Freshman Congresswoman, Laura Richardson who recently won a special election replacing the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald has been involved in a media fisticuff over the status of a Sacramento home she purchased after briefly taking office in the state legislature in January 2007.

One week ago today, the Capitol Weekly published an article detailing how the housing foreclosure crisis was even affecting powerful elected officials. But yesterday, the congresswoman released a declarative statement which pointedly asserted that she had renegotiated the terms of her mortgage agreement and that her house was not in foreclosure nor had it been seized by the bank.

Today, the Associated Press has delved deeper into the brewing controversy and has uncovered that Richardson is behind in property taxes on the home which also has a lien by a Sacramento utility agency for unpaid bills.

Even worse, the AP reports the home was not only foreclosed, but already sold at public auction. It gets worse, a real estate agent's lockbox has been posted on the front door.

Who do you believe? I'm not sure it matters, I do know that Congresswoman Richardson is a capable woman who owns more than one home and who's unlikely rise to political power has led her to the same nightmare many California homeowners have found themselves; behind on payments in a housing market with depreciating values and forced to attempt to renegotiate the terms of the mortgage agreement with the bank.

Certainly she understands first-hand the pain people in her district are in and should be motivated to ensure something is done at the federal level that can adequately stabilize the housing market and keep families in their homes.