By Steven Piper
Editorial Intern
In a fraud case filed on June 15, Lee Davis, a Democratic candidate for the 37th Congressional District during the June 8 primary election, is suing the winner of that race— incumbent Laura Richardson— as well as the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder.
In addition to accusing Richardson of tampering with her campaign signs, Davis said that voters in 300 precincts, mostly in Compton, were provided ballots that did not include the names of either Terrance Ponchak, Davis or Peter Mathews.
“Laura Richardson vandalized and destroyed my campaign signs at 2595 Lime [Avenue] in Long Beach, and at 2594 Lime Avenue and replaced them with her own,” Davis said in a criminal-investigation request to District Attorney David Demerjian. “She was seen by two voters.”
According to the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles’s (SCCCLA) online records of the case, the first hearing will be on August 6 in a motion to “disqualify the certification of Laura Richardson as winner in the primary election held June 8, 2010.” The case number is BC439676 and can be used to locate the case summary on the court’s website, which includes all parties, motions, and, for a fee, images of all documents that have been filed.
Despite the injunction having been filed more than two weeks prior, in a return phone call to the Signal Tribune last Tuesday, Richardson said she had not heard about the case and therefore could not comment on it.
Later that day, her office issued a statement on the matter. “In the last few hours, it has come to my attention that a three-time unsuccessful opponent of mine has for the second time sought legal recourse against the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and me. In 2007, Lee Davis made similar frivolous claims, which Judge Conrad Aragon dismissed,” Richardson said in the official statement. “It is unfortunate that after repeatedly achieving less than 10 percent of the vote, the loser of this election continues to not accept the fact that the voters have made their selection. I look forward to continuing the honor to successfully serve the constituents of the 37th Congressional District.”
As previously reported by the Signal Tribune, Richardson garnered 19,667 votes (67.67 percent of the vote). Mathews received 5,252 votes (18.07 percent); Davis won 2,432 votes (8.37 percent); and Ponchak, secured 1,711 votes (5.89 percent).
