Mayoral Hopeful Villaraigosa Readies for State Senate Campaign as Fallback

Even as he energetically campaigns to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa has quietly laid the groundwork to run for a downtown and Eastside state Senate seat should his mayoral bid fail.

Newly filed campaign contribution reports show that Villaraigosa last fall created a committee to finance a race for the seat now held by Senate Majority Leader Richard Polanco.

The records show that Villaraigosa in late November transferred $1.3 million to a new Senate campaign committee from the fund he used while speaker to raise cash for Assembly Democrats. The money would be available if Villaraigosa loses the mayor’s race and Polanco wins a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in the upcoming election. A victory by Polanco in the council race would trigger a special election to fill the vacant Senate seat.

“I chose to keep my options open,” Villaraigosa said in an interview, “but I’m running full speed ahead to be the next mayor of this city.”

There is nothing unique about Villaraigosa’s move--other state officeholders have done much the same thing--but it could reinforce the impression that the former speaker is more interested in holding a public office than in winning the mayor’s job specifically.

In discussions with U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra last year, Villaraigosa offered to drop out of the mayor’s race if Becerra would vacate his congressional seat and let the former speaker run for that spot. Becerra declined, leaving the two friends to face each other and the rest of the field in the mayoral contest.

Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based group, said Villaraigosa’s move was not unusual by the standards of state officeholders. But, Stern added: “He apparently is running for two different offices at the same time. Which one does he really want? This seems like an insurance policy to end up in some public office.”

Despite hedging his bets, Villaraigosa said he is absolutely committed to winning the mayor’s office. He acknowledged that “This is a tough race. . . . It’s a tough mountain to climb.” Nevertheless, Villaraigosa said he believes he has the energy and the momentum to ultimately prevail.

Villaraigosa said he transferred the money from the Assembly Victory Fund, which he controlled, to the new Senate campaign committee rather than risk losing it under provisions of Proposition 34, approved by voters last fall. That measure, crafted by state lawmakers and opposed by leading advocates of political reform, set limits on campaign contributions in legislative races.

At the end of last year, Villaraigosa reported $1.18 million on hand in the Senate campaign committee, called Friends of Antonio Villaraigosa. That is only slightly less than the $1.22 million his mayoral campaign had in the bank.

If state law had not changed on Jan. 1, Villaraigosa said, he most likely would have left the money alone in his Assembly campaign fund. “I might have kept it in that account and not moved it,” he said.

Villaraigosa likened the move to that of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, who ran with Al Gore, but also ran for reelection to the U.S. Senate last November, just in case the Democratic ticket lost in the presidential race.

Lieberman’s decision was roundly criticized by leading national Democrats, who warned that it would open the door to an additional Republican senator if Lieberman had ascended to the vice presidency and the Republican governor of Connecticut named a successor for his Senate seat.

Unlike Lieberman, however, Villaraigosa noted, “I’m not running for two seats at the same time.”

One way or another, Polanco’s seat will soon be open. If Polanco wins his council race, a special election would be held this summer; if not, term limits will force the state senator from office next year.

If he eventually does run for that seat, such a race would put Villaraigosa on a collision course with his friend and political ally, Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), who is also seeking the Senate slot. Polanco’s Senate district includes Pico-Union, downtown, parts of the Eastside and areas north along the Pasadena Freeway--territory that overlaps with Cedillo’s current district and Villaraigosa’s former Assembly district.

Hoping to Avoid a Face-Off

Cedillo also has formed a Senate fund-raising committee and has raised about $200,000, including a $50,000 check from Polanco’s campaign coffers, according to records.

Villaraigosa said he spoke with Cedillo last year about his decision to move the campaign money to a Senate fund. And he repeated that he hopes to avoid a situation in which the two of them are running for the same office. “I don’t expect to be in that position,” he said.

For his part, Cedillo said he is definitely running for Polanco’s Senate seat. But he doesn’t foresee a clash with Villaraigosa. “I expect him to run and be the mayor.”

Cedillo said Villaraigosa was legally compelled to create a fund or risk losing “a very significant amount of money. . . . The laws in terms of campaign finance are changing,” Cedillo said. “He feels strongly that is the only option he had.”

Villaraigosa’s decision to hold on to the campaign funds after he left the speakership last April is widely believed to have contributed to cooler relations with his successor, Speaker Bob Hertzberg.

The Sherman Oaks Democrat was Villaraigosa’s right-hand man, his top political lieutenant as well as his roommate in Sacramento while Villaraigosa headed the lower house of the Legislature.

But the two men who worked so closely together don’t see much of each other anymore as each pursues his own political goals.

Villaraigosa said he gave Hertzberg $1.5 million from his speakership campaign fund to help elect Democrats to the Assembly. But, he said, like speakers before him, he kept some of what remained. Because the speakership is one of the most powerful positions in state government, it offers the occupant an almost unsurpassed opportunity to raise campaign money.

“The Assembly Victory Fund was my fund. I’m the trustee. I’m the one who raised every penny into that fund,” Villaraigosa said.

He used $250,000 from the account to promote passage of a state park bond measure last year. Villaraigosa appeared in television commercials backing the bond issue. He said he would have contributed more to Assembly races if it had been necessary to preserve the Democratic majority in the lower house.

Hertzberg declined a request for an interview to discuss Villaraigosa. The speaker’s deputy press secretary, Patricia Ortiz, said Hertzberg was working on the state’s energy problems and did not have time to discuss such issues as the former speaker. “This is one we are going to have to decline,” Ortiz said.

Although his use of the Assembly money to bankroll a fallback position is unique to the candidates in the mayor’s race, Villaraigosa is not alone in seeking to ensure his political future.

Three other leading candidates have public jobs to return to if they don’t succeed in the mayoral primary April 10 or win a widely expected runoff June 5.

State Controller Kathleen Connell is continuing to raise money for her statewide campaign committee, even though she, too, faces term limits that will force her out of that post next year. City Councilman Joel Wachs remains on the council if he doesn’t capture the mayor’s office. If Becerra doesn’t win the mayor’s race he retains his post in Washington, having won reelection in November.

And though Steve Soboroff has given up his position as a recreation and parks commissioner to run for mayor, he continues to operate a business as a commercial real estate broker.

Indeed, in addition to Villaraigosa, only City Atty. James K. Hahn stands to be without a job if he loses. Term limits bring his time as the city government’s lawyer to an end on July 1.