Just say no

Antonio Villaraigosa let Wolf Blitzer get the exclusive on the worst-kept secret in California -- he's officially not running for governor.

The LAT's Phil Willon and Maeve Reston report , "The former state assembly speaker said he had been making up his mind “for a long time” and that the state's challenges had made the decision an "agonizing” one.  Villaraigosa called the situation in Sacramento “an abomination,” but hinted at the political risks of announcing a statewide run so soon after being reelected to a second term. “I was elected mayor and reelected by the people of this city.They’ve given me the honor for a second term, and I feel compelled to complete the promise that I made to them. I’m going to dream, and I want the people to dream with me,” he said.

Villaraigosa’s decision adds a dash of clarity to the race for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination which, at the moment, appears will be between state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Brown has yet to say if he will run, while Newsom already has announced his candidacy.

In a personal note, Villaraigosa said the demands of the campaign trail would have kept him apart from his 16-year-old daughter, whom he called the “apple of my eye.” “She’s got two more years of high school and then she’s gone, and I don’t want to be campaigning for a year, and then leading the state in Sacramento and my little precious is, you know, finishing up her high school education.”

Steve Lopez is there, per usual with the proverbial salt to rub in to Villaraigosa's wounds -- wounds that Lopez says are self-inflicted. 

"You can't do a mediocre job, get lukewarm support in the polls, and announce one week before the start of your second term that you're graduating to bigger challenges. That'd be like getting a 2.0 GPA in high school and announcing you'd like to be a brain surgeon. Although Villaraigosa had already made it clear he was probably going to bow out of the race, there was our guy on CNN with Wolf Blitzer this afternoon, making it official on national television. Pure Antonio. He actually thinks the rest of the country cares.

"I can't leave this city in the middle of a crisis," he said. "It's as simple as that."

Because of our crisis?

Here's a bulletin:

"He's not running because at the moment, he knows he wouldn't win, given all the self-inflicted damage he's done by way of empty public promises and dubious private choices.

Trust me, if he still thought he had a chance, he'd be scratching at the doors of donors in every ZIP code."

Gavin Newsom and Steve Poizner pushed their opposition research files aside to say something nice about the LA mayor, now that he's staying put. While Jerry Brown was laying claim to Villaraigosa's votes. The Chron's Joe Garofoli chatted with the AG Monday. 

"One thing you should know is that I lived in Los Angeles from 1966 to 1989," Brown said. "And my first office was on the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees. So I have deep roots in the community. And a lot of friends and supporters there."

And in related news, turns out that some of Jerry's best friends are Latino!

"Jerry -- a native San Franciscan -- also rented an apartment in Sacramento while serving as governor from 1975-83. And he spent considerable post-gov time in the 1980s in India with Mother Teresa, and now lives in Oakland -- where he was mayor from 1998-2006."

We expect Brown to carry Calcutta by a wide margin in 2010...

Dan Walters' analysis says Villaraigosa's decision may help Brown more than Newsom.

"Brown also has decades-long ties to the state's Latino leadership. He appointed several high-profile Latinos during his governorship, including a state Supreme Court justice, and championed the cause of the United Farm Workers union and its late leader Caesar Chavez, by pushing a historic farm labor relations law through the Legislature.

Sure, it might not matter in the real world. But in our little world of California politics, this passes for big news: Fresno Assemblyman Juan Arambula has left the Democratic Party , and registered as a decline-to-state.

Jim Boren was the first to pick up on Arambula's potential move Sunday.

"In three terms in the state Legislature, Fresno Democrat Juan Arambula has found there is little room for a moderate lawmaker who believes in finding workable compromises to the state's most difficult problems. He's been smacked down so many times that he says he's feeling like a skunk in church when he's at Democratic caucus meetings.

They've tried to make life miserable for him, even while they talk of the Democratic Party's "big tent." Of course, they assigned him to a tiny office in the big tent for not rubber-stamping leadership positions. And they've tossed him off key committees for not always saluting the public employee unions that drive Democratic politics in Sacramento."

What this means for the upcoming budget vote remains unclear.  But it is clear that Arambula's main points of contention have been the budget, and water.

Earlier this month, the Modesto Bee reported " Assemblyman Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, is concerned about a lack of input. He said he tried to get on the conference committee. But he suggested that leaders kept him off because he has pushed for significant spending cuts in private caucus meetings, while other Democrats want tax increases.

"Maybe I've been outspoken ... about the need to make more cuts," he said. "That's not an approach that sits well with some folks."

The Bee's Andy Furillo reports, "A California lawmaker arranged an improper deal with state corrections officials to stop an influx of parolees into his district 10 months before voters approved "Jessica's Law," the 2006 ballot measure he wrote to restrict where paroled sex offenders  could live."

In what state Sen.George Runner characterized as a "side agreement" with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the prison and parole agency said it would limit assignments of released offenders into the Antelope Valley to those who had "historical ties" to the area."

Let's give the wheel of hypocrisy a spin, and find out how this one ranks...

Meanwhile, Gov. Schwarzenegger's CalTrans director is hitting the road. The LAT's My-Thuan Tran reports, "The state's top transportation official has been hired to direct the Orange County Transportation Authority, a job that comes with a much larger salary and, perhaps, a lot less frustration.

Are we the only ones who want to know how that is humanly possible?

From the world of Hollywood, NBC reports,  "Ed McMahon died at a hospital in Los Angeles this morning, his agent said today. The 86-year-old TV personality died this morning at Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center."

Meanwhile, the LAT's Julie Anne Strack reports the First Lady's Club gathered in San Francisco to talk about working without pay . State workers can relate to that one, right?

"On her first visit to California as first lady, Michelle Obama on Monday helped volunteers construct a school playground here on a site that has been barren for years.

"Imagine the changes that happen with the creation of this park," Obama said, speaking at Bret Harte Elementary School. "Kids who were never able to play on a swing set will get the opportunity to play."

"Obama joined California's first lady, Maria Shriver, at the school to launch the Obama administration's United We Serve initiative, a national effort to organize service projects throughout the summer."

And congratulations to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who wins the Roundup's first Twitterer of the Day Award for these two blasts Monday evening:

"Backstage after my speech talking with Matthew McConaughey abt service

which was soon followed by:

"Bon Jovi is performing now - Maria goes on next."

On sheer surreal/ironic pop culture points alone, the governor wins in a landslide.