Latest news with #Villaraigosa
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Villaraigosa, despite climate credentials, pivots toward oil industry in run for governor
As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state's struggling oil industry. Villaraigosa's work to expand mass transit, plant trees and reduce carbon emissions made him a favorite of the environmental movement, but the former state Assembly speaker also accepted more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from oil companies and other donors tied to the industry over more than three decades in public life, according to city and state fundraising disclosures reviewed by The Times. Since entering the race last year to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, Villaraigosa has accepted more than $176,000 from donors with ties to the oil industry, including from a company that operates oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and in Los Angeles County, the disclosures show. The clash between Villaraigosa's environmentalist credentials and oil-industry ties surfaced in the governor's race after Valero announced in late April that its Bay Area refinery would close next year, not long after Phillips 66 said its Wilmington refinery would close in 2025. Villaraigosa is now warning that California drivers could see gas prices soar, blasting as "absurd" policies that he said could have led to the refinery closures. "I'm not fighting for refineries," Villaraigosa said in an interview. "I'm fighting for the people who pay for gas in this state." The refineries are a sore spot for Newsom and for California Democrats, pitting their environmental goals against concerns about the rising cost of living and two of the state's most powerful interest groups — organized labor and environmentalists — against each other. Villaraigosa said Democrats are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in their approach to fighting climate change. He said he hoped no more refineries would close until the state hits more electrification milestones, including building more transmission lines, green-energy storage systems and charging stations for electric cars. The only way for the state to reach "net zero" emissions, he said, is an "all-of-the-above" approach that includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear power and oil and gas. "The notion that we're not going to do that is poppycock," Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa's vocal support for the oil industry has upset some environmental groups that saw him as a longtime ally. "I'm honestly shocked at just how bad it is," said RL Miller, the president of Climate Hawks Vote and the chair of the California Democratic Party's environmental caucus, of the contributions Villaraigosa has accepted since entering the race in July. Miller said Villaraigosa signed a pledge during his unsuccessful run for governor in 2018 not to accept campaign contributions from oil companies and "named executives" at fossil-fuel entities. She said he took the pledge shortly after accepting the maximum allowable contributions from several oil donors in 2017. Miller said that more than $100,000 in donations that Villaraigosa has accepted in this gubernatorial cycle were clear violations of the pledge. That included contributions from the state's largest oil and gas producer, California Resources Corp. and its subsidiaries, as well as the founder of Rocky Mountain Resources, a leader of the oil company Berry Corp., and Excalibur Well Services. "This is bear-hugging the oil industry," she said. Environmental activists view the pledge as binding for future campaigns. Villaraigosa said he has not signed it for this campaign. The economy is dramatically different than it was in 2018, Villaraigosa said, and working-class Americans are being hammered, which he said was a major factor in recent Democratic losses. "We're losing working people, particularly working people who don't have a college education," he said. "Why are we losing them? The cost of living, the cost of gas, the cost of utilities, the cost of groceries." Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, said such statements are consistent with Villaraigosa's messaging in recent years. "Villaraigosa is squarely in the moderate lane in the governor's race. That doomed him in 2018, when voters wanted to counterbalance President Trump and Villaraigosa was outflanked by Newsom," Kousser said. "But today, even some Democrats may want to counterbalance the direction that they see Sacramento taking, especially when it comes to cost-of-living issues and the price of gas." He added that the fossil-fuel donations may not be the basis for Villaraigosa's apparent embrace of oil and gas priorities. "When a politician takes campaign contributions from an industry and also takes positions that favor it, that raises the possibility of corruption, of money influencing votes," Kousser said. "But it is also possible that it was the politician's own approach to an issue that attracted the contributions, that their votes attracted money but were not in any way corrupted by it. That may be the case here, where Villaraigosa has held fairly consistent positions on this issue and consistently attracted support from an industry because of those positions." Other Democrats in the 2026 governor's race, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former state Controller Betty Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, have signed the pledge not to accept contributions from oil industry interests, Miller said. Former California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and businessman Stephen Cloobeck have not. (Cloobeck has never run for office before and has not been asked to sign.) Other gubernatorial candidates have also accepted fossil-fuel contributions, although in smaller numbers