Waters represents California's 35th district including charming locales such as Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, and Gardena (but also including Westchester and LAX).
nationalatlas.gov
Some noteworthy points about Waters' behavoir:
Opposed KTLA license renewal
After the Los Angeles Times published allegations of nepotism against her and an expose of the King Drew Medical Center, Waters asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny a waiver of the crossownership ban, and hence license renewal, for KTLA-TV, a station the newspaper owned. Claiming 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 to either sell its station or risk losing that station's broadcast rights.[22] Such challenges, according to Broadcasting & Cable, "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."[23] Waters' petition was ultimately unsuccessful; the station's license next expires in 2014.[24]
-- Los Angeles riots of 1992
During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Waters appeared on television as a commentator. 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."[25]
-- Relatives' business interests
In December 2004 Los Angeles Times showed that Maxine Water's relatives had made more than $1 million during the preceding eight years by doing business with companies, candidates and causes that Waters had helped. Her reply was: "They do their business and I do mine."[26]
-- Involvement with OneUnited Bank
Waters' husband is a stockholder and former director of OneUnited Bank, and the bank's executives were major contributors to her campaigns. In September 2008, Waters arranged meetings between U.S. Treasury Department officials and OneUnited Bank, so that the bank could plead for federal cash. It had been heavily invested in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and its capital was "all but wiped out" after the U.S. government took them over. The bank did secure $12 million in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money.[27][28] The matter is currently being investigated by the House Ethics Committee.[29]
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