(June 13, 2007) -- 14 candidates took part and LBReport.com provides extended on-demand audio coverage below of the area's third Congressional candidate forum -- independently conducted, not one-party-orchestrated and without questions pre-filtered by one party.

At the Tuesday night June 12 event held at the Bixby Knolls Christian Church. State Senator Jenny Oropeza (D., southbay) said that if elected, "the first day that I arrive in Congress I will be a co-sponsor of [Senator] Barack Obama's Iraq De-Escalation Act."

An upbeat Sen. Oropeza also told the audience:

Sen. Oropeza: We've got a Port here that we've got to fight in Congress to get the flexibility that we need to regulate the shippers...We've got to be able to regulate the Marpol Act [int'l agreement], which is an Act that does not allow for us regulate the shippers' behavior in terms of the kind of fuel that they use, so it's very, very dirty, and so we are breathing in those toxins here in our area. We've got to push, and I will push in Congress, for that flexibility.

To hear State Senator Oropeza's statement, click here.

Candidate John Kanaley, an LBPD Sgt. and Iraq war veteran, said that while he's a Republican now, he was originally (years ago) a Democrat.

Candidate Kanaley makes a point and Sen. Oropeza (second from left) reacts.

Kanaley, who has stressed in several forums that he'd pursue an independent course in Congress, noted that in the June 26 special election all voters -- including independent-minded Democrats -- have the ballot choice of voting for him.

John Kanaley: Democrats who believe in a strong defense, lower taxation and control of government spending...you can vote for a Republican who was once a Democrat and who is a proud Republican and a proud servant of Long Beach.

If no candidate receives over 50% of the votes on June 26, the top-vote drawing candidates from each party will face each other in an August 21 runoff.

Kanaley has been excluded from two Democrat-staged events (portrayed by promoters as "debates") at which the LB Democratic Club presents only Democrat candidates and helps choose questions asked (the latter revelation from a web site promoter's May 29/30 releases).

One taped cable TV show was co-hosted by the LB Democratic Club's president. A second event at a remote location includes a TV news anchor from L.A. as "moderator"...who the promoter's web site says will "ask" all questions and have "ultimate discretion" over questions asked. [Comment: This carefully worded formulation isn't inconsistent the previously stated party-involved groundrules. To our knowledge, the L.A. TV personality has no particular LB expertise on which to select questions that LB voters should hear.]

Two other media outlets which co-sponsored the recent presidential debates in New Hampshire (WMUR-TV and the Union Leader, the state's largest newspaper) have separately told LBReport.com that they would not take part in debates in which political party representatives participated in choosing questions asked.

Assemblywoman Laura Richardson (D., Carson-LB) spoke by speakerphone from Washington, D.C., indicating she was back east on a matter scheduled for almost about a month...but didn't provide details. We asked Richardson's campaign manager, Derek Humphrey, why Richardson was in DC and with whom she was meeting. "She met with members of Congress and she'll be back tomorrow [Wednesday]," he said. So with whom did she meet, we asked multiple times? "She met with members of Congress and she'll be back tomorrow," he replied multiple times.

[small][We speculate the trip included a fundraiser arranged with the help of some supportive Congressmembers; further as we learn it.]

Addressing the audience via a speakerphone, Assemblywoman Richardson's provided a biographical sketch and discussed her private sector/public office experience.

Valerie McDonald, daughter of the late Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald (D., Carson-LB) who hopes to succeed her mother on Capitol Hill, wasn't present.

LBReport.com provides extended coverage below of all the candidates' statements as delivered. We omitted biographical introductions read by the event host (which sounded like they were written by the candidates' campaigns). Our table below includes a timed-index of the event, giving users the option of scrolling to points in the audio file where specific candidates are heard.

To launch the audio in streaming audio form, click here. [Caveat: large file requires some download time even with DSL/Broadband. Blank page will open to accommodate player.]