Maxine Waters
Maxine Waters (born Maxine Moore Carr on August 15 1938) has served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1991, representing the 35th District of California (map). She resides in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, which is approximately six miles west of downtown.
Her husband, Sidney Williams, is a former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas.
Background
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Waters graduated from Vashon High School in St. Louis and attended Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles). Prior to her entry into politics, she was a teacher and a volunteer coordinator in the Head Start program.
Political career
Waters entered the California State Assembly in 1976. While in the assembly she worked for divestment of state pension funds from any businesses active in South Africa, a country then operating under the racial policy of apartheid. Waters ultimately helped frame successful legislation within the guidelines of the divestment campaign's Sullivan Principles. Waters eventually ascended to the position of Democratic Caucasus Chair for the Assembly.
Upon the retirement of Augustus F. Hawkins in 1990, Waters was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the 29th Congressional District with over 79% of the popular vote; she has been re-elected each time (now in the 35th California Congressional District), with at least 70% of the popular vote. (Significant parts of the pre-1990 29th California Congressional District were folded into the newly defined 35th California Congressional District after California gained seven additional seats in the House following the 1990 U.S. census.)
Following a 1996 San Jose Mercury article alleging the complicity of the CIA in the Los Angeles crack epidemic of the 1980s, Waters called for an investigation into the matter. In her request, Waters asked whether "U.S.-government paid or organized operatives smuggled, transported and sold it to American citizens."[Drugs] The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had failed to find any evidence to support the original story.[ ] The Los Angeles Times also concluded after its own extensive investigation that the allegations were not supported by evidence.[CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy] The author of the original story was eventually transferred to a different beat and removed from investigative reporting.["Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career?"] Following these post-publication investigations, Waters read into the Congressional Record a memorandum of understanding in which former President Ronald Reagan's CIA director rejected any duty by the CIA to report illegal narcotics trafficking to the Department of Justice.[Casey]
As a Democratic representative in Congress, Waters was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She endorsed Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination in late January 2008, granting the New York Senator nationally-recognized support that some suggested would "make big waves." Subsequently, however, Waters switched her endorsement to Sen. Barack Obama, by then insurmountably ahead in the pledged delegate count, on the final day of primary voting.[California 2008 presidential primary and superdelegates - Congresspedia][The Superdelegate Tally - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog]
Iraq War
Waters voted against the Iraq War Resolution, the 2002 resolution that funded and granted Congressional approval to possible military action against the regime of Saddam Hussein. She has remained a consistent critic of the subsequent war. Waters asserted in 2007 that President George W. Bush was trying to "set up" by continually requesting funds for an "occupation" that is "draining" the country of capital, soldier's lives, and other resources. In particular, she argued that the very economic resources being "wasted" in Iraq were those that might provide universal health care or fully fund President Bush's own "No Child Left Behind" education bill. (The latter has come under consistent criticism for including state and district mandates without federal funding to cover them.) Additionally, Waters, representing a congressional district whose median income falls far below the national average, argued that patriotism alone had not been the sole driving force for those U.S. service personnel serving in Iraq. Rather, "many of them needed jobs, they needed resources, they needed money, so they're there." In a subsequent floor speech, Waters told her colleagues that Congress, lacking the votes to override the "inevitable Bush veto on any Iraq-related legislation," needed to "better the administration's false rhetoric about the Iraq war" and "educate our constituents the connection between the problems in Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran with the problems we have created in Iraq." A few months prior to these speeches Waters became a cosponsor of the House resolution to impeach Vice-President Dick Cheney for making allegedly "false statements" about the war.[Washington Times - Cheney ouster gains backers]
Nationalizing the United States' petroleum industry
In May 2008, Waters told Shell Oil President John Hofmeister at the House Judiciary Committee's Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust Laws, that if he didn't guarantee reduced gasoline prices if Congress let the oil industry drill where it wanted, she would be in favor of the government nationalizing American petroleum companies, her specific words were, "Guess what this liberal will be all about, this liberal will be all about socializing...."["Special Report with Brit Hume", Fox News May 27, 2008;]
Accusations of corruption
Waters was named in 2005[Group Lists 13 'Most Corrupt' in Congress | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] and 2006[CREW RELEASES SECOND ANNUAL MOST CORRUPT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS REPORT | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] as one of the "most corrupt" members of congress by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. They said, "Her ethics issues arise from her exercise of this power to financially benefit her daughter, husband and son."[http://www.beyonddelay.org/summaries/waters.php] Citizens for Ethics says this violates House ethics rules for family members' financial gains. CREW relates that the six "most corrupt" members of Congress to not make the most recent list, of whom Waters is one, "are not included this year, not because their conduct is no longer problematic, but because we have discovered no new information to add to last year’s report. Out of the twenty-seven members of Congress named as "most corrupt" during Waters' two years on the list, she remains one of only five to both remain serving in Congress and to not have been the formal target of a federal investigation.