than Villaraigosa, state and federal filings show. Becerra accepted contributions from Chevron and California Resources Corp., formerly Occidental Petroleum, while running for attorney general. Atkins took donations from Chevron, Occidental and a trade group for oil companies while running for state Assembly and state Senate. And while running for lieutenant governor, Kounalakis took contributions from executives at oil and mining companies. Campaign representatives for the two main Republican candidates in the race, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, said they welcomed oil-industry donations. Villaraigosa is a fierce defender of his environmental record dating back to his first years as an elected official in the California Assembly. As mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, Villaraigosa set new goals to reduce emissions at the Port of Los Angeles, end the use of coal-burning power plants and shift the city's energy generation toward solar, wind and geothermal sources. The child of a woman who relied on Metro buses, he also branded himself the "transportation mayor." Villaraigosa was a vocal champion for the 2008 sales tax increase that provided the first funding for the extension of the Wilshire Boulevard subway to the Westside. But, he said, Democrats in 2025 have to be realistic that the refinery closures and their goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions could disproportionately affect low-income residents who are already struggling to make ends meet. Villaraigosa's comments underscore a broader divide among Democrats about how to fight climate change without making California even more expensive, or driving out more high-paying jobs that don't require a college education. Lorena Gonzalez, a former state lawmaker who became the leader of the California Labor Federation in 2022, said that while climate change is a real threat, so is shutting down refineries. "That's a threat to those workers' jobs and lives, and it's also a threat to the price of gas," Gonzalez said. California is not currently positioned to end its reliance on fossil fuels, she said. If the state reduces its refining capacity, she said, it will have to rely on exports from nations that have less environmental and labor safeguards. 'Anyone running for governor has to acknowledge that,' Gonzalez said. Villaraigosa said that while the loss of union jobs at Valero's Bay Area refinery worried him, his primary concern was over the cost of gasoline and household budgets. His comments come as California prepares to square off yet again against the Trump administration over its environmental policies. The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to revoke a federal waiver that allowed California to set its own vehicle emission standards, including a rule that would have ultimately banned the sale of new gas-fueled cars in 2035. Villaraigosa denounced the vote, but said that efforts to fight climate change can't come at the expense of working-class Americans. President Trump has also declared a national energy emergency, calling for increased fossil-fuel production, eliminating environmental reviews and the fast-tracking of projects in potentially sensitive ecosystems and habitats. The Trump administration is also targeting California's environmental standards. Villaraigosa, an Eastside native, started his career as a labor organizer and rose to speaker of the state Assembly before becoming the mayor of Los Angeles. Now 72, Villaraigosa has not held elected office for more than a decade; he finished a distant third in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. Over the years, donors affiliated with the fossil-fuel industry have contributed more than $1 million to Villaraigosa's political campaigns and his nonprofit causes, including an after-school program, the city's sports and entertainment commission and an effort to reduce violence by providing programming at city parks during summer nights, according to city and state disclosures. More than half of the contributions and support for Villaraigosa's pet causes, over $582,000, came during his years at Los Angeles City Hall as a council member and mayor. In 2008, billionaire oil and gas magnate T. Boone Pickens donated $150,000 to a city proposition backed by Villaraigosa that levied a new tax on phone and internet use. Pickens made the donation as his company was vying for business at the port of Los Angeles, which is overseen by mayoral appointees and was seeking to reduce emissions by replacing diesel-powered trucks with vehicles fueled by liquid natural gas. The rest of the contributions and other financial support flowed to Villaraigosa's campaign accounts and affiliated committees while he served in the Assembly and during his two gubernatorial runs. These figures do not include donations to independent expenditure committees, since candidates cannot legally be involved in those efforts. Villaraigosa said that while such voters don't subscribe to Republicans' "drill, baby, drill" ethos, he slammed the Democratic Party's focus on such matters and Trump instead of kitchen-table issues. "The cost of everything we're doing is on the backs of the people who work the hardest and who make the least, and that's why so many of them — even when we were saying Trump is a threat to democracy — they were saying, yeah, but what about my gas prices, grocery prices, the cost of eggs?" he said. Times staff writer Sandra McDonald in Sacramento contributed to this report. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
26-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Villaraigosa, despite climate credentials, pivots toward oil industry in run for governor
