Laura Richardson

	Laura Richardson
	U.S. House, California, District 37
	Former member
	In office
	2007-2013
Party	Democratic
	Elections and appointments
Last election	November 6, 2012
First elected	September 4, 2007
Term limits	N/A
	Prior offices
	California State Assembly, District 55
	2006-2007
	Long Beach City Council
	2000-2006
	Education
Bachelor's	University of California, Los Angeles
Master's	University of Southern California
	Personal
Place of birth	Los Angeles, California
Profession	Businesswoman
Religion	Methodist
Websites
	Campaign website

From Ballotpedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Live chat with a Ballotpedia Writer!

Share this article:

The information about this individual is current as of when his or her last campaign ended. See anything that needs updating? Send a correction to our editors

Laura Richardson was a Democratic member of the U.S. House representing California's 37th congressional district from 2007 to 2013. She lost her re-election bid in 2012.^[1]

Richardson ran for re-election in the 2012 election for the U.S. House, representing California's 44th District as a Democrat. She was displaced from her current district, the 37th by redistricting.^[2]

Based on an analysis of bill sponsorship by GovTrack, Richardson was a "moderate Democratic follower".^[3]

Biography

Richardson was born in Los Angeles, California. She earned her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1984, and her M.B.A. from the University of Southern California in 1996.^[4]

Career

2007-2013: U.S. House of Representatives California's 37th congressional district
2006-2007: California State Assembly, District 55
2001-2006: Staff, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante of California
2000-2006: City Council of Long Beach, California
1996-1998: Staff, United States Representative Juanita Millender-McDonald

Outside of public life, Richardson worked as a businesswoman.

Committee assignments

U.S. House

2011-2012

Richardson served on the following committees:^[5]

Homeland Security Committee
- Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies
- Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications Ranking Member
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
- Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
- Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
- Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

Issues

Staff use controversy

Richardson has faced allegations of misusing her congressional staffers starting in early 2012. She has been accused of telling her congressional aides to collect information about communities outside her district, organizing a workshop to train constituents, and writing talking points for those constituents to deliver while the California Citizens Redistricting Commission met.^[6]

On March 9, 2012, Brenda Cruz, who worked as an aide to Richardson, submitted a letter of resignation that stated she was mistreated by Richardson and a senior staffer during and after her pregnancy, making Cruz leave the job for her and her child's health.

Her letter reads in part, "As a service connected-disabled veteran it is sad to say that I [would] rather be at war in Afghanistan then work under people that are morally corrupt. I have a child to think about now, and my son needs his mother to be healthy and happy."^[7]

Cruz also said she was routinely made to work on Richardson's re-election campaign while in her district office. Richardson's office denied the claims, calling them "completely baseless."

The House Ethics Committee said that Richardson broke the law by, "improperly using House resources for campaign, personal, and nonofficial purposes; by requiring or compelling her official staff to perform campaign work," and that she later tried "to influence the testimony of witnesses."^[8]

The House will now vote on adopting the findings, including a formal reprimand and a $10,000 fine.^[8]

Out of cash

Richardson has spent all of the taxpayer money allotted for her official congressional duties, according to an internal email obtained by Politico. As a result of these money troubles, some of her aides are afraid that they will be laid off following the November election.^[9]

Richardson's chief of staff, Shirley Cooks, wrote the following in an email to staff, "Since we are over-budget, we don’t have money for mailings etc so we have to go the way of putting on public events that do not require the use of the MRA." The MRA, member’s representational allowance, is the account members of congress use for costs from providing services to constituents.^[9]

Any spending that takes place over each member's allotted amount of money must be made up out of pocket.^[9]

Specific votes

Fiscal Cliff

Richardson voted for the fiscal cliff compromise bill, which made permanent most of the Bush tax cuts originally passed in 2001 and 2003 while also raising tax rates on the highest income levels. She was one of 172 Democrats that voted in favor of the bill. The bill was passed in the House by a 257/167 vote on January 1, 2013.^[10]

Elections

2012

See also: California's 44th congressional district elections, 2012

Richardson ran for re-election in the 2012 election for the U.S. House, representing California's 44th District as a Democrat. She was displaced from her current district, the 37th by redistricting. She and incumbent Democrat Janice Hahn advanced past the June 5, 2012, blanket primary. They faced off in the general election on November 6, 2012, and Hahn won.^[1]^[11]^[12] Richardson was considered one the vulnerable incumbents.^[13]

