Mayor Eric Garcetti was preparing for another term Wednesday after a massive win that allowed him to avoid a May runoff, but whether he will serve his full term as mayor or seek higher office remained a mystery.
City Hall speculation about Garcetti’s political future started almost immediately after Tuesday night’s victory. Will Garcetti make a try for governor in 2018 to replace Jerry Brown who is termed out of office? Or what about Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat? She’s 83, and if she decides to retire, Garcetti could run for that next year.
The governor’s race is already getting a bit crowded, with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom appearing to be an early front-runner. No one has announced plans to run for Feinstein’s seat as she hasn’t indicated she’ll be leaving any time soon. But you never know.
The mayor proclaimed victory relatively early Tuesday night — when early returns had already given him about 80 percent of the vote — greeting supporters at a campaign party in downtown Los Angeles, touting his achievements over the past four years and vowing that more is to come.
“While other people are talking about doing big things, Los Angeles, we are doing big things right now,” he said. “My friends, big things don’t happen by accident. They require leadership. The job of the mayor is to get things done, and that’s what I’m going to keep on doing for each and every one of you here in this city. We’re breaking records at our port and our airport. We’re breaking records for tourism and filming. We’ve housed more homeless veterans than any city in America. We’ve paved more roads than ever before. We’ve confronted climate change head on, by cleaning our air, conserving our water and expanding our green spaces. We enacted the largest tax cut in our city’s history and we’ve seen more small businesses start in the last four years than we’ve seen in decades.
… So we are doing big things, but we have a lot more left to do,” he said.
Garcetti raised more than $3.3 million as of March 1, dwarfing his opponents. Mitchell Schwartz, a former State Department official who also worked as a campaign operative for former President Barack Obama, was the only other candidate to raise a significant amount, with more than $691,000.
The winners in Tuesday’s city races — including Garcetti, City Council members and members of the Los Angeles Unified School District board — were elected to longer-than-usual terms of 5 1/2 years instead of four. That is due to a change approved by voters in 2015 that moves city elections to even- numbered years to synchronize them with gubernatorial and presidential elections in an effort to increase voter turnout.
For example, the next Los Angeles mayoral election will be in June 2022, with a November runoff if necessary.
But Garcetti has been non-committal about whether he will serve out his full term. Schwartz pushed him during the campaign to pledge not to run for governor in 2018.
Questioned on KNX Newsradio Wednesday morning, Garcetti said he plans to be in a position serving the people of Los Angeles over the next five years.
“I don’t make pledges about the future, but I’m really excited to get back to work as mayor in the second term,” Garcetti told KNX.
He has long been rumored as a potential gubernatorial candidate, and his name has also been linked to a possible bid for U.S. Senate — should Sen. Dianne Feinstein opt to retire — and his landslide victory Tuesday will likely add fuel to that speculation.
Garcetti argued during the campaign that he accomplished much for city since winning his first term in 2013, by supporting a minimum wage hike, helping the economy by lowering the business tax, encouraging the entertainment industry through tax credits and helping pass the $1.2 billion measure in November to build housing for the homeless.
Schwartz and other critics pointed out that crime has risen in the city for the last three years, along with housing prices.
In addition to Schwartz, Garcetti bested nine other challengers on Tuesday’s ballot — YJ J Draiman, David Hernandez, Diane “Pinky” Harman, Frantz Pierre, Eric Preven, Yuval Kremer, Dennis Richter, Paul Amori and David “Zuma Dogg” Saltsburg.
Garcetti’s victory speech Tuesday night was interrupted by some protesters shouting about raids by federal immigration authorities, and some people calling for the city to formally become a so-called “sanctuary” city.
The mayor made reference to immigration during his speech, saying “no child should see their parent taken from them while their dropping them off to school” — a reference to the recent videotaped arrest of a Southland man by immigration authorities shortly after taking his daughter to school.
“We know that standing up for equality and for liberty and for justice for each and every one of us are the values that directly lead to our collective success,” he said. “We are all Angelenos. … And we are all Americans … and we will rise together.”
He added: “At a moment when politics is being used to divide us … here in L.A. I think we stand for something bigger. We stand for the ideal that when we come together we propel our city and our nation forward.”
— Staff and wire services