Elected in 1974 on the Democratic Party ticket, Presley served in the California State Senate from 1975 to 1994 representing California's 36th State Senate district. He then ran unsuccessfully for the California's State Board of Equalization in 1994, but became Chairman of the California Youthful Offender Parole Board from 1995 to 1999, and then served as secretary of the California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency from 1999 to 2003.[2][3]
During this time, upon his retirement from the Legislature, Presley also served two terms as president of the California State Board of Podiatric Medicine (BPM), which in 1989 had brought in James H. Rathlesberger as executive officer. Rathlesberger was a change agent working with consumer advocates like Presley and Jackie Speier.[4][5] BPM became the first State agency to support a series of “Presley Bills” in the Legislature aiming to reform physician discipline over Medical Board resistance.[6]
Presley helped guide the BPM through legislative challenges and lent prestige to the efforts for majorities of public members on State licensing boards. The latter failed in the face of stiff resistance from professional societies and the Medical Board of California itself.[7]
