Sounding more like a presidential candidate than ever, Mayor Eric Garcetti was slated to return to Los Angeles Saturday after a rousing speech to Democrats in Wisconsin that demanded support for “good-paying, middle-class union jobs.”
While Los Angeles has more Kardashians than Wisconsin, Garcetti said, “most of us in L.A. are not movie stars,” but instead are “teachers and truck drivers, nurses and firefighters … linemen for the nation’s largest public utility, longshore workers at the nation’s largest port, assembly line workers in the nation’s No. 1 manufacturing center.”
Garcetti has been widely seen as a candidate for California governor or senator, but the New York Times recently raised some eyebrows when the paper included Garcetti’s name on a list of possible Democratic candidates for president in 2020.
Garcetti used his speech at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin State Convention Friday to give his formula for his party returning to power, including supporting improving infrastructure.
In an address at the Madison Marriott West in Middleton, Wisconsin, a suburb of Madison, the state capital, that included references to the state’s beloved NFL team, the Green Bay Packers, and the first family of reality television, the Kardashians, Garcetti said “Democrats will win and Democrats will lead our country but only if we connect with everyday people and only if our leaders produce progress that our fellow Americans can see.”
One element of the formula is supporting improving infrastructure, including building more rail lines and repairing streets and bridges, which reduces time squandered in congestion and “fewer broken axles and traffic fatalities,” and creates “good-paying, middle-class union jobs,” Garcetti said.
The formula also includes ignoring pundits who claim “we are a party and nation divided,” Garcetti said.
“Every time we play into them and debate them and fight over them, our opponents are laughing all the way to the White House,” Garcetti said.
“Let’s move past these divisive myths and find a common agenda that resonates with Americans in every community in every state across our great nation.”
The agenda includes such policies Los Angeles has adopted since Garcetti was first elected mayor in 2013 as increasing the minimum wage and making community college free for all public high school graduates.
Garcetti said that while Los Angeles has more Kardashians than Wisconsin “most of us in L.A. are not movie stars,” but instead are “teachers and truck drivers, nurses and firefighters … linemen for the nation’s largest public utility, longshore workers at the nation’s largest port, assembly line workers in the nation’s No. 1 manufacturing center.”
The Packers reference preceded a comment that Democrats “must win on both defense and offense.”
Garcetti’s third high-profile political speech in three weeks also included criticism of President Donald Trump and Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
Garcetti delivered the opening keynote address at the Center for American Progress’ Ideas Conference in Washington, D.C. on May 16, and spoke at the California Democratic Party Convention in Sacramento on May 20.
— Staff and wire reports