In Those Days, County Had but One : Richards Wielded Solo Power as State Senator

Former state Sen. Richard Richards, who died Wednesday of cancer at age 72 at UCLA Medical Center, was a politician who enjoyed unique power when he was Los Angeles County’s only state senator between 1954-62.

A fiery orator and product of the liberal grass-roots California Democratic Council, Richards represented what was then the largest legislative district in the nation with 6 million people.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s “one-man, one-vote” decisions of 1962 and 1964 ultimately added 13 more state Senate seats for populous Los Angeles County in 1966, which diluted the power of Richards’ successors.

Ran for U.S. Senate

Those rulings prohibited Senate districts from being based on county lines and required both houses of a bicameral Legislature to be based on population, as the Assembly already was. Previously, Senate representation was based principally on geography, much as the U.S. Senate always has been.

Richards also was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1956 and 1962, but lost both times to Republican Thomas H. Kuchel.

A extremely hard worker, Richards handled a multitude of bills for more than 30 Assemblymen representing Los Angeles County as well as his own legislative program.

Former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown on Thursday called Richards “one of the truly great senators in California history” and a “close personal friend of mine.”

Brown said Richards was a “key man” in the Capitol strategy that led to passage of a landmark 1959 bill that authorized the California Water Project. A $1.75-billion bond issue subsequently approved by voters resulted in construction of the project’s first stage that led to the shipment of surplus Northern California water to semi-arid Southern California.

Former Sen. Thomas M. Rees (D-Los Angeles), who replaced Richards in the state Senate as Los Angeles County’s lone representative in 1963, noted on Thursday that his predecessor also was “instrumental in early anti-air pollution legislation.”

Chaired Party Panel

Richards served as chairman of the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee from 1950-52 and was one of the early leaders of the CDC.

He also delivered the welcoming address to the 1960 Democratic presidential convention in Los Angeles where John F. Kennedy became the nominee.

After leaving the Senate, Richards returned to the private law practice he helped found in the early 1950s, becoming a senior partner in the 60-lawyer firm of Richards, Watson & Gershon of Los Angeles.

Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Richards moved to Southern California with his family as a child. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from USC.

He is survived by a son, Kim, and a daughter, Leslie.

Funeral services will be Dec. 10 at the Church of the Recessional at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Glendale.