Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa finishes his first four-year term on a perch that any big-city politician would envy -- no strong opposition, cash in his campaign coffers and a City Hall that is closely in sync with his agenda.
His most formidable potential challenger, billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, announced Friday that he would not run for the city's top office this year. While Caruso was explaining that decision, Villaraigosa was in Chicago appearing onstage with President-elect Barack Obama.
A second term would give Villaraigosa the opportunity to make further progress on goals he set out in his 2005 mayoral campaign, some of which have not been achieved. As he seeks reelection March 3, he will be in a position to strengthen his hold even further on L.A.'s political institutions -- ones with the power to shape policy on crime, education, transportation and the environment.
The City Council rarely challenges Villaraigosa's broader policy wishes. Two of the mayor's closest allies, council members Jack Weiss and Wendy Greuel, are seen as front runners for city attorney and city controller, respectively.
The mayor now has four allies on the Los Angeles school board and will probably push to get two more elected in March. With the passage of Measure R, the sales tax hike for transit, he has forged a new working relationship with county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, an occasional antagonist on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.
Even though he was a national co-chairman of Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, Villaraigosa landed a coveted spot Thursday on Obama's economic transition team. Two days earlier, he helped secure passage of three local ballot measures that will pour up to $50 billion into new transit projects, public schools and community college buildings.
His work on behalf of those tax hikes -- Measures J, Q and R -- drew high praise from business leaders who had said they were critical to rebuilding the area's infrastructure.
"There is probably no one in the community in a better position to raise money than the mayor. And I think it had a positive result," said Gary Toebben, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. "All three were an investment in the future of Los Angeles."
The mayor's strong showing stands in sharp contrast to last year, when he came under fire for engaging in an extramarital affair with a Spanish-language television reporter. By then, he had also drawn criticism for getting bogged down in a fight over control of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
