You never know when the traditional media will latch on to a story, but they've certainly raised the case of L.A.'s King-Harbor Medical Center to new heights by publicizing the tragic story of a woman who died while waiting in the lobby of the emergency room while hospital staff casually walked by her. It's become a powerful symbol of our broken health care system. In fact, King-Harbor has been troubled almost since the moment it opened in 1972, and the tales of woe emanating from the medical center are numerous.
Among the cases cited:
• One patient in King-Harbor's emergency room told a triage nurse on April 30 that he was seeing "aliens and devils" and that he was thinking about drinking bleach to commit suicide. He was left in the lobby for more than an hour and not seen by a physician for almost seven hours. A mental health evaluation was not completed for 17 hours after he arrived, according to the federal report.
At that time, the patient denied being suicidal and was discharged without receiving treatment.
• A female patient went to the emergency room on March 8 complaining of two weeks of stomach pain. She said she had nausea and rated her pain as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. "The patient identified that the pain she was experiencing was constant and that nothing provided relief."
Even so, she was given no treatment to alleviate pain or reduce her fever. Two hours later, she was checked again and again offered no treatment. She was not seen by a physician until nearly seven hours after she arrived. "The patient experienced severe pain throughout her [emergency stay]," the report said. Eleven hours after she arrived, she went to surgery.
• A patient went to the emergency room on May 11 complaining of spotting during pregnancy. An hour later, a triage nurse saw her, gave her a pregnancy test and sent her back to the waiting area. When staff called her name two hours later, she had left without being seen.
Three days later, the same woman returned to the hospital with complaints of vaginal bleeding and severe pain. A nurse didn't evaluate how much she was bleeding and had her wait four hours without pain medication. During an ultrasound, she had a miscarriage and was discharged a short time later.
I hope you guys appreciate me, because I managed to get through the entire 90-minute debate for the June 26 primary in the 37th Congressional District to replace the late Juanita Millender-McDonald held on Thursday night. 11 Democrats were on stage, and because they were all given 2 minute opening statements, the debate really didn't cover much ground. But actually, the fact that the moderator was a clueless local news anchor from LA's ABC7 who had virtually no connection to the district was a good thing, as the persistent issues of race played out in the media in the campaign were fairly nonexistent in the debate.
Detailed two-day-late debateblogging on the flip...
I am back from maintaining radio silence for a few days. And I bring you this internal poll from the Laura Richardson campaign showing her with a 9-point lead in her Congressional primary against Jenny Oropeza and 15 other candidates. Richardson need only beat the other 10 Dems on the ballot to get into a runoff, where the Democrat will be very likely to win in this deep blue district.
Laura Richardson (D) 25%
Jenny Oropeza (D) 16%
Valerie McDonald (D) 7%
John M. Kanaley (R) 5%
Teri Ramirez (R) 2%
Ed Wilson (D) 2%
Other Democrats 4%
Other Republicans 2%
Minor Party Candidates 1%
Undecided 35%
That's a heavy amount of undecideds, so this obviously isn't over. It does seem to be getting even more tense, as tempers flared between Richardson and Oropeza after a candidate forum last week. Over..
Leading up to the election last November, Chris Bowers initiated the Use It or Lose It project, urging unopposed members of Congress to contribute their money to the DCCC in support of other competitive races. In addition, I found 64 more districts with token opposition (Republican had raised less than $10,000 total). California's districts, safely drawn as many of them are, were well represented on these two lists, and while many of California's Democrats were very supportive, not all of them were. Our representatives have a responsibility to support the party as a whole whenever possible, and sitting on piles of cash is both a waste and a betrayal of good faith. Here's a look at how the delegation performed so that we can start applying pressure where necessary.
