Last Tuesday, March 24, Assembly Member Curren Price and Mike Davis joined four other Democrats, one Republican, and member of the Peace and Freedom party in a special election to replace State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas who left the State Senate when he was elected as Los Angeles County Supervisor.

Assembly Member Price received 35 percent of the vote, but due to Mr. Davis’ receiving almost 22 percent of the vote and the large number of candidates running during this special election, Mr. Price was not able to win the seat out right.

Because Mr. Price did not receive more than 50 percent of the total votes cast, there will need to be a general election on May 19th where Mr. Price will run against Nachum Shifren the Republican and Cindy Henderson of the Peace and Freedom party.

While it is highly likely that Mr. Price will prevail, the May 19th election means that the Senate will not have their full body for two more months and that the Assembly will then be down a member during the summer months, when the legislature will likely take further action on the state’s budget. Should Mr. Price win on May 19th, he will serve out the remainder of the term, which expires in November 2010.