SAN FRANCISCO — If opposites attract, what of two men as similar as Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa: bold, charismatic and young enough to aspire beyond the cities they run and reflect?
The result could be a novel contest pitting the state's two marquee mayors in a fight for governor. Never mind that San Francisco's Newsom and Los Angeles' Villaraigosa both disavow any thoughts of future office, insisting they are utterly consumed with their jobs at hand.
Villaraigosa: "I'm focused on it and nothing else right now."
Newsom: "I don't think about that for two seconds."
Forget the fact that there is already a gubernatorial contest well underway involving neither of the two men. While Republican incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger would be term-limited if he wins in November, a victory by Democrat Phil Angelides would presumably put him in a fight for reelection in 2010, probably forestalling a Newsom-Villaraigosa matchup until at least 2014.
No matter.
A birds-fly, fish-swim sense of inevitability surrounds the two Democratic mayors and their political futures, placing them, if not exactly on a collision course, then on a path that has produced a certain tension among several of their more eager and aggressive advisors. "It's very much on everyone's radar screen," said one political strategist who occasionally counsels Villaraigosa.
Each side accuses the other of being obsessed and stirring trouble just to draw attention. The Newsom camp suggests that Villaraigosa is trying to lure the city's beloved 49ers football team to Los Angeles. (Untrue, the word from Los Angeles.) Allies of Villaraigosa grumble that Newsom crossed his southern counterpart by allowing education aides to weigh in against Villaraigosa's school takeover proposal. (Not so, the response from San Francisco.)
The result has been more than one staff-level telephone call to unruffle feathers, along with rampant speculation about a race that could highlight a north-south cleavage -- cultural, political, demographic -- like no other in California's history. "Two different cities," said state historian Kevin Starr. "Two different kinds of people."
But first there are the many similarities between the two mayors that help fuel the competition, real or imagined.
As they move about town -- for them, sitting at City Hall is like being snared in a trap -- both men exude a confidence just this side of swagger, slapping hands and acknowledging well-wishers hollering from rolled-down car windows. \o7"Hey, \f7\o7m\f7\o7ayor! Over here!"
