WASHINGTON — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is stepping onto a national political stage this week, talking to new audiences about poverty and crime and in the process positioning himself among the emerging field of Democratic Party up-and-comers.
On Wednesday, he delivered a proposal for eradicating urban poverty in a speech before the National Press Club, calling for significant federal investment in universal preschool, subsidized college savings accounts and other measures to lift the poor into the middle class.
And today, he will lead a contingent of big-city mayors urging government officials and private business leaders to join in a crusade on behalf of the poor.
The mayor's three-day swing through Washington has been carefully orchestrated to cast him as a serious national player and prove his loyalty to the kingmakers of his party -- efforts that will come in handy if he decides to run for governor in four years.
Villaraigosa is at the top of a short list of prominent Latino elected officials across the country who are being watched by party elders. He is, in the words of national Democratic leaders, a fresh face emerging at a time when tectonic demographic shifts are compelling Democrats to look harder at Western states that were once out of the party's reach.
Villaraigosa's election "represents the growing political force of Latinos in California and across the nation," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). "He is a rising star in the Democratic Party."
The week's events are heightening that buzz.
On Tuesday, after appearing at an event where mayors from around the country called for tougher measures against illegal firearms, Villaraigosa attended the State of the Union address as Pelosi's guest. He is scheduled to have dinner tonight with New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. And he has been asked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) to give the Democrats' weekly radio address Saturday.
Since he took office 18 months ago, Villaraigosa has treated the nation's capital like a suburb of Los Angeles, visiting several times.
He has given speeches to House and Senate Democrats. Party leaders have asked him to campaign for congressional candidates. And he gave the Spanish-language response to the State of the Union last year.
