During a day of stop-and-go campaigning for the 2nd District seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas paused for a little criticism from his campaign manager: You need to do more to toot your own horn.
"You have to close the deal," said Vincent Harris after Ridley-Thomas' debate last weekend with his chief rival for the seat, L.A. City Councilman Bernard C. Parks.
Harris wanted his boss to show more of a killer instinct when rattling off his accomplishments.
"I can't remember all the things I've done," said Ridley-Thomas, laughing, deflecting the jab with a sigh and suggesting that age may be catching up with him.
The 53-year-old Los Angeles Democrat is competing against Parks and seven other candidates in the June 3 election for a seat in a culturally and ethnically diverse district that stretches from Culver City and Mar Vista to South Los Angeles, Watts and Compton.
Supporters describe Ridley-Thomas as a consensus builder, a politician with the heart of a grass-roots community activist and the flair of an intellectual. But longtime detractors say he's still an elitist with an abrasive style. And some say he's a little of both.
If he wins, the Board of Supervisors will be the next stop on a career path that began in 1991 when he traded his role as a civil rights leader -- executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles -- for a seat on the City Council.
In 2002, Ridley-Thomas was elected to the state Assembly, where he served for four years until he won his current seat in the Senate.
Over the years, he has brought programs, jobs and millions of dollars of development to Southwest Los Angeles.
Following the 1992 riots, Ridley-Thomas founded the Empowerment Congress, a citizen involvement group that became a model for the city's system of neighborhood councils.
In 1995, he invited a select group of civic leaders and community activists to have "A Day of Dialogue" to defuse racial tensions after the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial. Since then, thousands of people nationwide have participated in "Days of Dialogue" programs.
In 2002, he founded the African American Voter Registration, Education and Participation Project, a political action committee designed to bolster black political power.
His opinions on anything from police accountability to health reform have appeared in the op-ed pages of numerous publications -- he's written more than three dozen pieces for The Times.
