Cong. Laura Richardson Announces She'll Seek Re-Election To Emerging Carson-Compton Area Congressional Seat, And Adds This Statement

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(July 25, 2011, 6:58 p.m., updated 8:15 p.m.) says she intends to seek reelection to the emerging Congressional district (on visualizations released by the Citizens Redistricting Commission) that includes areas she represents now including Carson, Compton, Florence Grahram, Lynwood, North Long Beach, Rancho Dominguez, San Pedro, South Gate, Walnut Park, Watts, Wilmington and Willowbrook.

[The newly drawn district includes the Port of Los Angeles, an asset not part of her current district].

The announcement puts Cong. Richardson on a collision course with Assemblyman Isadore Hall (D., Compton), a former Compton Councilmember, who announced his campaign for the same emerging Congressional district seat last week.

Cong. Richardson released a statement at early evening Monday which LBReport.com publishes in full below:

"Over the past two weeks, by unanimous votes, the CRC [Citizens Redistricting Commission] has repeatedly released Congressional District visualization maps, which would split the City of Long Beach between two counties (Los Angeles and Orange). The proposed maps also split the City of Carson and dividing the region’s well-established, decades old Cambodian, Filipino, Samoan, African American and other communities, which is inconsistent with the citizens' recorded testimony, and create a legally questionable majority Latino, Section II Voting Rights Act District.

"Since approximately over 65% of the current 37th Congressional District lies within the Communities of Carson, Compton, North Long Beach, and Wilmington, which I have represented on the local, state and federal levels over the past decade, having lived in San Pedro in the 1990s and growing up near Florence Graham, South Gate, Lynwood and Walnut Park, I look forward to continuing to work hard for these communities and expanding on the constituent service and legislative work I have provided in my last two and a half terms in Congress.

"As the CRC concludes its final ‘tweaking’ this coming Friday, opens the process for the CRC’s final comment period and the expected legal challenges are presented, I reserve the ability, if there are significant unanticipated adjustments, to revisit my intentions. Despite bringing the main District Office back to Long Beach and opening satellite offices in Carson, Compton and Signal Hill that have facilitated increased services and helped over 1,000 constituents break through government bureaucratic red tape and having delivering millions of dollars in much needed resources, I, like many of my colleagues, remain hopeful in district maps that meet the intentions of Propositions 20 and 11."

Cong. Richardson will face Assemblyman Hall (and perhaps others) in June 2012. Assemblyman Hall is a former two term President of the Compton Unified School District Board of Trustees, a Compton City Councilman (elected 2003) and was elected to the Assembly in 2008.

The Citizens Redistricting Commission indicates the district has a citizen voting age population that's 49% Latino and 28% Black)

Further to follow. LBReport.com welcomes our readers' comments below.

An earlier version of this story misidentified Assemblyman Hall as a former Compton Mayor. He was for a period of time Mayor Pro Tem.