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Cover Story: L.A. and the Jedi Mayor
 | | Not
a light saber, but the bright glare of TV cameras always draw out the
charisma of L.A.’s new mayor. — Staff Photo by Gary McCarthy |
TONY CASTRO, Columnist 13.JUL.05
Villaraigosa begins showing skeptics there is substance in addition to style
Los
Angeles feels different today. There is an air in the city that wasn’t
there last week. It has nothing to do with smog, which is just as bad
as always. Nor does it have anything to do with it being summer in full
bloom.
On the morning that terrorists attacked commuters in
London, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wasted little time in urging Los
Angeles residents to go about their regular routines, but to remain
vigilant of any suspicious activity.
“Our city and county are
protected by our country's finest men and women who are prepared and
trained to detect, prevent and respond to any threat,” the mayor said.
Villaraigosa
then got on the Red Line train at Union Station and rode it to
Hollywood “to demonstrate that this system is safe.”
It didn’t
really seem to matter that Sheriff Lee Baca also boarded public
transportation to underscore safe conditions in the city, nor that LAPD
Chief William Bratton assured people that security had been immediately
beefed up.
What mattered was that Villaraigosa, arguably the
most popular and best respected Angeleno since former Mayor Tom
Bradley, had spoken and called for calm.
It was only the
beginning of the seventh day of his tenure, but Villaraigosa had
already made a profound impact on the way Angelenos were looking at
themselves, their city and the mayor they had recently elected to clean
up the dirty politics at City Hall and provide Los Angeles with a new
direction.
It is too early to say that Villaraigosa has
delivered. But he certainly has made a good start. He is showing
skeptics that there indeed is some substance in addition to the style
that has been associated with him all his public life.
There is
more to Antonio Villaraigosa than simply charisma, if, in fact,
charisma is what has carried him on his remarkable political journey.
For it is still unclear what it is about Villaraigosa that has made him
not only a local political darling but a national one as well.
Last
week, veteran political writer Rick Orlov of the Daily News reported
that Villaraigosa has been trying to squelch rumors of a possible
gubernatorial candidacy next year — a story that has given further life
to additional speculation.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may now be
vulnerable politically, as polls are showing, but do the Democrats have
anyone capable of unseating him? The prospect of sending someone like
Phil Angelides against even a weakened Schwarzenegger is tantamount to
disaster again for the Democrats.
Enter Villaraigosa and his light saber.
Can anyone question that, at this moment, he is the most popular political figure in Los Angeles and possibly all of California?
After Villaraigosa, all the potential Democratic gubernatorial candidates together are no better than Gray Davis Lite.
What
some Democratic Party movers and shakers are now saying that it is
crucial that Villaraigosa be at the forefront of the opposition to
Schwarzenegger’s initiatives in the November general election.
For Villaraigosa, they are saying, there is much to gain and little to lose.
Polls
are showing that two of the Schwarzenegger-inspired initiatives will
likely lose. Villaraigosa could arguably take credit for their ultimate
defeat, as well as possibly the rejection of the third initiative,
should it also lose.
This is not to mention the additional
statewide exposure it would lend Villaraigosa — a test-run, as it were,
for a mano a mano gubernatorial campaign in 2006.
The downside
of Villaraigosa at the helm of the anti-Schwarzenegger campaign this
fall is in the remote possibility of the governor making a remarkable
comeback — unlikely given voters’ overall disenchantment with the $40
million price tag on the election Schwarzenegger is forcing upon them.
For
Villaraigosa, should all go well, he has been at this junction before —
having promised to serve out a full term as a City Councilman and not
run for mayor, and rationalizing his broken vow by saying he was
following the will of his constituents..
They wanted me to be mayor.
They want me to be governor.
It
has all worked out for Villaraigosa because we are learning that he is
a child of the political gods. Or, because this is Hollywood, the force
is always with him.
He waves his hand and speaks his wishes —
like the assuring words with which he allayed bus riders’ fears the
morning of the London bombing — and his voice becomes like the Jedi
mind trick of Star Wars.
Remember the scene in the original Star
Wars, when Obi Wan Kenobi escorts Luke and his two AWOL droids past
empirical Stormtroopers into the forbidden city.
“These are not the droids you’re looking for,” Obi Wan tells the first Stormtrooper.
“These are not the droids we’re looking for,” the Stormtrooper tells his partner.
“He can go about his business,” Obi Wan says, planting the Stormtroopers next thought.
“You can go about your business,” the Stormtrooper says, letting them through.
So
it is with Villaraigosa. The enchantment that Los Angeles and others
have with the new mayor is exactly that. Enchantment, magic,
spell-bound.
Villaraigosa utters, and the city is transformed.
In the land of movie magic, stunt tricks, teeth-bleaching and cosmetic
surgery, what else would you expect?
Digitized political power.
Tony Castro can be reached at tcastro@laindependent.com.
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