Don’t underestimate Villaraigosa in the CA Governor’s race

From Jim NewtonCalmness

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

A bad bet on California’s policy in recent decades is to assume that Antonio Villaregosa, who is now in hunting the governor, is complete. Its underestimation is a game of a fool.

Some people believed that he would never make the transition from Sacramento, where he was the speaker of the Assembly, back to Los Angeles, where he said he had passed after losing the mayoral race in 2001 to the then city lawyer James Khan. Many people realized that he was done after his marriage exploded during his mayoralty.

All these people were wrong.

Villaregosa was elected to the Los Angeles City Council shortly after the mayoral race in 2001. He then won his rematch against Khan in 2005. He was easily re -elected in 2009. Even his critics credited with important achievements such as mayor, a particularly reduced crime and huge new investments in public transit.

Here he comes again. Is no longer the rude young organizer, Villaregosa is already 72 years old, but there is another campaign in it and he makes his own Second pierce in the manager.

No mayor of Los Angeles has never made the jump, but the vilagosa is nothing, if not persistent.

I have known it for a long timeS We first met in 2000 when he was a relatively unknown figure in Los Angeles politics. It was not always easy to ride and we had our differences. Villageza is a talkative and bubbly with ideas, but it enjoys the sound of your own voice and rarely delays to listen to someone else. It is magnetic – the guests of every event are attracted to it – but it is inclined to endure. He carries people.

Still, the same energy that I first saw in a cabin for a restaurant at our original meeting is still there. He loves attention, but also knows that he has the chance to do something with him. It is sustainable and principled.

In this round, Villaraigosa has several things about him, as well as a few big, obstacles. The latter include two potential missing pieces in the race: Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Los Angeles Rick Caruso developerS

Caruso is a smaller threat to the ambitions of vilahagosa. Rich, white and absorbed by itself, Caruso could be involved in the run-off as moderate outside the mainstream of the Democratic Party-he has only been a Democrat for a few years. But this is not an easy task and it is easier to see how it can finish second from the first.

Caruso can be self -financing, but it is not clear where his support will come from. The main Republican donors want him to go to this competition so that they can merge around Maga candidate (a safe track for loss in 2026. See: Steve gari). And the liberal elites of the state showed their disregard for Caruso in his mayoral campaign in 2022 against Karen Bass, who beat him with 10 points, although he spent $ 100 million for his own campaign. His path to the Government, if he has one, is narrow.

Harris is another story. There is no lost love between her and vilaharagosis. In 2016, when American Senator Barbara Boxer announced that he would not look for another term, it opened the gate to inherit it. Harris moved faster than the vilayagosa to mobilize a campaign and expose it, disappointment of his offer for state officeS

They have fixed some fences ever since – he enthusiastically supports her against Donald Trump, an easy call – but should she enter the governor’s race, She would throw a long shadow Over any other candidate, including Villaraigosa. You wouldn’t mind standing against herBut it will be a clear favorite.

He professes little interest in Caruso or Harris’s plans. “I am in it, no matter who enters,” Villaregosa told me last week, adding that the governor was “not a stepped stone”, a slight digging in Harris. “I’m in this race and I’m ready to take the first day.”

This last comment speaks – in two ways. Villaraigosa is a competitor and he is good at that. Still, for all your great political skills and its impressive resumption, Villaraigosa can come across rehearsal. He likes to talk “does not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good”, about being a “solution problem” and, yes, that he is “ready to lead the first day.”

None of this is incorrect or offensive, but it is a political patter.

“I do not defend the refineries or oil. I protect the middle class and working families who cannot afford $ 8 per gallon for gas.”

Antonio Villagosa, former mayor of Los Angeles and a candidate for governor

When he fires his speaking points, he is better. The vilagosa is reasonably recalling that he has helped California expand the universal healthcare of children, that he has been a fresh air champion for decades, that he has been chaired by a sharp decline in the crime in LA, that he demanded legal behavior from the city police without calling to defuse the department.

He is “seamlessly progressive”, but he is a more leader than an ideologist. The mayor helped him learn and practice this. More than any candidate in the race, he can point out the true executive experience in the government.

He is a little more screened in terms of his political support, more special than the support from which he has received oil and gas interestsS This support is unexpected, given the dedication of Villaraigosa to the alleviation of climate change and to protect the environment as a whole, and it has not escaped the news that the interests of fossil fuels help him raise money in the early, difficult stages of his race.

Why is it honest to ask if the oil and gas groups would support a candidate dealing with their records for climate change?

He knows that the question is coming and is ready with an answer, though somewhat dug. As for the energy, he said, he is for “everything lower”. He supports the development of wind and solar and geothermal as well as small nuclear. And he He wants to protect the refineries on the state of the stateAlso, but he wants to be aware of why.

“I’m not defending refineries or oil,” he insisted, “I defend the middle class and working families who can’t afford $ 8 per gas gallon.”

Thus, the Villagosa again enters the brawl, carrying all his energy, vanity, his thoughtful positions and his rehearsed answers, his ambition and his indisputable commitment to the service. He can be exhausting – believe me, I know – but just when you think you are tired of him, he hits a step.

In our conversation last week, this reminder came when we briefly hit the events that take place around us. As we spoke, the masked federal agents rounded Angelenos, removing them from jobs and families and delivering them to unknown points. Protesters rose upand Trump was spoiling for battleS

A more pre -prevailing politician can wait for these events to calm down before weighed. Not vilaharagosis. When the subject turned to immigration attacks, suddenly his pattern was gone and his voice hardened.

“What we saw yesterday,” he said, “You will have to be a hidden human being who is not affected.” It was nothing less, he added than “hardworking people are rounded like animals.”

In this case, Villaraigosa is not calculated. He was discovered, unequivocally terrible, and was not afraid to say it.

“I know this condition,” he said. “I know these people.”

He does it. And so it is a mistake to ever underestimate Antonio Villagosa.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.