Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) “began his 2018 bid for governor with a a new website, confirming his entrance into what is expected to be a competitive race,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“After a three-year hiatus from the political limelight, Villaraigosa joins a heady field of candidates that is expected to grow larger in the months ahead.”
Los Angeles Times: “Antonio Villaraigosa has kept out of the news in the six months since he opted to skip the race for U.S. Senate. But a reception at his Hollywood Hills home on Monday to raise money for Hillary Clinton was the latest of many signs the former Los Angeles mayor is preparing quietly to run for governor of California in 2018.”
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) “reports that he has already banked nearly $5.5 million for a possible run for governor that’s still more than three years away,” the AP reports.
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California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced that he has opened a fundraising account to run for governor in 2018, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Newsom has long wanted to be governor, and the move – more than three years before the election – is an early shot across the bow at other potential Democratic candidates. By forming a committee, Newsom can raise up to $28,200 per supporter for both the primary and general elections, meaning he can collect $56,400 per donor.”
Failed California gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari (R) “ignored the advice of advisors who urged him to stop dipping into his waning personal fortune to finance a campaign they knew he could not win,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said Kashkari strategist Aaron McLear: “We thought it was crazy, but that’s Neel.”
Gavin Newsom’s decision not to run for U.S. Senate in California “capped a furious 72 hours of discussions among the would-be candidates and their advisers over whether to jump at the state’s first open Senate seat in two decades, or hold out for a shot at leading a state that is the world’s eighth-largest economy,” Politico reports.
In announcing his plans, Newsom got out ahead of Kamala Harris “who has told friends that she is also interested in the job of governor. Instead, on Tuesday, she will launch a campaign for Boxer’s seat, knowing that if she hesitated, it would appear that she was reluctant to choose the Senate over the governorship. In doing so, she will circumvent a race against Newsom; it has long been assumed that they would avoid a titanic clash that would leave one of them badly wounded, their hopes for higher office potentially derailed.”
Three months after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) “unveiled his official Capitol portrait – and its badly scrubbed-out image of his estranged wife – a less splotchy, retouched version of the painting was hung Friday with little fanfare,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
“Less noticeable on the final installment is the area where an image of Maria Shriver’s face on a lapel pin was deleted.”
“It might have been the neatest political trick of this election season — Gov. Jerry Brown’s ‘non-campaign’ for a historic fourth term that wasn’t really a non-campaign at all, yet managed to hide all the trappings of a traditional political run,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“From Brown’s TV spots for a pair of Mom-and-apple-pie ballot measures to his lone, low-key debate with Republican opponent Neel Kashkari, the plan by a team of veteran San Francisco strategists was to push the governor as ‘the reasonable father figure’ rising above the divisive politics that engulfed the rest of the nation.”
“Less than two weeks after winning a fourth term,” California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) “plans to collect more money for his reelection committee Monday at a Sacramento reception with lobbyists and their clients,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The event is unusual. Typically, candidates who continue to raise money after being elected do so to retire campaign debt. But Brown, who coasted to reelection, appears to have none to repay. As of Oct. 18, the governor still had nearly $21 million in his reelection account, according to the committee’s most recent finance statement.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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