Two more enter race for 37th District

The race to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald has heated up with the announcements by two candidates -- one African American, the other Latina -- who join a growing list of contenders for the 37th Congressional District seat.

Assemblywoman Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach), who served on the Long Beach City Council until she was elected to the Assembly in November, announced her candidacy Tuesday.

State Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach), who served in the Assembly from 2000 to 2006 before election to the Senate in November, announced her intention to run Wednesday. The special election will be held June 26.

The overwhelmingly Democratic district has long been considered a safe seat for African American candidates. But as with much of Los Angeles County, the 37th District has undergone a demographic shift in the last 20 years. Blacks still dominate in voting strength but Latinos now comprise a majority in an area that includes Compton, Carson, much of Long Beach and parts of South Los Angeles.

Richardson’s chances of succeeding Millender-McDonald may rest in part on how much support she’s able to muster from black elected officials and on how many other African Americans enter the race. If, as some speculate, Valerie McDonald, Millender-McDonald’s daughter, enters the race, Richardson’s chances diminish and so do the hopes of keeping the seat in the hands of an African American.

Should Oropeza win, she would be the first Latino to represent one of several specific districts for major elected offices in Los Angeles County -- including seats on the L.A. City Council, Board of Supervisors, state Legislature and Congress -- that have been traditionally held by African Americans for more than a decade.

“The black leadership sees this as an important opportunity to hold onto an African American seat,” said Kerman Maddox, a public affairs consultant. “Their challenge is to get behind one African American candidate.”

Millender-McDonald, a 68-year-old Democrat who was elected to Congress in 1996, died last month. Funeral services were Monday.

So far, 10 candidates have already expressed interest in running to fill the seat. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote in the special election, a runoff between the top candidates in each party will be held Aug. 21. The winner will serve out the remainder of Millender-McDonald’s two-year term.

In announcing their candidacies for Congress, both Oropeza and Richardson expressed sorrow at Millender-McDonald’s death. They each criticized the Bush administration and the war in Iraq and promised to fight to bring more resources to the district.

“The No. 1 issue is getting our troops out of Iraq now,” said Oropeza, adding that she wants to see more emphasis on economic development, healthcare, ports and transportation in the 37th District.

Elected to the state Senate in 2006, Oropeza, one of the highest-ranking Latinos in the Legislature, heads the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee.

She said it would be wrong to view the congressional race as a battle between blacks and Latinos.

“One of the great things about this district is that there is no majority,” she said. “It is a district that is and has been a home to a rainbow of people from diverse backgrounds.”

Richardson, who was a former field deputy to Millender-McDonald and also on the staff of former Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, also downplays the importance of race in the ethnically diverse district. And she, too, said she would fight to bring more programs to the district.

“It is appalling the billions of dollars America has wasted in Iraq while our schools are underfunded, gang violence is out of control, millions of children uninsured and Social Security for our senior citizens is threatened,” Richardson said.

Other candidates include Democrats Mervin Evans, Lee Davis and Peter Mathews; Republicans L.J. “Bishop” Guillory, Jeffrey “Lincoln” Leavitt and Gwendolyn S. Patrick; Daniel Abraham Brezenoff of the Green Party; and Herb Peters, a Libertarian.

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john.mitchell@latimes.com