[img]1717|left|Sen. Curren Price||no_popup[/img]State Sen. Curren Price has five more secure years to serve in the state Legislature. Yet he is putting his career on the line by running for what many perceive to be a lesser and far more toilsome political post – 9th District representative on the Los Angeles City Council.
Unlike other candidates on the municipal primary election ballot on Tuesday, Mr. Price, the senator for the 26th District and former assemblyman for the 51st District, is not “termed out” of his present post, is not unemployed and is not in need of a job.
“I'm running for the 9th District,” he said, “because I was born and raised in the 9th District. My parents went to Jefferson High School. I want to bring the leadership, integrity, experience and assets that I have developed during my entire career at the state level to reinvest in the community I call home.”
Mr. Price was saluted more than once as Legislator of the Year by the Council of State Governments as a model public servant for his governance and policy development. He serves on that council's Committee on International Trade and its Mexico/California Border Legislative Committee and was selected as a Toll Fellow in 2009 following his transition from the Assembly to the Senate.
Bills Are a Specialty
Apart from that, his fellow state government elected officials have been particularly impressed that during his six years in the state Legislature, Mr. Price has authored 133 Senate and Assembly bills, Constitutional amendments joint and severed resolutions, most of which centered upon improving the quality of the state's public education, protecting the rights of California workers, increasing jobs through the expansion of both big and small businesses, expanding the quality and affordability of health care for all Californians.
A lifetime credentialed community college and adult education teacher, Mr. Price has been a virtual one-man-band in the area of education. It was he who sounded the public alarm last year that California's public school districts are implementing disciplinary procedures that result in the suspensions and expulsions of disproportionate numbers of African-American students from public schools – from grammar schools through high schools.
Identifying a Problem
It was he who worked with the California and U.S. departments of education, community groups and the media to research and remedy this insidious problem. Mr. Price readily saw this as the entrance to the “pipeline to prison,” which engulfs so many low-income youth and ruins them for life.
Mr. Price also worked for the expansion of Cal Grants and he co-sponsored the Dream Act, other measures to create fulfilled and productive Californians.
When East Side Was Hurting
Last year, Mr. Price vigorously supported AB 353, authored by East Los Angeles Assemblyman Gil Cedillo and signed into law by Gov. Brown in November, to reduce checkpoint impounds of cars by police at roadway operations. Since each impound generated up to $2,000 in fines and fees per car, Mr. Price said the practice was a “rip-off of low-income people, particularly egregious to immigrant residents,” who seemed to be targeted for such action.
Most recently, Mr. Price introduced a bill to ensure that the coroner reports prescription drug deaths to state licensed medical boards to determine the role doctors and pharmacists may have had in such drug deaths. He recently authored a bill to create an Office of Innovative Financing which would issue “social impact bonds” as a means of reducing the state's deficit.
More than 30 percent of the 9th Council district is in Mr. Price's 26th Senate District. According to the statistics, the 9th District looks like this: It encompasses seven distinct neighborhoods. It has an 80 percent Latino population with a 50/50 black-brown voting population.
None of its 74,000 registered voters make more than $100,000 a year, except LAPD Deputy Chief Terry Hara, who is running against Mr. Price. Sixty-six percent of the population earns less than $50,000 annually. Seventy-five percent do not have college degrees, and 50 percent did not finish high school.
The 9th District is home to the largest industrial base of any Council district. Yet unemployment is a stubbornly high 15 percent. It has two public housing projects in it: Pueblo del Rio and Avalon Gardens. Its electorate is elderly and low income. And oh, it is the only area in the city where violent crime is up. Mr. Price is the only candidate in the race who supports Prop. A to ensure that the police force is not reduced in the district. “Public safety is the No. 1 issue in this office,” the senator said.
Mr. Price said he is very familiar with his “home” district in that he has worked with the neighborhood councils there since they were created, and because he and his staff have been called upon to address city issues that residents felt their 8th and 9th district council members have ignored over the years.
“We're often asked to help deliver city services, such as street cleaning and repairs, graffiti and bulk item removal,” Mr. Price said.
Mr. Price's work has not gone unnoticed by anyone anywhere. His supporters say that he has always been respectful of multicultural and multiethnic areas, and that that respect has translated into a wide range of endorsements – Sen. Ricardo Lara, chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, state Sens. Ted Lieu and Carol Liu, as well as virtually all of the Southland's other leading elected officials, labor groups and religious and community leaders.
Mr. Price received last week the vigorous nod of approval from Mayor Villaraigosa and Lt. Gov. Newsom, and this week Gov. Brown also endorsed him, saying “He believes deeply in effective, responsive government. “
Ms. Pleasant writes the Soulvine column for the Wave newspapers.
