Yaroslavsky Decides Not to Run for Mayor of L.A.

Ending months of sporadic speculation, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky officially announced Tuesday that he has decided not to run for mayor of Los Angeles.

Yaroslavsky--who was considered the wild card in the race--said he likes his work at the county and does not want to return to city politics, at least for now.

“I love what I’m doing,” Yaroslavsky said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “For a policy wonk and a politician, this has got to rank as one of the best jobs in the U.S. I get to deal with a number of issues I care deeply about, from health care to welfare to the environment to transportation.”

Yaroslavsky’s decision comes amid rumors that state Controller Kathleen Connell will announce her candidacy, possibly as early as next week, throwing still another political card--gender--onto the city’s crowded electoral table.

Although the primary isn’t until April, the race is already shaping up to be a contentious one. The other candidates include: U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), City Atty. James K. Hahn, businessman Steve Soboroff, Assemblyman Antonia Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and City Councilman Joel Wachs.

“There are five to six people breathing great sighs of relief today,” said veteran political consultant Joe Cerrell. “It was generally accepted that it was Zev coming in first or second in the race, making a runoff.”

The candidate expected to benefit the most from Yaroslavsky’s decision is Wachs, who shares much of the supervisor’s support base from their many years together on the City Council.

“I’m ecstatic,” Wachs said. “This is a huge boost to my campaign. We share such a common base that we would have cut each other’s votes in half.”

He added: “I’m going to Disneyland.”

Former Assembly Speaker Villaraigosa, who also must count on many of the liberal voters who might have been inclined to support Yaroslavsky, was more diplomatic:

“Supervisor Yaroslavsky would have made a very capable mayor of our city,” Villaraigosa said. “His decision not to run and to remain on the Board of Supervisors will be a disappointment to many Angelenos, but he will remain a valuable asset to the people of Los Angeles.”

Yaroslavsky--who ran for supervisor in 1994 after serving 19 years on the City Council--has considered running for mayor on several occasions over the past two decades.

Although many political insiders anticipated that this would finally be the year he entered the race, the veteran politician expressed deep reservations.

He called his supporters last week to inform them of his decision.

“It’s painful to run,” said political consultant Rick Taylor, a longtime friend of Yaroslavsky. “It’s painful to you, it’s painful to your family, it’s brutal to raise money. I don’t think he wanted to put himself through that. I respect him for making the decision.”

Yaroslavsky said his job as supervisor may be as powerful as the higher-visibility post of Los Angeles’ mayor, calling the theoretical switch of positions “a lateral move.”

The five supervisors control dozens of social service bureaucracies and a $15-billion budget that dwarfs the city’s. There is no city council to second-guess their decisions. Each supervisor represents nearly 2 million people, more than half the population of the city of Los Angeles and more than some U.S. senators represent.

And Yaroslavsky frequently controls the board’s decision as the swing vote in decisions normally split between the other two Democratic supervisors, who represent largely blue-collar, urban districts--Gloria Molina and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke--and the two Republicans, Don Knabe and Mike Antonovich.

Yaroslavsky said he made his decision late last week. It took a long time, he said, because of the crush of county business he has had to deal with over the year, including securing an extension of a federal bailout that keeps the county’s vast medical system afloat.

He said that he may make an endorsement in the race and that he has no idea whether he may run for the office in the future. “I would never say never; life takes too many funny turns,” he said. “But not this time.”