Elected to the state Senate last year with 70 percent of the vote and returned for a full four years last night with 82 percent, Curren D. Price Jr. (D-Culver City) was asked this afternoon what keeps him motivated when victories almost always are lopsided.
“That is easy,” he said. “I ran for office in the first place because I was motivated to serve the community, to be deeply involved. I am motivated to make things glide better for the people I represent. Therefore, if you win by a lot or not, what drives you never changes.
“Running for office is a 24/7 operation,” said the former Inglewood City Council member who came to Sacramento four years ago as an Assemblyman.
To reach the state Senate, he had to overcome a busy field in a special Democratic primary in March of last year after Mark Ridley-Thomas had vacated his seat to shift to the County Board of Supervisors.
Sen. Price won the primary handily, and 60 days later put away the same Republican he beat so handily again last night, Rabbi Nachum Shifren. Last year, he won by 46 points, and this time by 68 percentage points.
Why Interest Never Flags
Inspiration, motivation is a non-issue, said one of the tallest members of the Senate, “because campaigning is something you do all of the time. This is what I am committed to.
“I was asked before, ‘How do you prepare for a campaign?’ I have never stopped campaigning. I always am campaigning so I can see the people I serve and talk to them.”
A former businessman who holds a law degree from Santa Clara, Sen. Price said he will not back off from his fulltime dash into communities even though he now is assured of four unthreatened years in office.
From the time his weekly flight home from Sacramento touches down on Thursday nights until the weekend dies a natural death on Sunday evening, he tries to be ubiquitous through his wide-ranging district.
“I want to be visible, active and engaged in ways that will help serve the citizens I represent.
“Being visible and being accessible, what ever the occasion is in my district, is important. It is what I do because it is what I enjoy doing.
“Whether it’s campaign season or not, that is a primary responsibility of being an elected official.”
While a digital electronic license plate bill in mid-summer brought the senator his biggest splash of attention this year (before it eventually was killed), it was not the piece of legislation that animated him the most.
Instead, a month before his 60th birthday, Sen. Price cited his role in helping California to become the first state in the union to implement the section of the new national healthcare law allowing children to remain on their parents’ insurance coverage until the age of 26. Significantly, California’s law will go into effect one year ahead of the rest of the nation.
(To be continued)
