Obama meets with mayors to unify party

In a push to coalesce Democrats, Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday huddled in a hotel conference room with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other influential city leaders who earlier had supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president.

The private meeting occurred shortly before he addressed an overflowing ballroom at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in South Florida, where he promised, if elected, to use both federal money and muscle to address the urban needs for affordable housing, roads and funding for schools that he said have been neglected by the Bush administration.

But the clear, underlying goal of Obama’s two-day campaign swing through Florida was to unite party loyalists after the protracted primary campaign and dispute over seating of the state’s delegates to the national convention.

“Obama still has a lot of work to do. Neither Obama or Clinton did any campaigning in Florida,” said Miami Mayor Manuel A. Diaz, who was among five Democratic mayors who met with the likely Democratic nominee.

Florida is viewed as a crucial state this November, as it has been in recent general elections. But for Obama to win, he will have to work hard to appeal to South Florida’s large bloc of Latino voters, who have historically trended Republican, and to independents in the crucial corridor connecting Tampa and Orlando, Diaz said.

The Obama campaign requested the private meeting with the mayors, who, along with Villaraigosa and Diaz, included Martin Chavez of Albuquerque and David Cicilline of Providence, R.I., all of whom had backed Clinton but came out in support of Obama after he locked up the nomination. The meeting was sponsored by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, one of Obama’s staunchest backers.

“He just said he was happy to have all of us on board,” said Villaraigosa, who had been a national co-chairman for Clinton and campaigned on her behalf in California, Texas, Nevada, Iowa and New Hampshire. “I said to him that I was going to work as hard for him as I did for Sen. Clinton.”

Immigration reform and the pressing needs of many of America’s largest cities were also discussed during the meeting, which lasted about half an hour.

Obama used his address to the full conference of mayors to criticize Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, as being more concerned about protecting tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy than about Americans living with inadequate schools, street crime and crumbling infrastructure. Obama pointed to the deadly flooding in the Midwest and McCain’s votes against federal flood protections.

“I know that Sen. McCain felt as strongly as I did, feeling enormous sympathy for the victims of the recent flooding,” Obama said. “I’m sure they appreciated the sentiment, but they probably would have appreciated it even more if Sen. McCain hadn’t opposed legislation to fund levees and flood control programs, which he considers pork.”

The legislation at issue provided $23 billion for water projects and was vetoed by President Bush, who said it was overloaded with members’ special projects. Congress later overrode the veto.

The McCain campaign was quick to respond, saying Obama voted against an unsuccessful bipartisan amendment to prioritize funding for levee improvements.

“It is beyond the pale that Barack Obama would attack John McCain for actually trying to fix the problem and change the way Washington works,” said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds in a written statement. “Barack Obama’s willingness to continue the status quo pork-barrel politics in Washington, and then engage in political attacks that entirely disregard the facts, once again fundamentally shows that he’s nothing more than a typical politician.”

In his Miami speech, Obama hit notes intended to resonate with mayors of urban cities in tough economic times: “You know what happens when Washington puts out economic policies that work for Wall Street but not Main Street, because it’s your towns and cities that get hit when factories close their doors and workers lose their jobs and families lose their homes because of an unscrupulous lender. That’s why you need a partner in the White House.”

He promised to increase federal funding for local law enforcement and education, as well as grant money for housing programs and aid for homeowners facing foreclosure.

Even for some of the Democrats in the audience, however, the long list of promises seemed unrealistic. “I think the speech was wonderful,” said Don Slesnick, mayor of Coral Gables, Fla. “I also think it was very ambitious -- a little too ambitious.”

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phil.willon@latimes.com