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Antonio Villaraigosa tells the Times that he has known since losing on election night in 2001 that he would run for mayor again. The only question is when. He says he'll decide by late summer whether to try next year, a risky move that could doom his ambitions for higher office should he lose to Jim Hahn again. Villaraigosa is deeply engaged in the Kerry campaign and co-chairs the platform committee for the Democratic convention, so his plate is pretty full. If he doesn't run, he says, it may also be because he doesn't relish being attacked again for his letter in support of drug dealer Carlos Vignali.
"I saw how easy it was to demonize a guy … to make me look like a gang member," Villaraigosa said. "My kids had to go to school and hear 'Your father sells drugs.' They don't need to hear that again."
Another reason not to run apparently didn't come up in yesterday's interview with Times reporters and editors: he promised he would stay as the 14th district's councilman for a full term. From my Los Angeles magazine story last August:
The council's other obvious mayoral challenger, Villaraigosa, insists that he won't be running in two years. "I want to be a city councilman. I fully expect to fill out my entire term," he told me.
I doubt that his kids, who attend a pricey private school in Pasadena, heard much abuse.
Posted by: Rachel at April 30, 2004 11:55 AMAre you kidding? Private schools are hothouses of character-building abuse and torment.
Posted by: joseph at April 30, 2004 01:00 PMi think it's time that professional politicians like antonio look toward a mid-life career change. how many offices can this guy hold in a lifetime?
plus, the whole aztlan thing isn't very appetizing, either.
Posted by: Jim in LA at April 30, 2004 01:51 PMJim in LA -- I disagree. He's actually a very good politician, in the sense of being a builder of consensus. He's not an ideologue, he's not an extremist. He really is helpful and talented in problem solving. This kind of person *should* be a politician.
The "aztlan thing" is a ploy to discredit someone who is basically a moderate liberal politician with the more extreme positions of some members of a group he once belonged to. If you've followed his career, or seen him in action, it's clear he does not have a secret plan to declare Republica de Aztlan in the former California, if elected mayor.
Posted by: Mike Turmon at April 30, 2004 02:34 PMJust what a city like LA needs, a person who thinks along the lines of Villaraigosa! I haven't seen many indications to suggest his biases and agenda wouldn't be any less stereotypically leftist than the ones coming from the usual suspects associated with the Aztlan (or ACLU, NAACP, etc, etc) crowd. And he sounds like a limousine liberal at that, too---he probably argues vigorously in favor of public education & social/racial diversity in the classroom while sending his own kids to private school.
Posted by: Mills S. at April 30, 2004 03:16 PMThe "aztlan thing" is a ploy to discredit someone who is basically a moderate liberal politician with the more extreme positions of some members of a group he once belonged to...
Here's more on the group MEChA. AV was the president of the UCLA chapter. At a mayoral debate, a KNX reporter asked him to renounce his membership, and he refused.
Even today the UCLA MEChA chapter refuses to renounce El Plan de Aztlan and El Plan de Santa Barbara.
Compare to, for instance, the Trent Lott Affair.
Posted by: The Lonewacko Blog at April 30, 2004 07:32 PM
of LA Observed
That's not the half of it. I attended a small campaign gathering at a supporter's house, and Antonio promised not only to serve out the first term fully, but also to seek re-election to a second term as councilman.
Posted by: Mike Turmon at April 30, 2004 10:45 AM