Laura Richardson

John Bailey thought it was great when his neighbor was elected to the House of Representatives in 2007. "Not everyone lives next door to a congresswoman," he said. But two years later, he doesn't feel so lucky. The congresswoman's house is abandoned and in disrepair, "a blight on the neighborhood," Bailey said. He thinks the way that Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach) has treated her Sacramento home tells far more about her than her voting record.

When news surfaced that Rep. Laura Richardson had lost her home through foreclosure, the Long Beach Democrat blamed the problem on her year-long rocket-ship rise from city councilwoman to Assembly member to congresswoman and the crumbling real estate market. "I understand that these homeownership issues are a reflection of what many Americans are going through as they fight to keep their homes and to remain financially stable," she said in a news release.

Now that Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach) has won her party's nomination to her first full term in the House, she can spend some time getting her own financial house -- houses, actually -- in order. As reported by the Capitol Weekly and the Daily Breeze, she skipped mortgage payments on her residence in Long Beach, another house in San Pedro and, for good measure, a third one she bought in Sacramento during her abbreviated stint as a state lawmaker.

Rep. Laura Richardson, who lost one home in foreclosure and has defaulted on two others, may get her Sacramento home back, even though the new owner had begun to renovate it. The Long Beach Democrat bought the three-bedroom, 1 1/2 -bath house early last year for $535,000 after being elected to the Assembly, but it wasn't long before she stopped making payments. She also owed Sacramento County about $9,000 in property taxes.

First Rep. Laura Richardson was having problems making house payments, defaulting six times over eight years. Then after a bank foreclosed on her Sacramento house and sold it at auction in May, the Long Beach Democrat made such a stink that Washington Mutual, in an unusual move, grabbed it back and returned it to her. This week, in the latest chapter in the housing saga, the Code Enforcement Department in Sacramento declared her home a "public nuisance."

The delicate political balance between blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles County was expected to shift after last week's special election in the 37th Congressional District, an ethnically diverse area encompassing much of Long Beach, Watts, Compton, Signal Hill and Carson. With Latinos representing an increasing share of the electorate, early predictions in the race to fill the seat formerly held by the late Rep.

Former California Assemblywoman Laura Richardson was sworn in to replace the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald in the House. "I respectfully stand today on her legacy as I reach toward my own destiny," said Richardson, a Long Beach Democrat. Millender-McDonald died of cancer in April.

U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson's rundown Sacramento house, which became the scourge of the neighborhood and a sore point with an investor who thought he had bought it out of foreclosure, has drawn the interest of a House ethics panel. The Office of Congressional Ethics contacted real estate investor James York, who bought Richardson's house at a foreclosure auction last year, only to have Washington Mutual take it back after he had recorded the deed and return the house to the congresswoman.