MAYOR KEEPS HIGH PROFILE ON D.C. TRIP

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.

Villaraigosa will likely also be expected to hit the stump on behalf of others outside California as the 2008 presidential race approaches, delivering his rags-to-prominence story with its emphasis on the single mother who raised him and the public high school teacher who gave him a second chance after he dropped out.

“Antonio will be one of the major surrogates dispatched to all the key swing states,” said Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant and former Vice President Al Gore’s press secretary. “He has the Hollywood profile to energize the base and to appeal to swing votes. He can show up and talk about education or economic development.”

Villaraigosa’s rise in Democratic circles depends, of course, on things going well back home.

Being a big-city mayor is considered by some the toughest job in politics. Mayors are often measured by their ability to deliver services, and Villaraigosa has made big promises: to put 1,000 more police on the streets, solve an intractable homeless problem and transform the city’s chronically troubled schools.

And the mayor continues to deflect questions about his political aspirations and whether he is committed to his current job. During a question-and-answer session after his speech Wednesday, the press club’s president, Jerry Zremski, touched on the issue, asking Villaraigosa a question submitted by one of the journalists in the audience.

“Is this your timetable: mayor today, governor 2010, president when?”

Villaraigosa fired back.

“Mayor today, mayor tomorrow, mayor the next day. Thank you very much.”

As Villaraigosa weighs his options, he can expect a parade of presidential hopefuls beating a path to City Hall.

“Every candidate is going to come through Los Angeles. They will all be stopping to kiss the ring of Antonio Villaraigosa,” said Democratic consultant Jenny Backus, the former communications director for the Democratic National Committee. “Everybody is going to want to be in a picture with him.”

Villaraigosa’s aides said that although his trip this week did include a healthy amount of politics, the overarching purpose was to promote sound public policy on the issue of poverty.

For the last year, Villaraigosa has led a group from the U.S. Conference of Mayors seeking solutions to help the nation’s poorest citizens.

In its report, to be released today, the Mayors Task Force on Poverty, Work and Opportunity calls for Washington to initially spend at least $44 billion that would be added to contributions from local and state governments. Other assistance would be sought from the private sector.

The federal money would open preschool to more 3- and 4-year-olds, an investment that the mayors say would yield significant returns in the form of educated and productive workers.

Under the plan, the federal government would establish tax-free savings accounts of up to $500 for every child born in the United States and then match annual parent contributions up to $500, providing high school graduates with limited family incomes more than $40,000 when they enter college or workforce training programs.

Local and state governments, meanwhile, would spend $32 billion for schools that adopt high-quality career and vocational education programs.

Business leaders would be called on to invest in these workforce education efforts and to take other steps such as making banks more accessible in low-income neighborhoods.

Finally, the mayors would raise the minimum wage, expand tax credits for poor families and take other measures to foster economic development in low-income communities.

In his remarks Wednesday, Villaraigosa acknowledged the high cost of the proposals but said the investment would produce significant societal benefits.

He said two ideas propelled the task force: that the answer to fighting poverty rests in rewarding those who work and giving people the skills that can make them competitive.

“There is an overriding national need for a bold, coordinated, cross-cutting and transformative strategy giving Americans the education and the skills they need to compete and thrive in the global workplace,” Villaraigosa told the press club, where he was greeted warmly.

One scholar who has studied poverty applauded Villaraigosa and his fellow mayors but said they must also ensure a role for local communities.

“I think these are important solutions,” said Phyllis Furdell of the National League of Cities, who attended Villaraigosa’s press club speech and is a co-author of an upcoming book that examines the role of cities in improving low-income communities. “These are part of the necessary pieces,” she added.

But another poverty researcher who praised the mayors for focusing on programs that invest in “human capital” predicted that their effort would meet resistance from those in Congress who oppose greater government spending on social programs.

“Any new domestic priority spending is going to be difficult in this fiscal climate when you have dollars going to the war and a growing deficit,” said UCLA public policy professor Michael Stoll, who is associate director of the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty. “I don’t expect all of the proposals to be fully funded, but I do expect some of them to be funded.”

*

[email protected]