KTLA licensing opposition
The original findings of Waters' alleged nepotism had been published in Waters' hometown newspaper, The Los Angeles Times, in 2004. Waters subsequently filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny a renewal of the broadcast license for KTLA-TV, a station owned by the Times. Suggesting that "The Los Angeles Times has had an inordinate effect on public opinion and has used it to harm the local community in specific instances," Waters requested that the FCC force the paper that recently ran an expose of her to either sell its station or risk losing that station's broadcast rights. Such challenges, notes Broadcasting & Cable Magazine, "raise the specter of costly legal battles to defend station holdings. ... At a minimum, defending against one would cost tens of thousands of dollars in lawyers' fees and probably delay license renewal about three months." Waters' petition was ultimately unsuccessful.
Los Angeles riots of 1992
Waters has been criticized for her comments regarding the Los Angeles riots of 1992.[City Of Euphemisms | Print Article | Newsweek.com] In defense of the people that looted stores and damaged property, Waters said "If you call it a riot it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason. I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion."[Was it a 'riot,' a 'disturbance' or a 'rebellion'? - Los Angeles Times] She also said it was "a spontaneous reaction to a lot of injustice" and "The anger in my district is righteous. I'm just as angry as they are." She responded to the mass looting of Korean-owned stores by saying: "There were mothers who took this as an opportunity to take some milk, to take some bread, to take some shoes. They are not crooks. Everybody in the street was not a thug or a hood."
Committee assignments and caucus memberships
 Committee on Financial Services
*Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity (Chair)
*Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
*Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
*Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, Technology
Committee on the Judiciary
*Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
*Subcommittee on Immigration, Border
Co-founder of Black Women’s Forum
Founder of Project Build
Founding member and Chair of the ‘Out of Iraq’ Congressional Caucus
Member of Congressional Progressive Caucus
Member of Congressional Black Caucus (CBC); past chair of CBC (105th United States Congress)
Founded Maxine Waters Preparation Center in Watts, California.
External links
U.S. Representative Maxine Waters official House site
Federal Election Commission — Ms Maxine Waters campaign finance reports and data
On the Issues — Maxine Waters issue positions and quotes
OpenSecrets.org — Maxine Waters campaign contributions
Project Vote Smart — Representative Maxine Waters (CA) profile
SourceWatch Congresspedia — Maxine Waters profile
Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Maxine Waters voting record
Beyond DeLay — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) criticism from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Top Blacks — Maxine Waters: Distingushed Congresswoman 2001 profile
Haiti regime neither able nor willing to hold fair election by Rep. Maxine Waters, October 19, 2005
Los Angeles Times Interview: Maxine Waters by Robert Scheer, LA Times, May 16, 1993
Maxine Waters interviewed by John Ziegler. (2 MB)
Maxine Waters speaks with Street Gangs Media by Alex Alonso, www.streetgangs.com, January 18, 2003
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