As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state's struggling oil industry. Villaraigosa's work to expand mass transit, plant trees and reduce carbon emissions made him a favorite of the environmental movement, but the former state Assembly speaker also accepted more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from oil companies and other donors tied to the industry over more than three decades in public life, according to city and state fundraising disclosures reviewed by The Times. Since entering the race last year to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, Villaraigosa has accepted more than $176,000 from donors with ties to the oil industry, including from a company that operates oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and in Los Angeles County, the disclosures show. The clash between Villaraigosa's environmentalist credentials and oil-industry ties surfaced in the governor's race after Valero announced in late April that its Bay Area refinery would close next year, not long after Phillips 66 said its Wilmington refinery would close in 2025. Villaraigosa is now warning that California drivers could see gas prices soar, blasting as 'absurd' policies that he said could have led to the refinery closures. 'I'm not fighting for refineries,' Villaraigosa said in an interview. 'I'm fighting for the people who pay for gas in this state.' The refineries are a sore spot for Newsom and for California Democrats, pitting their environmental goals against concerns about the rising cost of living and two of the state's most powerful interest groups — organized labor and environmentalists — against each other. Villaraigosa said Democrats are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in their approach to fighting climate change. He said he hoped no more refineries would close until the state hits more electrification milestones, including building more transmission lines, green-energy storage systems and charging stations for electric cars. The only way for the state to reach 'net zero' emissions, he said, is an 'all-of-the-above' approach that includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear power and oil and gas. 'The notion that we're not going to do that is poppycock,' Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa's vocal support for the oil industry has upset some environmental groups that saw him as a longtime ally. 'I'm honestly shocked at just how bad it is,' said RL Miller, the president of Climate Hawks Vote and the chair of the California Democratic Party's environmental caucus, of the contributions Villaraigosa has accepted since entering the race in July. Miller said Villaraigosa signed a pledge during his unsuccessful run for governor in 2018 not to accept campaign contributions from oil companies and 'named executives' at fossil-fuel entities. She said he took the pledge shortly after accepting the maximum allowable contributions from several oil donors in 2017. Miller said that more than $100,000 in donations that Villaraigosa has accepted in this gubernatorial cycle were clear violations of the pledge. That included contributions from the state's largest oil and gas producer, California Resources Corp. and its subsidiaries, as well as the founder of Rocky Mountain Resources, a leader of the oil company Berry Corp., and Excalibur Well Services. 'This is bear-hugging the oil industry,' she said. Environmental activists view the pledge as binding for future campaigns. Villaraigosa said he has not signed it for this campaign. The economy is dramatically different than it was in 2018, Villaraigosa said, and working-class Americans are being hammered, which he said was a major factor in recent Democratic losses. 'We're losing working people, particularly working people who don't have a college education,' he said. 'Why are we losing them? The cost of living, the cost of gas, the cost of utilities, the cost of groceries.' Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, said such statements are consistent with Villaraigosa's messaging in recent years. 'Villaraigosa is squarely in the moderate lane in the governor's race. That doomed him in 2018, when voters wanted to counterbalance President Trump and Villaraigosa was outflanked by Newsom,' Kousser said. 'But today, even some Democrats may want to counterbalance the direction that they see Sacramento taking, especially when it comes to cost-of-living issues and the price of gas.' He added that the fossil-fuel donations may not be the basis for Villaraigosa's apparent embrace of oil and gas priorities. 'When a politician takes campaign contributions from an industry and also takes positions that favor it, that raises the possibility of corruption, of money influencing votes,' Kousser said. 'But it is also possible that it was the politician's own approach to an issue that attracted the contributions, that their votes attracted money but were not in any way corrupted by it. That may be the case here, where Villaraigosa has held fairly consistent positions on this issue and consistently attracted support from an industry because of those positions.' Other Democrats in the 2026 governor's race, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former state Controller Betty Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, have signed the pledge not to accept contributions from oil industry interests, Miller said. Former California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and businessman Stephen Cloobeck have not. (Cloobeck has never run for office before and has not been asked to sign.) Other gubernatorial candidates have also accepted fossil-fuel contributions, although in smaller numbers than Villaraigosa, state and federal filings show. Becerra accepted contributions from Chevron and California Resources Corp., formerly Occidental Petroleum, while running for attorney general. Atkins took donations from Chevron, Occidental and a trade group for oil companies while running for state Assembly and state Senate. And while