Laura Richardson’s last campaign was one for reelection to a newly reconfigured district against fellow Democrat, Janice Hahn. She did not win. Before the formation of the 44th District, she was our congressional representative for the 37th District. In 2012, following the dissolution of the 36th and 37th Districts, she found herself pitted against fellow Democrat Janice Hahn, representing the 36th Congressional District at the time.
Before that, Ms. Richardson was serving in the state assembly for the 55th assembly district. She was there for nine months before Congresswoman Millender McDonald had passed and her congressional seat opened up.
Don’t call her entry into the Senate District race a comeback. When I interviewed her last month, she noted that she never left, deftly and quickly gave an update as to what she had been up to including, her selling her first San Pedro home for another in San Pedro, supporting local businesses, and figuring out her next steps after COVID.
Richardson provided a more thorough explanation of what happened with the 2012 redistricting process, explaining that the district was cut in half and was made into a minority-majority district, meaning a larger Hispanic population. Redistricting reshaped the district to include Lynwood, South Gate, and other communities that weren’t in the same district in the past, she explained. She called the race an eye-opener.
“Fortunately, I have won more than I lost, but still it was disappointing because I take public service really seriously,” said Richardson. “And I work very hard and I enjoy helping other people.
Richardson explained that after losing the congressional race, she started a consultant business and began representing such companies as the West Basin water district. She also worked with the Cordoba Corporation, an architecture firm looking to do business in the LA River alongside the Army Corps of Engineers.
She also worked for a company with a large portfolio of multifamily properties, creating a health and wellness program for those residing in senior living properties. She didn’t name the company.
“They asked me to create a health and wellness program to help their seniors to be able to continue to live at home safely and enjoyably,” Richardson said. “So, we launched that program at two of the properties and it was very successful. Then COVID hit.”
She also had gone into business with her sister rehabbing older homes.
“So I’ve been a successful small business owner working at doing that and so I’ve learned what it’s like to keep a team working and healthy and safe and in the end hopefully having some degree of profit that you can continue,” she said”
Throughout her term in Congress, Richardson’s financial struggles after running for two elective offices in a year took its toll.
Richardson was accused of receiving preferential treatment by a bank when it rescinded an erroneous foreclosure of her house in Sacramento but was cleared of wrongdoing by the House Ethics Committee.
When Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald died, Richardson’s predecessor in the 37th Congressional District, Richardson 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 on payments on her three properties. Still, the bank violated this agreement concerning the Sacramento property when it foreclosed on the house. The bank then rescinded the foreclosure, which caused the controversy.
Richardson purchased the Sacramento home with no money down and a subprime mortgage, something many Americans experienced in the wake of the 2008 housing crisis and subprime mortgages. 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. The Ethics Committee reported that her Sacramento neighbors complained that Richardson was not maintaining the home.
If that weren’t enough, several months later, the House Ethics Committee issued its report about accusations of improper use of staff during her second campaign for Congress. 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. The full House voted in favor of reprimanding Richardson.
Despite these challenges, Richardson, from my recollections, was considered formidable and able as a legislator while in Congress.
With this in mind, I asked her how running for two elected offices in a year affected her career and what advice would she give to a political protege who finds themselves in a similar situation.
Richard took a step back and recounted the moment she decided to run for Congresswoman McDonald’s seat.
“When I ran, the first elected official I worked for was Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald. When I went to the State Assembly I was happy. I was on great committees. I was in leadership. I was the first person from the South Bay Area to serve as assistant speaker pro tem. So things were falling perfectly in line,” Richardson explained.
Richardson noted that her mentor’s death came as a shock even though everyone in Millender-McDonald’s circle knew she was not well.
“I remember being in the shower and just crying and thinking, “This wasn’t how I planned it,” Richardson said. “I envisioned being in the Assembly for six years; In the State Senate for eight years.”
It is then, Richardson explained, that she would have explored running for her mentor’s seat.
“It really was a difficult decision and frankly, what caused me to do it was there was a community meeting… and at that community meeting different leaders spoke and said how important it was to maintain representation. Not only in terms of the fact that she was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus but also someone from the community with similar values and would advocate to help in those areas such as Watts and Willowbrook and Compton and so on and so it was at that community meeting.”
Richardson noted that several people spoke during that meeting, including one of the Congresswoman’s five adult children, Valerie.
“That was really difficult to be a part of because I would never want to do anything that was not helpful to the family,” Richardson said. “But it was viewed that since I had just run in the assembly I had the strongest opportunity to win. Isadore Hall who was … in the assembly, was a rising star himself, and he graciously acknowledged that I probably was in the best position and he supported me.”
Richardson credited the example that was set by the legendary Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally who died in 2012.
“People like Merv used to do what the question you’re asking me, ‘What would I do?… ‘How would I prepare someone’ or ‘What would I say?’” Richardson said. “It starts way back from before that. It starts with mentors developing you and helping you. And if anything I’ve learned from the 10 years of being home and of all the things that I’d like to work on, one of them is continuing to develop others.”
Giving the question further thought, she continued.
“I think it’s really important to tell people to communicate and prepare that bench so that they’re ready to step in. So … I would say from the lessons learned that I’ve had, it’s really important to have a transition team because I jumped so quickly all in one year: City Council, State Assembly, and Congress. It was difficult and because you want to serve, you want to be helpful, but you have different ways that you’re working on policy and all these other challenges, and yet you’re still trying to maintain and help in the community.
“So I would say, really important, is to have a transition team, have people you trust, people who you’re going to listen to because you can have people you like and you trust but you don’t listen to them. Yeah, so it’s important to have people that you listen to and you respect and you have that good old-fashioned kitchen cabinet.”