DENVER — At a breakfast gathering of California delegates Thursday, two big-city mayors spoke back-to-back, a potential preview of coming attractions.
Using his city as a model, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom challenged the gathering to return California to a position of prominence.
"Things aren't going as well as they should," he said. "We're not stepping up and solving the problems like we should. . . . We're good at finger-pointing and we're good at talking about the way the world should be, but we're falling short on delivering those ideals."
Next up, his Los Angeles counterpart, Antonio Villaraigosa, asked the group to rally behind the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama -- whom Villaraigosa himself turned to only when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton dropped out.
"Get motivated, get excited, get inspired, and tomorrow we get to work to get him elected," the mayor said.
Most of the focus at any political convention is, understandably, on the presidential nominee and his newly minted running mate. But conventions are, for the political class, the premier place to meet and greet, a captive bounty of donors and volunteers and activists and interest group members, all there for the convincing. And many of those eyeing the next race for governor of California took full advantage.
Newsom and Villaraigosa both spoke to California delegates Thursday, as had Lt. Gov. John Garamendi on Monday. Newsom, also a former Clinton backer, hosted a convention concert at the aptly named Manifest Hope Art Gallery. Villaraigosa sat behind former President Clinton during his wife's Tuesday night address to the convention. Garamendi worked to expand a list of donors who would agree to raise $100,000 each for his campaign, and said Thursday that he had won several commitments.
The intent was not lost on the audience in Denver.
"That's a stump speech," delegate Steven Bradford, a Gardena city councilman, said at the end of Newsom's remarks Thursday. "He's running for office."
While the race for governor is still a ways off -- the election is November 2010 -- competition has already been furious among both major parties.
Newsom launched an exploratory bid on July 1. Garamendi launched his third gubernatorial effort later that month. Villaraigosa is putting off any official decision until after his reelection campaign next year. Other potential Democratic candidates include Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who served as governor from 1975 to 1983, and former state Controller Steve Westly, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 2006.
