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February 22, 2008
Another Term for Mayor Tony?
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has begun to get the word out that he plans on running for a second term. According to the LA Times, Mayor Tony made mention of his plans, along with "his most personal remarks to date about the political fallout from his extramarital affair" on Wednesday during an interview on the Charlie Rose show.
The Mayor was also asked about his plans to run for governor, which have been circulating in the rumor mill for some time. The Times' quotes his reply: "Nothing could be further from the truth. . . . My first priority is this job. . . . I'm running for reelection. I'd love your support. I aim to work as hard as I have in the first 2 1/2 years, all through the first term and the second."
Locally, Villaraigosa has worked hard of late to regain the public's esteem, as well as precious favorability rating points, which took a cut of almost 20% when news of his relationship with onetime Telemundo reporter Mirthala Salinas. Nationally, he has been one of Hillary Clinton's most vocal supporters, even taking time to travel with her on the campaign trail in multiple states earlier this year.
Can LA trust Mayor Tony to take a second term and keep it? The Times suggests he might make a run for the Governator's seat, based on Villaraigosa's past behavior: "When seeking a council seat in 2003, he promised Eastside voters that he would serve a full four-year term, then left in 2005 when he won the mayor's race."
Photo of the Mayor in the 2006 New Year Parade in Chinatown by jimw via Flickr
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Mayor V is a shoe-in if looking for a second term. His campaign team is a power horse, amazingly slick. Who wants to run against that? I guess, though, you never know what could happen between now and then...
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It doesn't matter to me how long he may stay for a 2nd term as much as what he did with the first 4 years. My opinion is he was more worried about the appearance and marketability of our city rather than fix the existing problems. Will have to wait and see what the competition looks like before making a decision.
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Can anyone name one problem he has solved with LA? Our schools, traffic, graffiti and crime are the exact same shitstorms that they were before he started.
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Judging by the "art" decorating the walls of the 10 freeway on my way to the office, grafitti is not getting better nor anywhere close to a solved problem.
I think it actually much worse...
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I just can't wait to see all of the new outfits - really, is there anything he won't wear? From chef's whites to Asian garb,there is nothing he won't don to mug for the cameras.
Please, please, please, somebody invite him to the Christopher Street Parade and convince him that he REALLY needs the leatherboy vote!
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Just for the record, "art" on the freeway has nothing to do the Mayor or the City's jurisdiction. That would be the state and in my experience, every piece of graffiti I have ever reported to Caltrans has gotten taken care of.
So the question is, have you spoken up? If not, give it a try. 213-897-3656 is the number. Let us know!
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yes i have spoken, i call caltrans frequently - let me rephrase - altough the freeway is under the juridiction of caltrans, the degenerates that grafitti said freeway are under the jurisdiction of mayer jose.
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Villaraigosa has been an outstanding Mayor. This is the first Mayor I've seen in this city who has been as involved, always on the scene, and always where he should be in a crisis.
Jimmy Hahnn was as crooked as a dog's hind leg. All you had to do was look on the City Ethics Commission websight, to see where his real loyalties were. The only thing miraculous was that he never got caught red-handed. I'm glad "Teflon Hahnn" is gone.
I'd vote for Villaraigosa's re-election in a heart beat.
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Who's James Hahn? ;)
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nicksm, I'm glad you call in, keep up the good work on that. Graffiti is a tough issue and I believe if a community really does not want it, it can be fought pretty easily. Mayor V needs to supply us with more tools to easily fight graffiti, so it doesn't become our full-time job.
Even though it could be improved, I'm digging the first version of online reporting for graffiti with city of LA jurisdiction:
http://www.lacity.org/bpw/OCS/grsr.htm
As far as I know, it seems Greuel and Garcetti are the ones who are really taking graffiti to issue.
For me, as a LAPD block captain, I walk my block and report it as soon as it goes up. If it's a gang tag, I call my SLO and snap a picture for him. I rarely see graffiti anymore since I started fighting it consistently. You just have to keep it up and not give up. And if you want to unofficially "adopt" a certain mural on the freeway by calling Caltrans and Cultural Affairs about graffiti on it, I'm sure you can make a good relationship and partnership to get that going. The key to all this is building relationships.
But I know, we don't all have the time for that and wish things would just get done without us having to nag. And discussion is for another day....
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As long as Villaraigosa keeps supporting the LAPD against the LA Times he has the Westside vote and the election in the bag.
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I am an ex-Villaraigosa supporter. To be honest if his wife can't trust anything he says why should I? Let him go crawling back to her and beg for forgiveness...if she forgives him then I will think about it.....