson

Laura Richardson
Laura Richardson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; from California's 37th district
	In office; August 21, 2007 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Juanita Millender-McDonald
Succeeded by	Janice Hahn (Redistricting)
Member of the California State Assembly; from the 55th district
	In office; 2006–2007
Preceded by	Jenny Oropeza
Succeeded by	Warren Furutani
Member of the Long Beach City Council
	In office; 2000–2006
Preceded by	Doris Topsy Elvord
Succeeded by	Dee Andrews
Personal details
Born	April 14, 1962; Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles; University of Southern California;

Laura Richardson (born April 14, 1962) is an American politician who was the U.S. Representative for California's 37th congressional district from 2007 to 2013. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

She previously represented the 55th district in the California State Assembly for the 2007 term until she was elected to the House of Representatives for California's 37th congressional district in a special election on August 21, 2007, to fill the vacancy resulting from the death of Juanita Millender-McDonald. She was reelected to represent that district in 2008 and 2010. Following the decennial reorganization of Congressional districts in 2012, most of Richardson's territory became the 44th District. She ran against fellow Democratic Congresswoman Janice Hahn in the 2012 Congressional elections cycle. On November 6, 2012, she was defeated in her bid for re-election by Representative Hahn by a landslide 20 percentage points.[1]

Background

Richardson was born in Los Angeles and lives in Long Beach. She was raised by a single mother after her parents divorced when she was two. Her father was a member of the Teamsters.[2] Her father was black and her mother was white. Richardson has said that racism against their mixed-race family was "what got me since the age of about six of wanting to be a public servant."[3]

Richardson was previously married to Long Beach Police Chief Anthony Batts. During the marriage, she took the name Laura Richardson-Batts. She graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1984. In 1987, she joined Xerox Corporation where she worked for 14 years. In 1996, Richardson received her MBA from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.[4]

Early political career

Richardson served on the Long Beach City Council from 2000 to 2006. In 2004, Richardson won a second term outright on the first ballot. As a councilwoman, she made statements that her priorities included neighborhood improvement, public safety, attracting jobs and businesses to the cities’ central corridors, job training programs for adults, after-school programs for youth and expanding senior programs.

Richardson established the Sixth District Master Plan, a strategic guideline for development in the area. Other significant accomplishments during her council tenure include securing the first funding for alley maintenance by the city of Long Beach, initiating the planning process for a Senior Transportation Program in the Central Area of Long Beach.

While serving on the city council, Richardson joined the staff of Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante and served as his Southern California director for five years.

California Assembly

Richardson served as the assistant speaker pro tempore in the Assembly. Richardson was the first African-American and South Bay representative to achieve this position. Additionally, Richardson was appointed to serve on the Budget, Human Services, Utilities & Commerce, Government Organization, and Joint Legislative Budget committees. She was chair of the Select Committee on Proposition 209-Equal Opportunity.

U.S. House of Representatives

Committee assignments

Committee on Homeland Security
- Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies
- Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications (Ranking Member)
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

Caucuses

Congressional Black Caucus
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (Associate Member)

Political positions

Iraq War

In 2003, Richardson said she believed weapons inspections in Iraq should have continued, and that she did not favor an invasion. She was asked by anti-war groups to support a Long Beach City Council resolution declaring the city's opposition to the Iraq War. She did not support this resolution, but cosponsored a resolution declaring support for local members of the National Guard. Once hostilities began, she stated that it was important to support the troops. She argued that once Saddam Hussein was caught and executed, American troops should have come home. She supports a withdrawal plan beginning in six months, according to her mailers, which often contain pictures of former president George W. Bush with a slash mark through his image, indicating her opposition to Bush's policies. She pledged to oppose any new spending for war in Iraq.

Same-sex marriage

She co-wrote AB 43, the bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in California. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 43 in 2007.

Prisons

Richardson supported AB 900 to create 40,000 more prison beds in California at the cost of $7.4 billion.

Environment

Richardson has faced some harsh scrutiny for not co-sponsoring Rep. Henry Waxman's global warming legislation. As a result, Greenpeace has mounted a public awareness campaign about her position.[5]

Immigration

Richardson does not support building a border fence. She does support some path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants.

Laura Richardson (center) with fellow congresswomen Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio (left) and Yvette Clarke of New York (right).

2008 presidential race

Laura Richardson endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, although her district voted for 54.2% to 43.5% in favor of Barack Obama.[6]

FISA Amendments Act

Richardson voted in favor of a controversial update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on June 20, 2008. As part of the bill, telecommunications companies that have allegedly acted illegally in allowing the Bush Administration to spy on customers will be protected from prosecution. The administration's surveillance of U.S. citizens and residents is part of the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.