running for lieutenant governor, Kounalakis took contributions from executives at oil and mining companies. Campaign representatives for the two main Republican candidates in the race, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, said they welcomed oil-industry donations. Villaraigosa is a fierce defender of his environmental record dating back to his first years as an elected official in the California Assembly. As mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, Villaraigosa set new goals to reduce emissions at the Port of Los Angeles, end the use of coal-burning power plants and shift the city's energy generation toward solar, wind and geothermal sources. The child of a woman who relied on Metro buses, he also branded himself the 'transportation mayor.' Villaraigosa was a vocal champion for the 2008 sales tax increase that provided the first funding for the extension of the Wilshire Boulevard subway to the Westside. But, he said, Democrats in 2025 have to be realistic that the refinery closures and their goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions could disproportionately affect low-income residents who are already struggling to make ends meet. Villaraigosa's comments underscore a broader divide among Democrats about how to fight climate change without making California even more expensive, or driving out more high-paying jobs that don't require a college education. Lorena Gonzalez, a former state lawmaker who became the leader of the California Labor Federation in 2022, said that while climate change is a real threat, so is shutting down refineries. 'That's a threat to those workers' jobs and lives, and it's also a threat to the price of gas,' Gonzalez said. California is not currently positioned to end its reliance on fossil fuels, she said. If the state reduces its refining capacity, she said, it will have to rely on exports from nations that have less environmental and labor safeguards. 'Anyone running for governor has to acknowledge that,' Gonzalez said. Villaraigosa said that while the loss of union jobs at Valero's Bay Area refinery worried him, his primary concern was over the cost of gasoline and household budgets. His comments come as California prepares to square off yet again against the Trump administration over its environmental policies. The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to revoke a federal waiver that allowed California to set its own vehicle emission standards, including a rule that would have ultimately banned the sale of new gas-fueled cars in 2035. Villaraigosa denounced the vote, but said that efforts to fight climate change can't come at the expense of working-class Americans. President Trump has also declared a national energy emergency, calling for increased fossil-fuel production, eliminating environmental reviews and the fast-tracking of projects in potentially sensitive ecosystems and habitats. The Trump administration is also targeting California's environmental standards. Villaraigosa, an Eastside native, started his career as a labor organizer and rose to speaker of the state Assembly before becoming the mayor of Los Angeles. Now 72, Villaraigosa has not held elected office for more than a decade; he finished a distant third in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. Over the years, donors affiliated with the fossil-fuel industry have contributed more than $1 million to Villaraigosa's political campaigns and his nonprofit causes, including an after-school program, the city's sports and entertainment commission and an effort to reduce violence by providing programming at city parks during summer nights, according to city and state disclosures. More than half of the contributions and support for Villaraigosa's pet causes, over $582,000, came during his years at Los Angeles City Hall as a council member and mayor. In 2008, billionaire oil and gas magnate T. Boone Pickens donated $150,000 to a city proposition backed by Villaraigosa that levied a new tax on phone and internet use. Pickens made the donation as his company was vying for business at the port of Los Angeles, which is overseen by mayoral appointees and was seeking to reduce emissions by replacing diesel-powered trucks with vehicles fueled by liquid natural gas. The rest of the contributions and other financial support flowed to Villaraigosa's campaign accounts and affiliated committees while he served in the Assembly and during his two gubernatorial runs. These figures do not include donations to independent expenditure committees, since candidates cannot legally be involved in those efforts. Villaraigosa said that while such voters don't subscribe to Republicans' 'drill, baby, drill' ethos, he slammed the Democratic Party's focus on such matters and Trump instead of kitchen-table issues. 'The cost of everything we're doing is on the backs of the people who work the hardest and who make the least, and that's why so many of them — even when we were saying Trump is a threat to democracy — they were saying, yeah, but what about my gas prices, grocery prices, the cost of eggs?' he said. Times staff writer Sandra McDonald in Sacramento contributed to this report.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Barabak: Antonio Villaraigosa is dying to run against Kamala Harris for governor. Here's why
