The race has begun to replace Congresswoman Millender-McDonald, who died of cancer last month. Head to the polls on June 26.

Veteran scribe Betty Pleasant of The Wave has an interesting take on the seat that represents the area from Long Beach to Compton.

On April 26, Betty wrote: “No one race can stake a claim on this election. Race won’t matter. This thing is going to be about issues and coalition building. This is going to be a goody!”

But her tone changed completely by her May 10 Bottom Line column: “Poll results scheduled to be released this week show that if only one black candidate runs in the 37th Congressional District special primary election on June 26, that seat will be retained by an African-American, but the drama unfolding between here and Washington, D.C., and between here and Sacramento bodes badly: That seat, held for seven terms by the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, will go to a Latina.”

The column doesn’t talk about the merits of one candidate or another, even though all of the possibilities have a track record for which they can be held accountable.

Betty dismisses state Sen. Jenny Oropeza of Long Beach because she’s a Latina.

Disappointingly the only issue for Betty is how a black candidate can win. Even with this, she doesn’t point out who is the best black candidate. Just that one should step down – it doesn’t matter who – so that an African-American can win the seat.

So the choice is between Assemblywoman Laura Richardson of Long Beach and Valerie McDonald, the late congresswoman’s daughter, also from Long Beach. Fourteen others barely stand a chance but they're in the race.

Rep. Diane Watson told Betty that McDonald is the epitome of her mother and is the best qualified to go to Congress. Yet all we know is that she working for a McDonald family-owned business, the African-American Health and Education Foundation, located in Carson. If anybody has been touched or knows what this organization has ever done, please step forward.

Richardson was endorsed by the Legislative Black Caucus because they concluded that Richardson had the greater ability to win. Nothing about what she has done with her life or as an assemblywoman is mentioned.

Betty’s conclusion: “Richardson needs to make Valerie McDonald an offer she can’t refuse — something big and important — so we can have an Oropeza vs. Richardson race and we can keep our seat. Otherwise, we can kiss it goodbye.”

LA Voice has a round up of views and the The Mad Professah looks at the race from the LGBT community view. The LA Times in an editorial invokes Tom Bradley's name.


Earl Ofari Hutchinson calls the jockeying for the seat appalling.