Surprisingly enough, considering it's 17 months out, there's actually been some measure of news in the California delegation, most of it pretty good for Democrats. Let's take a look at the top pickup opportunities for Democrats, as well as the top hold races. We'll start with the seats that may be contested (there are only two):
1) CA-37: Not technically a contested seat, but this is the open seat vacated by the late Juanita Millender-McDonald, which will have an open primary on June 26 and a general election (if nobody gets 50%) a couple months thereafter. There are debates this week (Friday) and next (June 14), but so far this has been a battle of endorsements. The CA Democratic Party and the League of Conservation Voters have backed State Senator Jenny Oropeza; the Legislative Black Caucus and the CA Federation of Labor of LA County have backed Assemblywoman Laura Richardson. I do believe that Richardson's endorsements probably mean more on the ground; of course, there's also Millender-McDonald's daughter, Valerie McDonald, who some believe will "split the black vote" and hand the primary to Oropeza. This is a very safe Democratic seat, so the winner of the primary on the Democratic side is all but assured to be the next Congressman.
2) CA-11 (McNerney): Antiwar advocates were pleased with Rep. McNerney's vote on the Iraq funding bill. Former Assemblyman Dean Andal has announced that he'll run for the seat. Obviously, the first re-elect is the toughest, so McNerney will have a fight on his hands here, whether against Andal or somebody else. However, I don't think that attacking McNerney by attacking Nancy Pelosi, which the NRCC has done in recent radio ads, is going to work, considering the Speaker is more popular than Bush as well as previous House Speakers like Newt Gingrich.
LBPost.com, Charter Communications, and the Long Beach Democratic Club are co-sponsoring a debate among ALL THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES running to fill the vacated seat in the 37th Congressional District. If you live anywhere from Carson to Long Beach, then you'll definitely want to come to this. Come, and see for yourself what the candidates have to say about the issues that you care about most.
Follow me after the flip for all the details on next week's debate...
Two big endorsements have come out in the last week for the special election down south. Sen. Jenny Oropeza walked away with the California Democratic Party endorsement, allowing her to say that she is officially endorsed by the CA Democratic Party. It sounds good, but does not mean extra resources. The bigger prize, that of the Los Angeles County Labor Federation goes to Assemblywoman Laura Richardson.
Like Steve Maviglo at CA Majority Report says, this means boots on the ground, especially useful in a low-turnout election like this one. The Fed will get their phone banks working, labor members walking precincts and spend money to message their own members. The LA Fed is a particularly strong one, in a very labor friendly area, making it a particularly plum endorsement.
(Note: I've amended the diary title to reflect that I'm saying there are clear differences between the candidates; although the facts presented in the article support such a conclusion, the author doesn't claim that.)
The 37th district is extremely blue and it's clear whichever of the Democratic favorites wins (Jenny Oropeza or Laura Richardson), she is going to vote the way progressives would want her to vote most of the time. On most issues, they'd vote similarly.
On gay rights, though, there appears to be a clear difference between them:
The upcoming special election to replace the late Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald is getting nasty. There are 19 people who have filed already, but there are just three front runners, State Assemblymember Laura Richardson, State Senator Jenny Oropeza and the daughter of the late Congresswoman Valerie McDonald. Power-brokers down in SoCal are taking sides. Yesterday, Senator Sheila Kuehl blasted Richardson for being "homophobic" in a letter and started fundraising for Orepeza.
The charges stem from an incident ten years ago when Richardson ran and lost to openly lay Gerrie Schipske for a State Assembly seat in Long Beach. Kuehl's letter yesterday charged that Richardson's campaign mailers during that race "were filled with homophobic hate speech so shocking that many of her biggest supporters withdrew their endorsements of her candidacy." Capitol Weekly:
It's behind the firewall, but Republicans in John Doolittle's district are determined to get him out of the 2008 race by threatening to run a primary challenger. I would assume that even the NRCC wouldn't be too keen to mount any resistance to such a challenge. They know well that Charlie Brown is poised to beat Doolittle the second time around, but it would be a more difficult task with a fresh opponent who is less tainted by scandal. My question would be, who could they possibly find up there that has no connection to Doolittle? Even mini-Rush Tom Sullivan, a non-politician, had Doolittle on his show as recently as last week. And the other "vultures" that are circling, to borrow Sullivan's phrase, certainly have some connection to Doolittle as well.
The other report would be a bombshell if true. CMR is reporting that Maxine Waters may retire this weekend to run for a seat on the LA County Board of Supervisors. I would hope this doesn't happen, but retirements like this in favor of elections closer to home are inevitable. Waters' seat is as safe as they come, but any election for it would be a free-for-all.
Speaking of free-for-alls, 19 candidates have filed for the June 26 special election to replace the late Juanita Millender-McDonald. This is pretty much a three-way race between Sen. Jenny Oropeza, Assemblywoman Laura Richardson, and neophyte politician and Rep. Millender-McDonald's daughter, Valerie McDonald.
I should have another full roundup in a couple weeks.
Yesterday I reported on Sen. Jenny Oropeza running for the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald's seat. Assemblywoman Laura Richardson is also running for that seat. While Oropeza may have greater name ID from her longer service, it will be no walk in the park.
The upcoming congressional race between Sen. Jenny Oropeza and Assemblywoman Laura Richardson has no shortage of subplots. There is an ethnic component: Richardson is African-American, Oropeza is Latino. Then there's the inherent Senate vs. Assembly rivalry. But the race may also become a proxy in the battle between labor unions and Indian tribes over new gaming compacts pending in the state Legislature. ... Oropeza, D-Long Beach, has long been a champion of organized labor. But earlier this year, she voted against labor, and with Senate leadership, to support the compacts on the floor of the state Senate.
Soon after the vote, a group of labor leaders, including Maria Elena Durazo, the powerful head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, met with Oropeza to express their displeasure. "There were a lot of folks who were unhappy," says Mary Gutierrez, the organization's spokeswoman. (Capitol Weekly 5/3/07)
On the previous thread, some pointed out jennyoropeza.com, which is a hit site that lingered from her failed run against our current Speaaker. Or perhaps it was pre-emptive for just such a race. Either way, somebody has some bad blood with Senator Oropeza.
On the other hand, Assemblywoman Richardson is pretty new to this game. So, she still has yet to garner a whole lot of enemies, but converse may also be true. So, either way, I don't think this is going to end so smoothly as was anticipated. Term limits ensure that.
Sen. Jenny Oropeza has announced that she will run in the special election to replace Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald.
California state Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D) announced Wednesday afternoon that she will run in the special election to fill the seat of recently deceased Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D).
"We are all deeply saddened by the event that has brought me here today," Oropeza said in a statement.(The Hill 5/3/07)
Oropeza, who now represents much of the district, is the early favorite to win the seat.
UPDATE III:Our friends from Color of Change stopped by to say, "Big news -- James, our director, talked with a credible reporter who talked with Carolyn Kilpatrick, who, after being pressed, said that there is a Fox debate in the works, it just hasn't been announced." Is Barbara Lee going to let this happen?
UPDATE II:ColorofChange worries that the CBC Institute is still in talks with Fox and says, "This is no time to let up the pressure. They could be waiting for it to blow over so they can announce next week."
UPDATE:No need to call, the CBC Institute made a smart move, Fox lost out to CNN. Huge victory for Color of Change and a great day for the Democratic Party
Can a couple of Californians -- armed with little more than internet connections and the truth -- change the Congressional Black Caucus?
Fox News has a horrible record of attacking Black people, leaders, and cultural institutions. But at this very moment, the Congressional Black Caucus Institute is negotiating to partner with Fox to host presidential debates prior to the 2008 elections.
For the CBC Institute to partner with an organization like Fox News-given its hostility to Black political interests-would be shameful. You can help prevent them from making this serious mistake by calling on them to drop negotiations with Fox [...]
Given its record, Fox News shouldn't enjoy the support of Black political or cultural institutions connected to the Congressional Black Caucus. We believe the CBC Institute will change course once it realizes that Black America, if not all of America, is watching. Please join us in making sure they hear us, loud and clear:
Since the 110th Congress convened on January 4th, Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald has accomplished virtually nothing.
While the Democratic Congress has passed a container security bill, raised the minimum wage and lowered the cost of higher education, the Long Beach Congresswoman can claim none of these among her successes. To date, Millender-McDonald's only actions have been a couple of resolutions supporting "the goals and ideals" of "American Heart Month" and "National Wear Red Day". She has not sponsored or co-sponsored a single piece of legislation.
