Juanita Millender-McDonald



Juanita Millender-McDonald, a Democrat, represented the 37th District of California in the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007. She died on April 22, 2007, while serving her seventh term in office.

Iraq War
Millender-McDonald voted against the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 that started the Iraq War.

Biography
Millender-McDonald was born September 7, 1938 in Birmingham, Alabama. She was educated at California State University, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. She was a teacher, a member of the Carson, California City Council and a member of the California State Assembly before entering the House.

2006 elections
In 2006, Libertarian Herb Peters announced his intention to challenge Millender-McDonald in her November 2006 bid for reelection. (See U.S. congressional elections in 2006) Millender-McDonald retained her seat.

Positions and Views
On February 7, 2007, Millender-McDonald, as Chairwoman of the House Administration Committee, wrote to House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) and ranking member Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) requesting that the administration of elections receive its full-funding. This would require the committee to allocate the additional $800 million that was authorized for the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). 

In her letter, Millender-McDonald wrote that "Congress must continue to support HAVA and take every reasonable step to ensure all Americans have confidence in the fairness and accuracy of our elections…Therefore, I respectfully request that you support fair and transparent elections by providing the $800 million balance of HAVA Title II payments due to the states." 

Millender-McDonald also stated in the letter that, $3.9 billion was authorized for HAVA election improvement for fiscal years 2003 through 2005, but that Congress has appropriated only $3 billion of the funds. 

Cancer diagnosis and death
Citing that she had been diagnosed with cancer, Millender-McDonald requested a leave of absence from House Speaker Pelosi on April 16, 2007 lasting until May 25. Millender-McDonald's absence brought the chairmanship of the House Administration Committee under question. The committee had, at the time of the onset of the leave of absence, 92 bills referred to it.

On April 21, 2007, Millender-McDonald died at age 68. Her chief of staff, Bandele McQueen, said that she had been receiving hospice care. She was survived by her husband, James McDonald Jr., and five adult children. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had 14 days to set a date for a special election to fill the seat.

Schwarzenegger scheduled the election for June 26, 2007. On that date, if a candidate received a majority of the vote (over 50%), he or she would be deemed the outright winner. If that did not occur, the top vote-getters of each party would advance to an August 21 special general election.

In the June 26 special election, Democratic California state Rep. Laura Richardson gained the most votes, 37.8 percent in a 17 candidate field. She beat her closest democratic rival, state Sen. Jenny Oropeza, who garnered 31.3 percent of the vote. As she did not win a majority, she was set to face the Republican nominee, John Kanaley, who finished fourth overall in the June 26 election, and several minor party nominees in a special general election on August 21, 2007, but was expected to win.

Money in Politics
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Committees and Affiliations

 * Congressional Advisory Board, Humpty Dumpty Institute

Committees in the 110th Congress (2007-2008)

 * House Committee on House Administration - Chairman
 * House Committee on Small Business
 * Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight
 * House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
 * Subcommittee on Aviation
 * Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
 * Subcommittee on Highways, Transit & Pipelines

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

 * House Committee on House Administration - Ranking Minority Member
 * House Committee on Small Business
 * Subcommittee on Tax Finance and Exports - Ranking Minority Member
 * House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
 * Subcommittee on Aviation
 * Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
 * Subcommittee on Highways Transit and Pipelines
 * Joint Committee on the Library of Congress
 * Joint Committee on Printing


 * Congressional Black Caucus

Resources

 * Official website
 * Open Secrets - 2006 congressional races database

Articles

 * Kelly McCormack, "Millender-McDonald urges election reform," The Hill, February 13, 2007.

Local blogs and discussion sites

 * Tiger Beat: Music, Culture, and Politics