U.S. House, California, District 44 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Janice Hahn	60.2%	99,909
	Democratic	Laura Richardson Incumbent	39.8%	65,989
Total Votes				165,898
Source: California Secretary of State "Official Election Results, 2012 General Election"

2010

On November 2, 2010, Richardson won re-election to the United States House. She defeated Star Parker (R) and Nicholas Dibs (Independent) in the general election.^[14]

U.S. House, California District 37 General Election, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Laura Richardson Incumbent	68.4%	85,799
	Republican	Star Parker	23.2%	29,159
	Independent	Nicholas Dibs	8.4%	10,560
Total Votes				125,518

Campaign donors

2012

Breakdown of the source of Richardson's campaign funds before the 2012 election.

Richardson did not win election to the U.S. House in 2012. During that election cycle, Richardson's campaign committee raised a total of $599,696 and spent $540,277.^[15]

U.S. House, California District 44, 2012 - Laura Richardson Campaign Contributions
Total Raised	$599,696
Total Spent	$540,277
Total Raised by Election Winner	$2,521,899
Total Spent by Election Winner	$2,483,980
Top contributors to Laura Richardson's campaign committee
Cordoba Corp	$15,000
Carpenters & Joiners Union	$10,000
Congressional Black Caucus PAC	$10,000
Landmark Medical Management	$10,000
New Democrat Coalition	$10,000
Top 5 industries that contributed to campaign committee
Candidate Committees	$29,000
Health Professionals	$28,801
Transportation Unions	$28,500
Business Services	$23,600
Leadership PACs	$23,500

2010

Breakdown of the source of Richardson's campaign funds before the 2010 election.

Richardson won re-election to the U.S. House in 2010. During that election cycle, Richardson's campaign committee raised a total of $639,928 and spent $651,731.^[16]

His top 5 contributors between 2009-2010 were:

U.S. House, California District 37, 2010 - Laura Richardson Campaign Contributions
Total Raised	$639,928
Total Spent	$651,731
Total Raised by General Election Opponent	$1,851,459
Total Spent by General Election Opponent	$1,826,846
Top contributors to Laura Richardson's campaign committee
Carpenters & Joiners Union	$10,000
Honeywell International	$10,000
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers	$10,000
Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union	$10,000
National Air Traffic Controllers Assn	$10,000
Top 5 industries that contributed to campaign committee
Transportation Unions	$63,500
Building Trade Unions	$47,500
Air Transport	$46,500
Public Sector Unions	$43,500
Industrial Unions	$26,500

Analysis

Congressional staff salaries

See also: Staff salaries of United States Senators and Representatives

The website Legistorm compiles staff salary information for members of Congress. Richardson paid her congressional staff a total of $1,027,922 in 2011. She ranked 89th on the list of the lowest paid Democratic Representative Staff Salaries and she ranked 135th overall of the highest paid Representative Staff Salaries in 2011. Overall, California ranked 5th in average salary for representative staff. The average U.S. House of Representatives congressional staff was paid $954,912.20 in fiscal year 2011.^[17]

Net worth

See also: Net Worth of United States Senators and Representatives

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org - The Center for Responsive Politics, Richardson's net worth as of 2010 was estimated between $-1,230,988 and $463,996. That averages to $-383,496, which is lower than the average net worth of Democratic Representatives in 2010 of $4,465,875.^[18]

National Journal vote ratings

See also: National Journal vote ratings

2012

Each year National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of congress voted in the previous year. Richardson ranked 92nd in the liberal rankings in 2012.^[19]

2011

Each year National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of congress voted in the previous year. Richardson ranked 100th in the liberal rankings.^[20]

Political positions

Percentage voting with party

November 2011

The website Open Congress tracks how often members of Congress vote with the majority of the chamber caucus. According to the website, Laura Richardson voted with the Democratic Party 89.2% of the time, which ranked 153 among the 192 House Democratic members in 2011.^[21]

Recent news

This section displays the most recent stories in a Google news search for the term Laura + Richardson + California + House

All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine.