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Last Updated June 10, 2005
Long Beach, founded in 1888, with 475,000 people in 2003, would be a major metropolis almost anywhere but in Los Angeles County, where it seems just the largest of many suburbs. But it has an identity of its own. Started as a beach resort, it soon became a port when Los Angeles civic leaders decided that if their town were to be a world-class city it must have a world-class harbor; nature not having provided one, they built it where the Los Angeles River flows into the ocean at the western edge of Long Beach. By 1909, Los Angeles had annexed the harbor towns of San Pedro and Wilmington on the other side of the river; over the next decades the two cities persuaded federal government to dredge channels and build a breakwater and turning basins. Long Beach was developing other businesses as well. It sprouted oil derricks in the 1920s and briefly became one of the nation's big oil producers; it was the site of major aircraft plants in the 1940s and after. Since then, the Los Angeles-Long Beach port has become the nation's largest, the fastest-growing major cargo center in the world, with huge steel-gray container ships pulling quietly up to enormous automated loading facilities--a 21st century contrast to the rotting docks of New York and San Francisco. The length of three football fields, these ships unload a daily average of 12,000 containers, which is nearly half of the nation's containerized goods and is vital for its commerce; from there, about half of the cargo leaves by rail along the new $2.5 billion, high-speed 20-mile Alameda Corridor to the large rail yards near downtown Los Angeles. Although the cargo has faced a huge increase in inspections since September 11, including scanning at the port of all high-risk containers, cargo security remains a major problem. Long Beach's naval station was closed in the 1990s and there were job losses at the huge McDonnell Douglas aircraft; Boeing, the new owner, announced in January 2005 that it would stop producing commercial jets here. But small businesses have grown, and Long Beach's beachfront has thrived; the Queen Mary, converted into a floating hotel, is a big tourist attraction, and there is a glittering array of high-rises along the beach. The 37th Congressional District of California includes 80% of the city of Long Beach (but not the harbor), and Signal Hill, surrounded by Long Beach, where the oil rigs are still pumping. It includes two industrial suburbs of Compton and Carson. Compton switched from all-white to all-black in the 1960s and in the 1980s became heavily Latino and economically depressed; lately it has been mentioned as a possible site for an Indian casino. Carson, with recent subdivisions amid freeway interchanges and tank farms, has a multiethnic population. The district includes the south end of South Central Los Angeles, including the Watts tower near which the riot of 1965 broke out. In 2000 the district's population was 25% black and 43% Hispanic, but many of the Hispanics are not U.S. citizens and do not vote here. It is a heavily Democratic district. The congresswoman from the 37th District is Juanita Millender-McDonald, first chosen in a 1996 special election. She was born in Alabama, raised a family in Carson, and earned a bachelor's degree in 1979, at 40. She worked as a teacher and editor/writer for the Los Angeles Unified School District and was manuscript editor for IMAGES, a state textbook designed for young women to enhance self-esteem. She later became director of gender equity programs for the district and was appointed to the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. In 1990 she was elected to the Carson City Council. In 1992 she ran for the Assembly and beat an incumbent in the primary. Her opening to run for Congress came in December 1995, when two-term Congressman Walter Tucker was convicted of extortion and tax fraud as mayor of Compton and sentenced to 27 months in federal prison. A special election was set for the following March, the same day as the regular primary; since no Republican ran, it determined the winner. Already running and better known was Assemblyman Willard Murray, who had been chief of staff to former Congressman Mervyn Dymally. But with help from EMILY's List, Millender-McDonald raised much more money. Murray had other problems, including his support for building a prison for Compton, which voters there turned down 87%-13%. Millender-McDonald won the nine-candidate special with 27% to 20% for Murray. In the House, Millender-McDonald has a liberal voting record. She got a seat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where she made the Alameda Corridor her chief priority. She backed the Chinese government-owned China Ocean Shipping Company's bid to build a container terminal at the former Long Beach Naval Air Station. But despite its likely benefits for the port, she voted against normal trade relations with China because of its human rights abuses. She created a congressional Goods Movement Caucus to focus on shipping issues, especially problems related to the Long Beach port, and she called for more security funding at the ports. She co-chaired the Caucus on Women's Issues, where she focused on the impact of proposed Social Security reform and led opposition to the bill making it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman. In January 2005 Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi named Millender-McDonald as ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee. She has easily won re-election. Despite the fact that 40% of the district was new to her in 2002, she had modest competition. In the 2002 primary she beat Peter Mathews by a 78%-22% margin. In 2004, Mathews ran again and lost the primary 65%-16% with Carson businessman Albert Robles getting 19%. Millender-McDonald easily won the general each time. She may face a serious Latino challenger before the decade is out, and could face even greater jeopardy if the proposed redistricting referendum of Arnold Schwarzenegger gains approval. In October 2004, her son Keith McDonald, a Los Angeles water district official, was convicted of extortion in a case involving municipal contracts; Millender-McDonald was not implicated.
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