If Kamala Harris runs for California governor, the job is essentially hers for the taking. So goes the common wisdom. After all, she's a household name, which is no small consideration in a state as vast and politically inattentive as California. She has a coast-to-coast fundraising base and a record of winning statewide contests going back to 2010, when she was first elected attorney general. Who better, supporters say, to engage President Trump than the former prosecutor who whipped him in their one debate and only just lost the popular vote after being thrust overnight into a drastically truncated campaign? Antonio Villaraigosa isn't buying that for a second. Unlike others in the crowded race for governor, who are likely to drop out if Harris jumps in, L.A.'s former mayor said he's not budging. In fact, Villaraigosa insists he wants Harris to run — just so he can beat her and, he says, send an anti-elitist message to those Democrats who have their noses in the air rather than eyes fixed on hard-pressed voters and their myriad frustrations. "I think she's been OK that we've been a party of just people that drive a Tesla and not a Toyota pickup, or ride a bus like my mother did," Villaraigosa said. "I think she has no idea what it means to buy a carton of eggs and spend $12 at Ralph's." Read more: Barabak: For Kamala Harris, it's not just whether to run for California governor. It's why Harris is "the face of that party," he went on, warming to the heat of his smoldering rhetoric. "The party that thinks that people that don't have a college education are stupid. The party that believes that ... people voted for Trump just because he's a great used-car salesman and not because what he was selling resonated with people that work every day. The people who shower after work. Not before." As Harris uses the summer to decide her future — retiring from politics or running again for president being other options — no Democrat has been as brash and bold as Villaraigosa when it comes to assailing the putative front-runner and erstwhile leader of the national party. Earlier this week, he accused Harris and Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra of helping cover up President Biden's decline in office, seizing on the scandal fueled by a new book, "Original Sin," that offered details of Biden's eroding mental and physical state. "She could say she didn't know," Villaraigosa said, elaborating on that initial volley during a lengthy conversation. "They can't prove that she did. But last time I looked, she had lunch with him pretty regularly ... She had to have seen what the world [saw] over time and particularly in that debate. The notion that she didn't? Come on. Who's going to buy that?" That sort of talk is more typical of, say, Fox News than a candidate bidding for the support of fellow Democrats. Villaraigosa, a former labor leader who's gotten crossways with teacher unions among other party mainstays, professed not to care. If anything, he said, he's been encouraged by the response. "For every one of those people" — upset by Villaraigosa's remarks — "there are three of them, maybe not as high up among Democrats, who are saying the same damn thing. That's why this got so much traction ... Since Vietnam, people don't believe in government anymore. They don't believe in their leaders. And every time we lie or misrepresent ... [or] hide the truth from them, their support and their belief in our institutions" diminishes. Read more: Villaraigosa blasts Harris and Becerra for not speaking out about Biden's decline Harris would have plenty of time to push back on Villaraigosa's depiction, should she choose to run. In the meantime, what's notable is his eagerness to take on the former vice president, positioning himself as the most vocal and assertive of her potential gubernatorial rivals. Others have taken a few pokes. 'No one should be waiting to lead," former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter told The Times' Seema Mehta after entering the contest in March. Becerra echoed that sentiment when he announced his candidacy in April. 'Watching what's unfolding before our eyes made it clear this is not a time to sit on the sidelines,' Becerra said. But that's comparatively weak tea. "If she wants to come in the race, she should come in now," Villaraigosa taunted. "Let's debate. What are the challenges facing our state? Where are the opportunities? Where do we meld them together? How do we make this a better state for our kids?" During the 40-minute phone conversation, starting in his car and finishing after Villaraigosa arrived home in Los Angeles, he toggled between criticisms of Harris and statements of good will toward a one-time political ally. The two have known each other, he said, since the mid-1990s, when Villaraigosa was a freshman assemblyman in Sacramento and Harris was dating then-Speaker Willie Brown. He supported her run for attorney general — "I did three press conferences" as L.A. mayor — and was quick to back her as soon as Biden stepped aside last summer and Harris became the Democratic nominee. "I supported her," he said. "I got behind her. Her husband" — former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff — "has thanked me a number of times when he's seen me in person." Read more: Who is running for California governor in 2026? Meet the candidates The disagreement now, Villaraigosa said, is over the direction of a party he sees unmoored from its history as a champion of the middle and working classes and too beholden to interest groups that make up its patchwork coalition. Harris, he suggested, is the personification of that disconnect from Democratic tradition. "At the end of the day, what I'm arguing for is, let's get to the place where we're focused on getting things done and focused on common sense," Villaraigosa said, citing, among issues, his support for Proposition 36, the anti-crime measure that voters overwhelming approved last November. The vice president, he noted, refused to take a position. But don't, he said before hanging up, take his attacks on Harris the wrong way. "This isn't personal," Villaraigosa insisted. It's just politics. Get the latest from Mark Z. BarabakFocusing on politics out West, from the Golden Gate to the U.S. me up. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Antonio Villaraigosa is dying to run against Kamala Harris for governor. Here's why
