By Joseph Serna, Staff Writer
There are currently 19 candidates running for Southern California’s 37th Congressional District seat, an area that includes Signal Hill, Carson, Compton and most of Long Beach.
Eleven of the candidates are running as democrats, not surprising considering 57 percent of the District’s voters are registered with the party. Republicans run a distant second at less than 20 percent of registered voters, according to the secretary of state’s Web site.
The leading democratic candidates have been working in the community for some time, with former Long Beach 6th District Councilmember and 55th District Assemblymember Laura Richardson among the favorites. She is reportedly hoping to garner a substantial amount of votes from the black community, which is more than a quarter of the District’s population.
Millender-McDonald succumbed to cancer April 21, vacating the 37th District seat she had occupied since 1998.
State Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Carson) might give Richardson a significant challenge, especially if she can bring in Latino voters, who make up nearly half of the District. Before winning her current position last year, she was in the State Assembly for six years.
From Signal Hill’s neck of the woods, democratic Councilmember Ed Wilson recently announced his candidacy for the seat.
Lacking the political experience on paper, but certainly not the name recognition, Millender-McDonald’s daughter, Valerie McDonald, is also running as a candidate for the 37th District. McDonald has been involved in a number of her mother’s programs for years.
The other democratic candidates are Wrigley Bulletin publisher Lee Davis; consultant Mervin Evans, Felicia Ford, a chief executive officer; businessman Bill Grisolia; Peter Mathews, a college professor; truck driver George Parmer; and Jeffrey Price, a workers’ compensation attorney.
If no one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes Tuesday, June 26, the leading vote-getter from each party will appear on the Tuesday, Aug. 21, run-off ballot.
Five republicans are vying for the seat–Leroy Guillory, a bishop and author once convicted of kidnapping; police officer and Iraq War veteran John Kanaley; Jeffrey Leavitt, a teacher; business owner Gwen Patrick; and business woman Teri Ramirez.
Running as third party candidates are Daniel Brezenoff, a counselor and journalist, a Green Party candidate; retired aerospace engineer and libertarian Herb Peters; and American Independent and Internet entrepreneur Al Salehi Agassi. All three would appear on a run-off ballot should no one garner a simple majority Tuesday, June 26.
