3:45pm | Capitol Hill news publication the Politico earlier this week labeled Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach, a “campaign committee deadbeat,” revealing in a May 2 report that the congresswoman’s campaign committee is almost $500,000 in debt.
Richardson’s campaign committee’s owes about $454,098. Nearly half of that ($217,500) is reportedly owed to political consultant John Shallman for services he provided four years ago during her 2007 run for Congress.
Shallman in July 2010 filed suit against L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks for the $150,000 that Parks’ campaign committee had still not paid Shallman for services rendered during Parks’ failed bid for a county board of supervisors seat in 2008, according to the L.A. Weekly.
Though Richardson’s committee owes more and has owed him for longer, Shallman has yet to try and collect from the congresswoman’s campaign committee.
According to the Politico:
Richardson, who had to defend herself against ethics charges related to a defaulted home mortgage, is also in hock for nearly $100,000 to Perkins Coie, a firm that handles legal and campaign finance issues for many Democrats. The ethics case was dismissed in July.
And Mike Fraioli, a longtime Democratic fundraiser, is owed an additional $74,000-plus by Richardson’s campaign, according to her latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. Richardson for Congress had only $36,128 in the bank as of March 31.
Considering her personal finance struggles (numerous home mortgages defaults and years-old unpaid bills) the political news publication goes so far as to suggest Richardson be the poster candidate for the unofficial “Deadbeat Caucus.”
Richardson would not comment on her campaign committee’s debt, according to the Politico, though she has in the past cited her jumping from the Long Beach City Council to the State Assembly to the U.S. House of Representatives in less than a year as cause for her financial fumbles.