Laura Richardson

Laura Richardson’s public record is rooted in Long Beach, where she served on the City Council from 2000 to 2006 and worked on development, alleys and transportation for seniors. Her route from there moved quickly: one term in the California Assembly, a 2007 special election to Congress and two subsequent reelections. It also includes a 20-point congressional defeat, property defaults and a House reprimand after an ethics investigation. For Senate District 35 voters, Richardson is a politician with experience at three levels of government and a record that contains both municipal work and controversies involving her properties and conduct in federal office. Her career has included service in Long Beach city government, the California Assembly and Congress.

ROOTS AND HOME GROUND

Richardson was born in Los Angeles on April 14, 1962. Her parents divorced when she was two, and she was raised by a single mother. Her father, who was black, belonged to the Teamsters; her mother was white. Richardson has said racism directed at her mixed-race family influenced her desire, from a young age, to become a public servant.

She graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1984. In 1987, she joined Xerox Corporation, where she worked for 14 years. She received an MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business in 1996.

On the Long Beach City Council, Richardson won a second term outright on the first ballot in 2004. She established the Sixth District Master Plan for development, secured Long Beach’s first funding for alley maintenance and began planning a Senior Transportation Program in Central Long Beach. While serving on the council, she also spent five years as Southern California director for Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante.

THE JUMP

Richardson represented the 55th district in the California State Assembly during the 2007 term. Her stay was brief. On August 21, 2007, she won a special election for California’s 37th congressional district. Voters returned her to the House in 2008 and again in 2010.

Her congressional tenure included a vote for the FISA Amendments Act on June 20, 2008. She endorsed Hillary Clinton in that year’s Democratic presidential primary. In Sacramento, she had supported AB 900, legislation to create 40,000 additional prison beds in California.

The congressional map changed in 2012. Most of Richardson’s former territory became part of the 44th District, while her Long Beach home was drawn into the new 47th District. She moved into the 44th District, sought reelection against Representative Janice Hahn and lost on November 6, 2012, by 20 percentage points. It was the end of a rapid sequence that had taken Richardson from the Long Beach council to the Assembly and then to Congress within seven years.

THE HARD RECORD

Richardson’s time in higher office was accompanied by financial and ethics cases that became part of her public record. After her election to the Assembly, she bought a Sacramento home with no money down and a subprime mortgage. According to county records, she received a default notice and Notice of Trustee’s Sale in late 2007. Following the congressional special election, she stopped paying her mortgages; properties in Long Beach and San Pedro also went into default.

The Sacramento home was foreclosed while Richardson said she had a loan-modification agreement with her lender. She was accused of receiving preferential treatment when the bank rescinded the foreclosure, but the House Ethics Committee cleared her of wrongdoing in that matter. She also faced complaints over the maintenance of the Sacramento property.

A separate House Ethics Committee investigation concerned the improper use of congressional staff. The committee found that Richardson had broken federal law, violated House rules and obstructed its investigation. She was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, and the full House voted to accept the committee’s report and reprimand her. Richardson claimed in 2011 that she had been singled out because of her race.

THE POLICY SIGNATURE

Richardson’s municipal policy record includes work she did in Long Beach. The Sixth District Master Plan provided a strategic guideline for development in the area. She secured the city’s first funding for alley maintenance and initiated planning for a Senior Transportation Program in Central Long Beach.

Her record at the state and federal levels includes support for a large expansion of California’s prison capacity and a vote for the FISA Amendments Act. Those votes sit alongside the neighborhood-scale work of her council years.

Documented interests in Richardson’s record include Long Beach development, municipal alley maintenance and transportation planning for seniors. Her career also includes a council plan, the first city funding for alley maintenance, a planning process and service in state and federal office. That record also includes her electoral defeat, property defaults and the House Ethics Committee findings that led to her reprimand.