Connell Breaks Hip in Fall at L.A. Airport

State Controller Kathleen Connell, who broke her left hip in a skating accident last year, broke her right hip this week when she fell while rushing to catch a flight at Los Angeles International Airport.

Connell, 50, had surgery Wednesday morning and is expected to remain hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center for at least a day or two, said Fred Register, manager of Connell’s reelection campaign.

“She’s surprisingly upbeat. I guess she feels that having been hit by lightning once, she knows what to expect the second time and is better prepared for it,” Register said. “This is just another freak accident. Who knows why these things happen in pairs?”

Connell, who lives with her family in Los Angeles and has offices here and in Sacramento, was heading to San Francisco for business Tuesday morning when she slipped and fell at the United Airlines terminal, breaking her right hip, said department spokesman Byron Tucker.

Last year, it took Connell about two months to recover fully after she broke her left hip in a Mother’s Day spill while skating with her two sons, aides said.

Her recovery could take six to 10 weeks this time, Register said.

Connell will probably resume a limited work schedule within the next several weeks, but she will be unable to attend some campaign appearances in the near future, Register said. “In the short term, obviously it’s a problem [for the campaign]. . . . We’ve had to reschedule a few things, but they’ll all get done,” he said.

Her Republican opponent for the controller’s seat, San Mateo County Supervisor Ruben Barrales, wished Connell a speedy recovery, said campaign consultant Kevin Spillane.

“To have both hips broken now, that definitely will make it harder for her, both to do her job and to campaign. She’ll be holed up,” he said. “But she’ll still be able to dial for dollars [from campaign contributors] from a bed, and that’s probably what she would have been doing for the most part anyway” in her campaign efforts, he said.

Connell is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for controller in the June primary. When she announced her reelection bid in February, Connell had a cast on her foot--from yet another injury, a slightly fractured toe, Register said.

Barrales’ only opponent for the Republican nomination, Fullerton accountant Snow Hume, was knocked off the ballot last week when a Superior Court judge in Sacramento ruled that Hume could not run for state controller and Orange County auditor-controller at the same time.

Hume said Wednesday that he filed a writ with the state Supreme Court this week seeking to have the decision reconsidered.