Special House Election In California Tomorrow

The special election to replace the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.) will be held tomorrow. The two frontrunners are Democratic state Assemblywoman Laura Richardson and Democratic state senator Jenny Oropeza. The campaign has largely divided on ethnic lines, pitting the more-organized African-American community against the growing number of Hispanics in the district.

The winner must receive at least 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff – a near-impossible proposition in a crowded field. If not, the leading vote-getters from the major parties will face off on August 21.

Some pre-election nuggets over the weekend:
-- This weekend, Richardson sent out a mailer attacking Oropeza for missing votes in the state legislature. Oropeza, at the time, took four months off when she was receiving chemotherapy to treat liver cancer.

-- One Native American tribe has given over $400,000 in campaign donations to Oropeza. Richardson wrote to the FBI demanding an investigation.  Money quote from Richardson's campaign:  "Jenny Oropeza would fit right into Washington's culture of corruption."

-- Here are election previews from the Los Angeles Times and the Long Beach Press-Telegram.