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LA mayor eyeing governor’s mansion

March 10, 2013
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday that he would like to run for governor. [KTTV]

“One day I’d like to run for governor, but there’s not a vacancy the last time I looked,” Villaraigosa said on KTTV’s Good Day LA. “I think California has lost is luster and we’ve got to work to regain that luster.”

Villaraigosa, a Democrat who will term out as mayor of Los Angeles on July 1, said he would turn to “a think tank to kind of rethink” his plans for future office. The outgoing mayor chaired the 2012 Democratic National Convention, which led some to believe he might jump to a federal office.

Currently, Villaraigosa is trying to close a $216 million city budget deficit, following the rejection of a half-cent sales tax increase by Los Angeles voters Tuesday. Los Angeles also held its mayoral primary election Tuesday, which garnered only a 16 percent voter turnout.

Villaraigosa blamed the low turnout in part on the Los Angeles Times.

“I was with [Newark, New Jersey Mayor] Cory Booker and [Chicago Mayor] Rahm Emanuel the other day,” Villaraigosa said. “They’re on the front page of their newspaper virtually every week. That doesn’t happen in this town.”

Villaraigosa said the Times usually places coverage of him “on that ‘LA Extra’ third page or fourth page.”

California Governor Jerry Brown is up for reelection in 2014 and is eligible to serve one more term. Villaraigosa could seek the office in 2018.

Former lieutenant governor and Central Coast legislator Republican Abel Maldonado said recently he is considering challenging Brown for the governorship in 2014.

 


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I realize that it’s a bit of a cliche to state that a candidate is “eyeing the Governor’s mansion” (and don’t those journalists LOVE those cliches! —I can hear George Ramos turning in his grave!) but in the case of California that hasn’t been the case since Reagan left office, for nearly 46 years. So your headline, it’s a bit dated, one could say.


Some background:

http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/Governor-s-mansion-empty-in-Sacramento-3248686.php


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We went to Los Angeles two years ago. We toured the Getty and took the grand kids to see Mickey. I was very disheartened to see what has happened to L.A….Parts of town look exactly like Tijuana Mexico. Other parts of the city that we could view from the freeway reminded me of a third world Country. I think if Mr. Villaraigosa runs for Governor all his opponent would need to do is to run ads showing what a rat pit Los Angeles has become under his watch. If you ask me…the good people of California need to get involved in preventing voter fraud and if you are someone that loves CA and wants to return it to it to the top of the charts you had better get registered and vote.

I went on a fishing trip to Oregon last summer and the difference in the state parks and campgrounds was amazing. The parks and almost everything else that is run by the state of Oregon puts California to shame. It’s time to wake up and change the direction of CA…it’s either that or move and I refuse to do the latter.


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To be fair, it was not just under his watch, L.A. has been deteriorating for decades. Most urban, liberal-controlled areas are this way. You want third world, check out Detroit, MI or Camden, NJ… One could go on and on, but apparently acknowledging the “urban utopia” as a dismal failure, or pointing out that multi-culturalism, over time, destroys all cultures involved is not politically correct somehow.


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For sure rOy…you’re correct but he was the last guy to have the reigns and this needs to be trumpeted.


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Agree except for the one word, “liberal.” There is nothing liberal about them; they are authoritarian, omnipotent governments, police states.


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It doesn’t matter what he has done or what he stands for. All he needs are two things, an Hispanic name and a “D” after it.


This is the same state that elected Brown (a laughing stock when he left the first time) over Whitman, a proven fiscal leader, and Boxer again (a NY carpetbagger with a rich husband who hasn’t done a hill of beans in the years she has had in the Senate) over a brilliant Fiorina.


This state is run by LA and SF, and there are way too many urban denizens that wake up on election Tuesday without a rational thought in their heads, head to the polls with election jingles ringing in their ears from the Democrat machine run by the State media and punch the “D” ticket by rote.


If Villaraigosa runs – he will be the governer.


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Won’t that be a hell of a choice? Maldonado or Villaraigosa? Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse!


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Nothing about Villaraigosa is real.


“At this time, he went by the name “Tony Villar” but began using his birth name, Antonio, to win support in the hispanic communtiy .”


“In the wake of extensive media coverage of his affair with Spanish-language television reporter, Mirthala Salinas, Villaraigosa announced that he was separating from his wife.”


His name is fake, his platform is fake, his agenda is fake, his respect of ethics is fake, his marriage is fake. Everything about this guy has been based on falsehoods for years.


Please let that help you make an educated decision at the polling booth.


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…except when one has a “D” after their name on the ballot, all of what you mention is no longer considered a negative.


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Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles….and has.

“I think California has lost is luster and we’ve got to work to regain that luster.” The last time I checked, LA didn’t have any luster, just a lot of plastic. Bad idea.


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Why would anyone vote for a candidate who hails from a city he ran for 2 terms that has a $216,000,000

budget deficit? If that’s not reason enough, remember his performance at the Democrat Convention. And Maldonado isn’t the solution either.


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Beats me. Why would anyone vote for a second GW Bush term, by the same reasoning? Figure that one out and you’ll have your answer.


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Because of the alternative. We’ve been playing lesser of two evils for far too long.


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