Political campaigns

Richardson defeated State Senator Jenny Oropeza and 9 other Democrats in the June 26 primary election to win her party's nomination, the real contest in this heavily Democratic district. On August 21, Richardson won more than 65% of the vote in a four-way race against the nominees of the Republican Party, Green Party, and Libertarian Party. She easily won a full term in 2008, and was reelected in 2010, in both cases against only nominal Republican opposition

Redistricting for the 2012 elections significantly altered California's congressional map. Richardson had previously represented portions of inland Los Angeles and inland Long Beach, all of Carson, Compton and Signal Hill, as well as parts of other municipalities. However, her old district was split almost in half, with the bulk of her territory becoming the 44th District. While Richardson's home in Long Beach was drawn into the new 47th District, she moved her residence into the 44th district because its demographics were more similar to the old 37th; like the 44th, it is majority black and Latino. Fellow Democrat Janice Hahn, who had previously represented the neighboring 36th District, had her home drawn into the 44th as well. The California Democratic Party endorsed Hahn for the seat.[7] In the all-party primary, Hahn defeated Richardson with 60 percent of the vote to Richardson's 39 percent—which was all the more remarkable since, on paper, the district's demographics were more favorable to Richardson.

On November 6, 2012, Hahn easily beat Richardson by 20 percentage points.[1]

Controversies

Richardson was accused of receiving preferential treatment by a bank when it rescinded an erroneous foreclosure of her house, but was cleared of wrongdoing by the House Ethics Committee,[8] in accordance with the recommendations of the Office of Congressional Ethics.[9] Upon the death of Juanita Millender-McDonald, her predecessor in the 37th Congressional District, Richardson seems to have put all of her funds into winning the resulting special election, and as a result stopped paying her mortgages. Following the special election, she made agreements with Washington Mutual to catch up payments on her 3 properties, but the bank violated this agreement with regard to the Sacramento property when it foreclosed on the house. The bank then rescinded the foreclosure, causing the controversy.

After her election to the California Assembly, Richardson purchased a home in Sacramento with no money down[10] and a subprime mortgage. According to county records, Richardson received a default notice and Notice of Trustee's Sale in late 2007. In December 2007, Richardson was behind in payments by more than $18,000.[11] According to the couple that sold the home to Richardson, Richardson was not maintaining the home. Sharon Helmar has stated: "The neighbors are extremely unhappy with her. She didn't mow the lawn or take out the garbage while she was there. We lived there for a long time, 30 years, and we had to hide our heads whenever we came back to the neighborhood."[12]

The real estate broker who bought Richardson's Sacramento house at the foreclosure sale accused her of receiving preferential treatment because her lender had issued a notice to rescind the sale. James York, owner of Red Rock Mortgage, said he would file a lawsuit against Richardson and her lender, Washington Mutual, but settled out of court with the terms not disclosed. Richardson had not been making payments on the property for nearly a year, and had also gone into default on her two other houses in Long Beach and San Pedro. Richardson, D-Long Beach, has said that the auction should never have been held, because she had worked out a loan modification agreement with her lender beforehand and had begun making payments.[13]

The House Ethics Committee, following the recommendations of the Ethics Office, found no wrongdoing other than by Richardson's Mortgage Broker, who was referred to the Justice Department for mortgage fraud, which was widespread at the time the mortgage was made. Mistaken foreclosures despite paid-up recovery agreements, such as the one that happened to Richardson, were also becoming rampant during this period.[14][15][16]

Richardson also initially did not disclose a loan from a strip club owner when on the City Council, public records show.[17]

Richardson was speaker of the House pro tempore during the November 29, 2010 lame-duck session of Congress. She initially refused to recognize, then relented to allow committee ranking member Steve Buyer to talk despite the failure of the committee chairman to appear. She was seen discussing with the House parliamentarian and aides how to handle the failure of the committee chairman to appear to present his bill under rules and procedures that minorities in both parties have often denounced when out of power in the House, as Boyer did when recognized in this instance.[18]

On November 3, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that Richardson would face an ethics inquiry related to possible illegal use of staffers.

On November 4, 2011, Richardson claimed that the House Ethics Committee, composed of five members from the Democratic Party and five members from Republican Party, singled her out for investigation because she is African-American. The Ethics Committee leaders did announce that the vote to establish a four-member investigative subcommittee was unanimous.[19]

Decisions of House committee and full House

On August 1, 2012, the House Ethics Committee issued its report about accusations of improper use of staff. It found that Richardson had broken federal law, violated House rules and obstructed the Committee's own investigation. She was found guilty on seven counts of violating House rules by improperly pressuring her staff to campaign for her, destroying evidence and tampering with witness testimony. Richardson was ordered to pay a fine of $10,000 within four months and promised to require staffers who work on her campaign to sign a waiver stating that they haven’t been pressured to do so.[20] The committee also called on the full House to reprimand Richardson.[21]

The following day, the full House duly voted to accept the Committee report and reprimand Richardson.[22]

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