State Senator Jenny Oropeza Dies At 53
LONG BEACH (CBS) — State Sen. Jenny Oropeza has died at a hospital in Long Beach after a long illness. Oropeza was 53.
Oropeza was a Redondo Beach-based Democrat who represented the state's 28th Senate District, which included Long Beach and Torrance.
Oropeza's press secretary, Ray Sotero, said Thursday the senator died Wednesday night of complications from a blood clot she developed in her abdomen in May. He says the clot led to a common side effect, a buildup of fluid in her lungs that affected her breathing.
The Carson lawmaker was known for championing health and environmental causes, including unsuccessful legislation that sought to ban smoking at state parks.
She had missed most of the Senate session because of the blood clot and was one of several senators to miss vital votes earlier this month as the state passed a budget after a record 100-day delay. But she had seemed to be recovering even though doctors had prohibited her from flying to Sacramento, Sotero said.
"I was told she was getting better and feeling like her old self as recently as a couple days ago. Then she had this setback," Sotero said. "It was a real shock to everybody."
Oropeza was looking forward to winning re-election on Nov. 2 and returning to Sacramento for a second, four-year Senate term, Sotero said. She was elected to the 40-member chamber in 2006 after serving six years in the state Assembly.
She was successfully treated for liver cancer in 2004. Her health battles influenced her legislative priorities, Sotero said.
One of her disappointments this year, for instance, was that she was unable to restore funding for a state program that provided mammograms to low-income women. However, she successfully sought legislation to increase the safety of mammograms, restrict radiation exposure, increase cancer prevention efforts and limit air pollution -- a priority in her often smoggy district, which includes Los Angeles International Airport.
Among her bills that took effect this year were measures increasing fines for elder abuse, regulating a harmful air pollution chemical and requiring school bus drivers to turn off their idling engines while parked near schools. An Oropeza bill taking effect next year will prohibit local governments from writing their own vehicle codes and keeping money collected in traffic tickets.
Other senators carried her bills in her absence.
Democratic legislative leaders praised Oropeza's service.
"She carried on her responsibilities through great physical challenge, which is an inspiration for all of us," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said in a statement.
Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, called her "a leader of conscience and compassion."
She previously served on the Long Beach City Council and Long Beach Board of Education.
Oropeza, whose name will remain on the ballot in the Nov. 2 election, is expected to easily defeat Republican challenger John Stammreich in the Nov. 2 election. She'll be declared the winner if she receives a majority of the vote, said Nicole Winger, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would then call a special election to fill the vacancy.
On Thursday, the governor ordered the Capitol flags flown at half-staff in her memory. In a statement, Schwarzenegger called her "a champion for improving public health."
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