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California's 37th congressional district | |||||||||||||||||||||
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California's 37th congressional district special election, 2007 was held on August 21, 2007, to replace the seat ofCongresswomanJuanita Millender-McDonald, who died of cancer on April 22, 2007.[1]California State AssemblymemberLaura Richardson received the plurality of votes in anopen primary election on June 26. Since no candidate won a majority of votes in that contest, the special election was held on August 21, in which Richardson was the winner.
Democratic
Republican
Green
Libertarian
The district has been historically Democratic. In the2004 Presidential election,John Kerry received 74% of the vote andGeorge W. Bush received 25% of the vote. The district has aCook Partisan Voting Index score of D +27. The district's highAfrican American andMexican American populations also make the district lean Democrat because those groups have tended to vote with the Democrats. It came as little surprise when RepublicanJohn M. Kanaley received 5,309 votes or 25.24% of the total. After the June 26 election, various articles that appeared in theLos Angeles Times and theLong Beach Press-Telegram all but declared Richardson the eventual winner (see references below).
A spokesman for theDemocratic Congressional Campaign Committee toldThe Hill that the committee had no plans to get involved in the election.[2] Despite making claims to originally stay out of the Congressional race, the Democratic Party endorsed Oropeza on May 19, 2007. Oropeza took 119 of the 168 ballots cast by party delegates, or 71 percent, reaching the 60 percent threshold needed to win the party's endorsement[1].
Richardson accused Senate President Pro TemDon Perata of having "dumped 130 people here" from outside the district to throw the democratic party vote to Oropeza[2]. In the race, Perata supported fellow State Senator Oropeza. Richardson was endorsed by severalCalifornia State Assembly members that included SpeakerFabian Nunez, Majority LeaderKaren Bass, Assembly memberMervyn Dymally, and former SpeakerWillie Brown.
McDonald won only two votes from party delegates at the Democratic party endorsement. The vast majority of black delegates in attendance voted for Richardson, while Oropeza won all but a few of the Latino, white andFilipino delegates. Blacks make up roughly 25% of registered voters. Many black leaders saw this election as a test of their political clout. As Millender-McDonald wasBlack, Black leaders wanted to hang onto the congressional seat that had been held by an African-American, even as the seat'sLatino population has grown rapidly. Black CongresswomanMaxine Waters also endorsed Richardson, as did many black state representatives.
Originally, the membership of the Congressional Black Caucus was divided between those who supported Richardson and those who supported Valerie McDonald, daughter of the late Millender-McDonald. McDonald was backed by US CongresswomanDiane Watson and some local churches and other political leaders. McDonald is the executive director of the African American Women Health and Education Foundation in Carson, a nonprofit founded by her mother. Some black leaders feared that the two black candidates would split the vote and lead to an Oropeza victory. Polls that were conducted began to justify that fear. Seeing this fact, many Black leaders began to rally around and throw their support to Richardson over McDonald.
While the growing Latino vote represented 40% of the district's population, the Latino vote was about 21%.[3] Most major Latino leaders and organizations, including theCongressional Hispanic Caucus, also supported Orepeza.
The race can also be seen as a contest between two of California's interest groups: Labor and Indian gaming. The two groups clashed over five tribal compacts that would doubled the number of slot machines at Indian casinos. Labor groups fought the compacts because they believed the compacts did not adequately protect workers.
Richardson had strong financial support from organized labor that included theLos Angeles County Federation of Labor, which provided volunteers to walk precincts and make phone calls in the final days of the race. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor spent $275,000 on Richardson's campaign and put more than 1,000 union members on the street, made 45,000 phone calls and distributed 166,000 pieces of mail.[4] Oropeza voted for the compacts. The tribes showed their gratitude by spending $457,000 of independently on television ads in Oropeza's support. Morongo Band of Mission Indians spent $440,000 alone.[4]
| Source | Date | Kanaley (R) | McDonald (D) | Oropeza (D) | Ramirez (R) | Richardson (D) | Wilson (D) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairbanks, Maslin, Maulin, and Associates[5] | Jun 5–7, 2007 | 5% | 7% | 16% | 2% | 25% | 2% |
| Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research[6] | May 17–22, 2007 | N/A | 16% | 27% | N/A | 24% | N/A |
| David Binder Research[7] | May 5–6, 2007 | N/A | 17% | 26% | N/A | 13% | N/A |
Of the 25 candidates who originally filed, 17 appeared on the ballot; running were eleven Democrats, four Republicans, one Green, and one Libertarian.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Laura Richardson | 11,956 | 36.5 | |
| Democratic | Jenny Oropeza | 9,960 | 30.4 | |
| Democratic | Valerie McDonald | 3,027 | 9.2 | |
| Republican | John Kanaley | 2,425 | 7.4 | |
| Democratic | Peter Mathews | 1,125 | 3.4 | |
| Republican | Teri Ramirez | 612 | 1.9 | |
| Green | Daniel Brezenoff | 391 | 1.2 | |
| Republican | Jeffrey Leavitt | 386 | 1.2 | |
| Democratic | Albert Robles (write-in) | 363 | 1.1 | |
| Democratic | Ed Wilson | 362 | 1.1 | |
| Republican | L. J. Guillory | 361 | 1.1 | |
| Libertarian | Herb Peters | 342 | 1.0 | |
| Democratic | George Parmer | 242 | 0.7 | |
| Democratic | Lee Davis | 202 | 0.6 | |
| Democratic | Jeffrey Price | 142 | 0.4 | |
| Democratic | Bill Grisolia | 141 | 0.4 | |
| Democratic | Felicia Ford | 122 | 0.4 | |
| Democratic | Marvin Evans | 29 | 0.1 | |
| Invalid or blank votes | 548 | 1.7 | ||
| Total votes | 32,736 | 100.0 | ||
| Turnout | 12.3 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Laura Richardson | 15,559 | 65.6 | |
| Republican | John Kanaley | 5,837 | 24.6 | |
| Green | Daniel Brezenoff | 1,274 | 5.4 | |
| Libertarian | Herb Peters | 538 | 2.3 | |
| Independent | Lee Davis (write-in) | 12 | 0.1 | |
| Independent | Christopher Remple (write-in) | 1 | 0.0 | |
| Invalid or blank votes | 485 | 2.0 | ||
| Total votes | 23,706 | 100.0 | ||
| Turnout | 9.0 | |||
| Democratichold | ||||
Voter turnout was very low during this special election. Many voters were unaware that a special election was occurring. The absentee ballot drives were a part of both sides campaign strategies because of the expected low turnout. Over 10,000 absentee ballots were processed by the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder despite there being 265,000 registered voters. 11% of the district's 265,000 registered voters cast ballots in the primary, and only 8% cast ballots on August 21.[10]
While race was a factor in the results of the election, some Blacks voters and leaders supported Orepeza and some Latino voters and leaders backed Richardson. Richardson's victory in the primary did depend on Black voters but final results showed that Richardson won over many Latino voters and leaders.[11]
Current population estimate in California project a large increase in the Latino population in California over the next 40 years while the population of Blacks,Asian Americans, andWhites as a percentage of total population is expected to decline[12] The dynamics of race relations in the special election could be foretelling of some political races in the future.
