| Election Name: | 2007 California's 37th congressional district special election |
| Country: | California |
| Type: | by-election |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2006 United States House of Representatives elections in California#District 37 |
| Previous Year: | 2006 |
| Next Election: | 2008 United States House of Representatives elections in California#District 37 |
| Next Year: | 2008 |
| Election Date: | August 21, 2007 |
| Nominee1: | Laura Richardson |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote1: | 15,559 |
| Percentage1: | 65.6 |
| Party2: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote2: | 5,837 |
| Percentage2: | 24.6 |
| Party3: | Green Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote3: | 1,274 |
| Percentage3: | 5.4 |
| U.S. Representative | |
| Before Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| After Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
California's 37th congressional district special election, 2007 was held on August 21, 2007, to replace the seat of Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, who died of cancer on April 22, 2007.[1] California State Assemblymember Laura Richardson received the plurality of votes in an open 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 the 2004 Presidential election, John Kerry received 74% of the vote and George W. Bush received 25% of the vote. The district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index score of D +27. The district's high African American and Mexican American populations also make the district lean Democrat because those groups have tended to vote with the Democrats. It came as little surprise when Republican John M. Kanaley received 5,309 votes or 25.24% of the total. After the June 26 election, various articles that appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the Long Beach Press-Telegram all but declared Richardson the eventual winner (see references below).
A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told The 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 https://web.archive.org/web/20070930014639/http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_5940022.
Richardson accused Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata of having "dumped 130 people here" from outside the district to throw the democratic party vote to Oropeza https://web.archive.org/web/20070930014639/http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_5940022. In the race, Perata supported fellow State Senator Oropeza. Richardson was endorsed by several California State Assembly members that included Speaker Fabian Nunez, Majority Leader Karen Bass, Assembly member Mervyn Dymally, and former Speaker Willie 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 and Filipino 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 was Black, Black leaders wanted to hang onto the congressional seat that had been held by an African-American, even as the seat's Latino population has grown rapidly. Black Congresswoman Maxine 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 Congresswoman Diane 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 the Congressional 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 the Los 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]
| width=250px | Source | width=125px | Date | width=125px | Kanaley (R) | width=125px | McDonald (D) | width=125px | Oropeza (D) | width=125px | Ramirez (R) | width=125px | Richardson (D) | width=125px | 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.
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.[8]
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.[9]
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, and Whites as a percentage of total population is expected to decline[10] The dynamics of race relations in the special election could be foretelling of some political races in the future.