Eric Garcetti won’t rethink running for president - unless this happens
First, there was Tom Steyer, then came Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is adamant he won’t join the three 2020 candidates who have changed their minds and decided to run for president.
“Today, I can make news for sure. I will not be on that list. I’m definitely not running. It was absolutely the right decision to make” Garcetti said Friday night during a taping of The Bee’s ‘California Nation’ podcast.
Garcetti does, however, see a narrow pathway for him to secure the party’s nomination.
“Unless it gets to the fourth round of the (national) convention and it’s still deadlocked, I am not running,” he joked.
While the Los Angeles mayor hasn’t yet endorsed a candidate, he said former Vice President Joe Biden, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and California Sen. Kamala Harris were on his list of top considerations. “I’m like most Californians right now. I’m shopping around.”
Dropping from that list is former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, whom Garcetti named as one of the five people he was considering during a gaggle with reporters at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meetings held in San Francisco in August.
Garcetti has no regrets about decision not to run for president, noting that homelessness, the environment, infrastructure and immigration will be his top policy priorities when deciding which candidate to throw his support behind.
“Take the fires a week and a half ago here in Los Angeles. If I was in Iowa, I would not be doing my duty and it would’ve eaten me alive, my conscience, not to be here. Vice versa, if I was here doing my job as I should be and I was missing the latest pork fry or something, I would’ve felt guilty about not doing my job. You can’t be a big-city mayor and run for president at the same time.”
He defended criticisms Harris has faced for not being in the state enough, insisting that a U.S. senator does not have the same day-to-day duties as a mayor from a large city.
As a Democratic primary voter in California, Garcetti said he’d prefer to pick a presidential candidate who can defeat President Donald Trump in a general election than someone whose views match his.
“Get elected. That doesn’t mean I’m going to support anybody, but (I’m) darn sure that I want somebody who has a great chance of getting elected.”
He considers Biden as “the most electable” candidate but also noted that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders often beats Trump in public opinion polls asking likely voters about a hypothetical matchup.
Regardless, Garcetti wants candidates to visit California more often and devote more of their energy into campaigning in the Central Valley.
Like California Democratic Party Chairman Rusty Hicks, Garcetti said he was disappointed by the decision from Biden and Warren not to attend the state party’s convention in Long Beach over the weekend.
“The less time you spend here, the tougher it is to win here,” he said. “I’m glad to see so many candidates here, and I hope that the others will at least have a strong presence in our state.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 9:52 AM with the headline "Eric Garcetti won’t rethink running for president - unless this happens."