Like many voters in this port city and the gritty urban areas of Rep. Laura Richardson's political turf, Johnetta Walker is disenchanted with the lawmaker whose meteoric rise has been marked with personal financial failures.

Richardson's ambitious one-year ascent from City Council to state Assembly to Congress gained national attention in May when one of her houses was sold in foreclosure, followed by news of several loan defaults.

"How can you be a leader of anything if you can't be a leader of your home?" asks Walker, a bus driver who lives in Compton, a working-class city in Richardson's Southern California district.

Walker says she won't vote for Richardson in November, but her effort will most likely be in vain. A disorganized field of last-minute challengers and a lack of a recall option means there's little that angered constituents can do to unseat the financially troubled Democrat.

After news came out about the foreclosure and sale of Richardson's Sacramento home, which she bought in January 2007 after winning a seat in the state Assembly, a pattern of years of financial irresponsibility emerged.

A few days before the June primary, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported that Richardson, who won her House seat last year in a special election, had been issued multiple default notices on two Southern California homes. Five of those occurred in the previous 13 months, while Richardson was using $177,500 of her own money to finance her political career.

Despite a challenger's news conference highlighting her problems, Richardson coasted through the primary with nearly three-fourths of the vote, setting her up to run unopposed in November.

Her decisive primary victory failed to end criticism.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram reported that she didn't pay car repair bills for years and failed to disclose certain financial details _ including a loan from a strip club owner.

A Washington watchdog group called for a House Ethics Committee investigation into Richardson's personal finances, citing her history of defaulting on home loans and suspicions of special treatment when her bank rescinded the sale of her foreclosed Sacramento home. She and the bank denied the allegation after the property was returned to her, but it has fallen into disrepair and was recently declared a public nuisance.

As Richardson's problems surfaced this summer, so did three challengers: two write-ins, Lee Davis and Peter Mathews, both of whom lost to Richardson in the primary, and independent Nicholas Dibs, a teacher and political novice.

The three candidates say they were encouraged to run by people unhappy with Richardson and point to voter discontent as signs that their challenges could be successful.

"I walk the streets and people say 'Please run as a write-in. We will vote for you. We don't want her,'" said Davis, publisher of the community paper, the Wrigley Bulletin and News.

Richardson _ who voted for a mortgage debt forgiveness bill that later passed _ has portrayed her foreclosure as an example of how even a member of Congress can suffer a plight plaguing tens of thousands of hapless Americans.

That explanation hasn't impressed many of her constituents, who have been quick to share their opinions publicly or post them on news Web sites.

"If she can't take care of herself, then how is she going to take care of other people (while serving) in Congress?" said Juliana Flores who works at a store in Carson.

But Gary Jacobson, a political science professor at the University of California at San Diego, said independent and write-in candidates rarely win seats in Congress because they usually can't match the money, name recognition and organization of incumbents or candidates backed by a party.

Richardson refused to be interviewed for this report, but campaign spokesman William Marshall Jr. issued a statement saying Richardson has consistently gained voter support because of her legislative record and achievements in less than a year in Congress.

Richardson has received the backing of some of her powerful Democratic colleagues, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and popular local lawmaker Rep. Maxine Waters, who represents an adjacent district. In addition, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., held a Capitol Hill fundraiser for Richardson in June.

___

On the Net:

Laura Richardson: http://richardson.house.gov

Lee Davis: http://www.leedavisforcongress.com

Nicholas Dibs: http://www.dibsforcongress.com

Peter Mathews: http://www.mathewsforcongress.org