Newsletter: Why Antonio Villaraigosa should be California’s next governor
Good morning. I’m Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, May 12, 2018. Enjoy that pleasantly chilly “May gray” weather in Los Angeles this weekend because according to a just-released state report on climate change, the temperatures of our coastal waters are rising and cool oceans are required to chill the warm air over Southern California and give us our lovely summertime marine layer. Let’s take a look back at the week in Opinion.
California voters have a tough choice for governor this June, and it’s not because the field of candidates is deep with talent. The two front-runners, Democrats Antonio Villaraigosa and Gavin Newsom, have serious personal and political failings to go along with their years of experience in both state and local government. California Treasurer John Chiang has plenty of experience but not much else, former state schools chief and Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin’s ideas are forceful but tired, and the two prominent Republicans in the race cannot be taken seriously as candidates.
Among these choices, The Times Editorial Board endorsed former Villaraigosa for governor. In times of serious budget crisis, Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, made choices that put him at odds with old allies and the most powerful interests in City Hall. This is the kind of political courage that would serve him well as governor:
When the worst economic recession of modern times hit, Villaraigosa stepped up. In 2009, as Los Angeles grappled with a projected budget shortfall that was expected to reach $1 billion by 2013 (thanks in part to the imprudent pay raises), he pushed through deep and unpopular — but necessary — cuts to programs and city services. Two years later, he slashed paychecks, furloughed employees and rolled back pension benefits. This made the former labor organizer the enemy of the most powerful force in City Hall, public employee unions. We give him credit for this not because we are hostile to labor unions or pleased to see services or salaries cut, but because in the city, as in the state, budgets have to be balanced, leaders have to learn to say no and fiscal responsibility can't be tossed aside.
By the end of his tenure, Villaraigosa had increased the LAPD to nearly 10,000 officers, seen crime drop to historic lows and persuaded voters to adopt Measure R, a bold and transformative sales tax to fund long-term transportation projects like the subway to the sea — in 2008, no less, when the national economy was melting down. His bid for mayoral control of the Los Angeles Unified School District — which he hoped would help him turn around the city's underperforming schools — was not successful, but he didn't give up the fight; the Partnership for L.A. Schools that he created took over some 18 low-performing schools and has done a creditable job leading them.
Villaraigosa also has substantive experience in state government. As speaker of the California Assembly in the late 1990s, his coalition-building skills were heralded, evident in legislation such as the deal to regulate polluting diesel trucks and passage of a bill limiting handgun purchases to one a month.
Villaraigosa is a complicated character with a big ego and a thin skin. We have our qualms about him. It has not been reassuring that in his post-mayoral years he has served as a consultant to Herbalife, a multilevel marketing company of nutritional supplements that has been the target of investigation for allegedly exploiting its heavily Latino workforce. Villaraigosa also worked for Cadiz, a water speculation company owned by a good friend of his that has been scheming to suck up groundwater from the Mojave Desert to sell to thirsty cities. Everyone is entitled to make a living, but we question some of Villaraigosa's career judgments.
Still, he is the best choice in the field.
Readers have different memories of Villaraigosa. A former L.A. Unified School District school board member recalls his bid to assume control of the district, which was ruled unconstitutional, and another remembers his unkept promise to serve out his term on the L.A. City Council (he ended up serving only two years before taking over as mayor). Plus: The San Francisco Chronicle similarly acknowledges the flaws of Villaraigosa and Newsom, the lieutenant governor, but picks the latter, that city’s former mayor, and the Sacramento Bee believes Villaraigosa’s support from charter school backers disqualifies him.
Trump dislikes Obama — is that why he violated the Iran nuclear deal? The remarks the president delivered Tuesday announcing the withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal — a decision he made against the advice of our closest allies, scores of prominent diplomats and even his own secretary of Defense — sounded a lot like the uninformed statements he made on the campaign trail. They leave the strong suspicion that President Trump’s primary motivation is to besmirch his predecessor, says The Times Editorial Board. L.A. Times
There is no Iran strategy. Trump created chaos by pulling the U.S. out of the Iran deal, and perhaps that was the point, says Doyle McManus. Because by all outward appearances, and despite the assurances by the president to the contrary, there appears to be no Plan B. At best, isolating the United States on Iran is a blunder; at worst, it could plunge key parts of the world into war and turn out to be a catastrophe. L.A. Times
No, it wasn’t criminal justice reform in California that led to a cop’s death. Michael Christopher Mejia had been in and out of prison before being released in 2016 — only to be arrested four times since then. So why wasn’t he back behind bars before authorities say he killed Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer in 2017? “Slip-ups by prosecutors and perhaps other county agencies — not the criminal justice reforms that have received so much of the blame — left Mejia at liberty on the day of the killing,” writes The Times Editorial Board. L.A. Times
More rent control, please, because even though California has a lot, it hasn’t been enough to prevent our current affordable housing crisis, writes Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal of the L.A. Tenants Union. She wants voters to support a ballot measure this November to overturn the Costa-Hawkins Act, which strictly limits how much municipalities could regulate rental housing. “As rents spike and the unhoused population swells, we can return to local governments the right to deter price-gouging and speculating, by repealing the 20-year-old, landlord-lobby Costa-Hawkins law,” Rosenthal writes. L.A. Times
Reach me: paul.thornton@latimes.com
