Curb Says He’s ‘Likely’ to Seek Old State Office

Mike Curb said Tuesday he is “very, very likely” to announce his candidacy this year for his old job as California lieutenant governor, and Curb’s campaign adviser said the decision is even more likely than that--it’s definite.

In a telephone interview, the pop-country recording executive who served one term as a Republican lieutenant governor from 1978 to 1982 repeated what he has been saying in political circles--that the response to his one preliminary fund-raiser was encouraging enough to push him back into electoral politics.

“The fund raising has been so positive--having one event and receiving the kind of support I’ve received and the kind of endorsements I’ve received--it seems to me there’s a lot of interest. It’s very, very likely that I will run,” Curb said.

Political consultant Bill Roberts, retained by Curb as a campaign strategist, said in a Sacramento Bee interview published Tuesday that Curb “is definitely going to (run), but the timing of the announcement is still a ways off.”

After serving as lieutenant governor under Democratic Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., Curb lost the Republican primary election for governor in 1982. He then became a fund-raising chairman for the Republican National Committee, returning to California in 1985 to explore his support for elective office.

A victory in the primary likely would place him on the Republican ticket with Gov. George Deukmejian in this year’s gubernatorial election. Curb has already pledged his loyalty, calling his opposition to Deukmejian--in the 1982 primary--a thing of the past.