Over at CNN, Antonio has declined to jump in the Governor primary for 2010, leaving only SF Mayor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General, and former Governor, Jerry Brown. There is still almost a year until the primary, so there could be an additional entrant, but no names have surfaced.
As far as I can tell, Mayor Villaraigosa is using the ol’ “I want to do my job” line with a tint of “I want to spend time with my family.”
Interestingly, the Mayor goes after the majority vote, but then throws in support for the Open Primary.
He really shot himself in the foot with a first term that failed to live up to expectations. Some of that is bad timing with his re-election coinciding with a severe downturn, and some of that is simple overselling of what he would do.
But it was pretty clear that he had no interest in this for quite a while.
politically speaking, but I don’t understand some of the seething hatred out there for Villaraigosa. I talked to a very liberal professor at UCLA who said he would never trust Villaraigosa because he was involved with MeCha when he was a student at UCLA, and this guy believes they want to return California to Mexico. He feels that’s what Antonio deep down believes, and is only saying otherwise to win political office. As crazy as it sounds, there’s nothing I can say to convince him that Villaraigosa isn’t a sleeper agent trying to turn us into Mexicans. Argh.
I’m still hoping that Jack O’Connell, Superintendent of Public Instruction, will run. He definitely would protect public education, he’s on record as favoring the elimination of the 2/3 requirements, and he did what he could to try to defeat Prop. 8 before the election. I think he could win.
I like Jerry. He’s a proven performer and you can thank him for…
Windmills…
What’s left of UCB…
Sim Van der Ryn…
What’s left of Oakland…
Yeah, there are those who don’t like him for various reasons but the alternative really sucks.
would run for governor. She’d prompt serious attention to progressive issues, light a fire under the other candidates, and if elected, be a governor we could be proud of — as proud as we are embarrassed by the current occupant.