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{ Antonio Villaraigosa } L.A. mayor's star on the rise again as higher office beckons
Sacramento Bee ^ | 2/2/9 | Peter Hecht

Posted on 02/02/2009 7:51:42 AM PST by SmithL

LOS ANGELES – Barely a year ago, Antonio Villaraigosa's political star seemed anything but luminous.

His wife divorced him after he admitted an affair with a Spanish-language television reporter. A court blocked his high-profile move to seize control of Los Angeles' troubled school system. News columnists charged that a notorious self-promoter was getting his public comeuppance.

And yet the Los Angeles mayor is soaring again in the City of Angels. He is running virtually unchallenged for re-election in March against a field of under-funded unknowns. He is widely discussed as a likely 2010 gubernatorial candidate.

Villaraigosa, who emerged from a difficult upbringing in the tough urban district of City Terrace to take over City Hall in America's second-largest city, is leading again with passion and swagger.

Despite questions of personal character, Villaraigosa has consolidated his power with public charisma and backroom chutzpah. With a month to go before the election, he has chased away serious challengers, vacuuming up campaign dollars despite the city's $1,000-per-person limit.

"He is a powerful politician with a brand name across the nation in political circles," said Jaime Regalado, director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. "The perception is that he can do somebody harm if you get on his wrong side. Politicians who want a future in L.A. have pretty much decided not to challenge him."

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: antoniovillaraigosa

1 posted on 02/02/2009 7:51:42 AM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL
Despite questions of personal character, Villaraigosa has consolidated his power with public charisma and backroom chutzpah

My California friends tell me this dude is pretty much of an idiot. I guess after the election of Øbåmba the MSM political standards have lowered several steps in the evolutionary ladder and idiots now actually look good to them, as long as they're Democrats, of course.

2 posted on 02/02/2009 8:02:29 AM PST by Larry381 (Join BlueServo and protect your border.(http://www.blueservo.net/))
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To: Larry381

This guy led the Communist Party activities at UCLA while he was a student there. Name at the time was Tony Villar. Changed his name to make it harder to track down those activities. He’s a piece of shit.


3 posted on 02/02/2009 8:07:09 AM PST by raptor29
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To: SmithL

Villaraigosa. He’s Everywhere He Wants To Be.

4 posted on 02/02/2009 8:14:08 AM PST by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
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To: SmithL
Who can forget one of his most stirring speeches when he waxed poetic about undocumented workers?

"We clean your toilets."

5 posted on 02/02/2009 8:20:43 AM PST by DumpsterDiver
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To: raptor29; Travis McGee

Yep that POS makes Obamas socialist sedition look like child’s play.............

LA’s fiscal woes are this losers selling of cities services to illegal’s. And he wants to do it as governor ?


6 posted on 02/02/2009 8:24:22 AM PST by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: Larry381

“My California friends tell me this dude is pretty much of an idiot.”

In CA, that brings extra points. “Qualification” has a whole different definition out there.


7 posted on 02/02/2009 8:26:39 AM PST by ScottinVA (Make my world PURRRFECT, Lord Obama!)
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To: SmithL

If the rest of California doesn’t figure out a way to break that state up into 4 states, they will all go down the drain along with LA and SF.


8 posted on 02/02/2009 8:35:08 AM PST by McGavin999
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To: SmithL

California dems are going to pick among Antonio Villaraigosa, Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown. Popcorn?


9 posted on 02/02/2009 8:39:29 AM PST by drubyfive
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To: SmithL

And you know the shocking part? This SOB will probably win the presidency for the wonderful Latinos in 2016...


10 posted on 02/02/2009 8:42:09 AM PST by lado
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To: Squantos

It’s already being done statewide. If they took out the $16 billion or so estimated to be spent annually on ‘services’ to illegals, most of the state’s fiscal problems would disappear. I’m waiting for the point when so many of the mindless, follower ‘liberals’ out here start to realize they are now being directly impacted by all this. Gonna be funny to see how quickly these ‘tolerant’ individuals start screaming for blood once they start losing their own piece of the pie.


11 posted on 02/02/2009 8:46:18 AM PST by raptor29
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To: Larry381; SmithL; raptor29
Do not underestimate the feral cunning with which this guy runs things. He's brutal and effective and has slick advisors to handle the heavy thinking. Villar was a big man in MECHA.

Oddly enough, he speaks abominable Spanish ... far worse than the Tex-Mex of our late WH recumbent, GW

12 posted on 02/02/2009 8:52:01 AM PST by Kenny Bunk (Obama campaigned in Kenya for Jihadist Church-Burner Odinga. Didn't McCain know?)
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To: Larry381; SmithL; raptor29
Do not underestimate the feral cunning with which this guy runs things. He's brutal and effective and has slick advisors to handle the heavy thinking. Villar was a big man in MECHA.

Oddly enough, he speaks abominable Spanish ... far worse than the Tex-Mex of our late WH recumbent, GW

13 posted on 02/02/2009 8:53:38 AM PST by Kenny Bunk (Obama campaigned in Kenya for Jihadist Church-Burner Odinga. Didn't McCain know?)
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To: SmithL
Ever notice once these people get involved in government, most stay in it for life, making entire careers off the backs of the tax payers?

Look at Congress, the Senate, and those in state,city and county governments.

It's the same pattern with these people. Once their terms end, they're right back into another government position. It doesn't matter what position, as long as it's another government position.

Yet, for the tax payers, things always get worse and worse.

14 posted on 02/02/2009 8:53:42 AM PST by dragnet2
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To: raptor29

Celebrity tax ?.............:o)


15 posted on 02/02/2009 9:30:30 AM PST by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: drubyfive
California dems are going to pick among Antonio Villaraigosa, Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown. Popcorn?

They'll go with Newsom. He has the one attribute Democrats can't resist: he's the prettiest. ;)

16 posted on 02/02/2009 9:34:32 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ("One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null word." -- Robert Heinlein)
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To: SmithL

Dear God:

I’m ready. Take me now.


17 posted on 02/02/2009 11:13:25 AM PST by John Jorsett (scam never sleeps)
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