Re “Touting Sen. Price for L.A. City Council 9th District”
[img]985|left|Curren Price||no_popup[/img] In the drippingly cynical era of term limits, Sacramento has lost its glossy sheen in the past 20 years, at least for big-city boys.
Reposing beneath layers of sticky dust are the golden days when macho Speakers Willie Brown and Big Daddy Unruh were statewide stars. There only have been water-carriers with jelly for knees in the Speaker’s chair since the day Mr. Brown stepped away in ’95.
So barren is the lineup that the governor, whether Democrat or Republican, is the only politician in Sacramento with remotely more prestige than an old-fashioned watch-pocket. The legislators rate just below the Eight Dwarfs, who are less well-known than the Seven Dwarfs.
The Outer City Limits
No longer is Sacramento a destination for hometown politicians, merely the minor leagues, a cob-rough, blue-collar, harbor-type down-low beer joint where they don’t serve glasses with their brews, at least clean ones.
Sacramento is where ambitious politicians go to fatten their resumés, to prove they can spar with the big boys.
Which brings us to yesterday’s report that state Sen. Curren D. Price Jr. (D-Culver City) is dickering with Los Angeles City Council insiders to run for mayoralty candidate Jan Perry’s soon-to-be-vacated seat when she is term-limited.
At 61 years old, the tall, dapper, stately Sen. Price, an Inglewood resident, not only is half-way through his first full (four-year) term in the Senate, he has logged six total years in Sacramento. This is about 80 in dog years, a lengthy, surely sufficient, apprenticeship.
Time to come home?
He Was Spirited
On the telephone from Sacramento this morning, Sen. Price was decidedly upbeat.
And non-committal, suggesting he may not be far from announcing he is ready to tread the footsteps of his predecessor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who came home to handily win an evident lifetime election to the County Board of Supervisors.
Coy was the senator, but not enough to mask that he is on the rise from the state Senate.
The newspaper’s first question:
According to the letter, you have been in talks with City Council representatives?
Without a pause, Sen. Price said wryly, “That’s according to the letter.” He chuckled at the sound of those words.
But you have had talks?
“No,” he said, instantly catching himself because he wanted to be candid.
“People have approached me with that idea, just talk,” he acknowledged.
“It’s flattering,” he said. “But as I have said, I am focused on the issues here in Sacramento.”
You have listened, though, and you will listen to entreaties?
“I always will have an Open door. I have listened.
“I don’t have plans for being anything other than a senator,” said the Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus who is esteemed by his peers.
While the report did not characterize Sen. Price as reluctant to change addresses, to the question of whether he could be drafted, “I guess anything is possible,” he said. “I have no plans to be drafted. I am not contemplating such a move.”
