The sound of a disconnected phone line rings through the 33rd congressional district

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Former Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is a long time democrat. She made history when her colleagues voted her in to become the first black woman Assembly Speaker of California.

Interestingly enough, her longtime presence in California politics seems absent in the congressional district where she is running. Her phone is disconnected and the campaign office is closed.

Her spokeswoman, Jenny Wood, said Bass wants to conserve money, so she has run her campaign out of Democratic National Committee offices in the area. She has also done so with Moving America Forward, a democratic organization.

Wood insists Bass still campaigns, but she focuses her efforts in more competitive races across the country. She does so in an effort to help the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Speaker Nancy Pelosi save blue seats for their party in the House.

The 33rd congressional district, where Bass is running, remains safely democratic. President Barack Obama swept the district in 2008 with a whopping 87 percent of the vote.

But voters lose out big in these kinds of safe seats, said political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

And it is not better from the republican side either. Attorney James Andion, Bass' opponent, does not have a campaign office or campaign phone line either.