Per her website and the public record, Congresswoman Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach) is a former Olympic athelete, a former six-year member of Long Beach City Council, a former state Assemblywoman (briefly)–and now a member of Congress seeking re-election. With all that public service, you’d think she could handle a little criticism.

I’m looking at the third Richardson campaign filer I’ve received in the mail; it’s on my desk as I write this–so clearly, Richardson has no compunction about reaching out and grabbing me and all you other voters by the shirt-fronts when she wants to talk at us.

So why isn’t the Congresswoman so vocal about her home in Sacramento–purchased in January 2007, when Richardson joined the state Assembly? You know the house–it’s the one Richardson stopped making the payments on, as reported first by the Capitol Weekly, then picked up this morning by the Daily Breeze’s Gene Maddaus.

You can read his account here in this morning’s Press-Telegram along with PDFs of some pertinent documents. What you can’t read–not thus far, anyway–are any comments from Richardson. Writes Maddaus:

“Richardson declined Wednesday to be interviewed about the foreclosure, which was first revealed in Capitol Weekly, a Sacramento-based publication. But in a statement, Richardson denied that the home was in foreclosure and said it had not been seized by the bank. ” ‘I have worked with my lender to complete a loan modification and have renegotiated the terms of the agreement – with no special provisions,’ Richardson said in the statement. ‘I fully intend to fulfill all financial obligations on the property.’ “

Really? Not in foreclosure? Maddaus is skeptical and so am I, chiefly because, well, not only has the house has been foreclosed on–it’s been resold. Also, Maddaus has the documents to prove that the house has been resold. Writes Maddaus:

“That would come as a surprise to James York, the Sacramento real estate broker who bought Richardson’s house at auction. York specializes in buying and selling foreclosed homes, and said he eventually intends to resell Richardson’s home, which overlooks a park in an upscale neighborhood.York produced a trustee’s deed confirming that his company, Red Rock Mortgage Inc., owns the house.”

It was pretty clean, York tells Maddaus–all except the garage, which was “full of trash to the ceiling.” But York seems satisfied; he’s even relatively calm about shouldering Richardson’s unpaid property taxes, which come to $8,950.79.

“Tell Laura I’d be happy to have her pay my property tax,” York told Maddaus. And that’s about it. Richardson is still a congresswoman; York owns a 1920s house a few minutes from our state’s Capitol; and, writes Maddaus, Washington Mutual, which held Richardson’s paper, took a $200,000 beat-down to get rid of the house.

But that’s okay too, isn’t it? Maybe.

“One of Richardson’s first votes upon arriving in Congress last fall was on the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007,” Maddaus writes. “The bill helped homeowners by preventing the federal government from charging income tax on debt forgiven in a foreclosure, such as the $200,000 forgiven in Richardson’s foreclosure. Joining 385 of her colleagues, Richardson voted aye.”

Tags: California, Capitol Weekly, Congresswoman Laura Richardson, Daily Breeze, foreclosure, Gene Maddaus, James York, laura richardson, Long Beach, Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, press telegram, Sacramento, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, Torrance, Washington Mutual