If Kamala Harris runs for California governor, the job is essentially hers for the taking. So goes the common wisdom. After all, she's a household name, which is no small consideration in a state as vast and politically inattentive as California. She has a coast-to-coast fundraising base and a record of winning statewide contests going back to 2010, when she was first elected attorney general. Who better, supporters say, to engage President Trump than the former prosecutor who whipped him in their one debate and only just lost the popular vote after being thrust overnight into a drastically truncated campaign? Antonio Villaraigosa isn't buying that for a second. Unlike others in the crowded race for governor, who are likely to drop out if Harris jumps in, L.A.'s former mayor said he's not budging. In fact, Villaraigosa insists he wants Harris to run — just so he can beat her and, he says, send an anti-elitist message to those Democrats who have their noses in the air rather than eyes fixed on hard-pressed voters and their myriad frustrations. 'I think she's been OK that we've been a party of just people that drive a Tesla and not a Toyota pickup, or ride a bus like my mother did,' Villaraigosa said. 'I think she has no idea what it means to buy a carton of eggs and spent $12 at Ralph's.' Harris is 'the face of that party,' he went on, warming to the heat of his smoldering rhetoric. 'The party that thinks that people that don't have a college education are stupid. The party that believes that ... people voted for Trump just because he's a great used-car salesman and not because what he was selling resonated with people that work every day. The people who shower after work. Not before.' As Harris uses the summer to decide her future — retiring from politics or running again for president being other options — no Democrat has been as brash and bold as Villaraigosa when it comes to assailing the putative front-runner and erstwhile leader of the national party. Earlier this week, he accused Harris and Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra of helping cover up President Biden's decline in office, seizing on the scandal fueled by a new book, 'Original Sin,' that offered details of Biden's eroding mental and physical state. 'She could say she didn't know,' Villaraigosa said, elaborating on that initial volley during a lengthy conversation. 'They can't prove that she did. But last time I looked, she had lunch with him pretty regularly ... She had to have seen what the world [saw] over time and particularly in that debate. The notion that she didn't? Come on. Who's going to buy that?' That sort of talk is more typical of, say, Fox News than a candidate bidding for the support of fellow Democrats. Villaraigosa, a former labor leader who's gotten crossways with teacher unions among other party mainstays, professed not to care. If anything, he said, he's been encouraged by the response. 'For every one of those people' — upset by Villaraigosa's remarks — 'there are three of them, maybe not as high up among Democrats, who are saying the same damn thing. That's why this got so much traction ... Since Vietnam, people don't believe in government anymore. They don't believe in their leaders. And every time we lie or misrepresent ... [or] hide the truth from them, their support and their belief in our institutions' diminishes. Harris would have plenty of time to push back on Villaraigosa's depiction, should she choose to run. In the meantime, what's notable is his eagerness to take on the former vice president, positioning himself as the most vocal and assertive of her potential gubernatorial rivals. Others have taken a few pokes. 'No one should be waiting to lead,' former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter told The Times' Seema Mehta after entering the contest in March. Becerra echoed that sentiment when he announced his candidacy in April. 'Watching what's unfolding before our eyes made it clear this is not a time to sit on the sidelines,' Becerra said. But that's comparatively weak tea. 'If she wants to come in the race, she should come in now,' Villaraigosa taunted. 'Let's debate. What are the challenges facing our state? Where are the opportunities? Where do we meld them together? How do we make this a better state for our kids?' During the 40-minute phone conversation, starting in his car and finishing after Villaraigosa arrived home in Los Angeles, he toggled between criticisms of Harris and statements of good will toward a one-time political ally. The two have known each other, he said, since the mid-1990s, when Villaraigosa was a freshman assemblyman in Sacramento and Harris was dating then-Speaker Willie Brown. He supported her run for attorney general — 'I did three press conferences' as L.A. mayor — and was quick to back her as soon as Biden stepped aside last summer and Harris became the Democratic nominee. 'I supported her,' he said. 'I got behind her. Her husband' — former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff — 'has thanked me a number of times when he's seen me in person.' The disagreement now, Villaraigosa said, is over the direction of a party he sees unmoored from its history as a champion of the middle and working classes and too beholden to interest groups that make up its patchwork coalition. Harris, he suggested, is the personification of that disconnect from Democratic tradition. 'At the end of the day, what I'm arguing for is, let's get to the place where we're focused on getting things done and focused on common sense,' Villaraigosa said, citing, among issues, his support for Proposition 36, the anti-crime measure that voters overwhelming approved last November. The vice president, he noted, refused to take a position. But don't, he said before hanging up, take his attacks on Harris the wrong way. 'This isn't personal,' Villaraigosa insisted. It's just politics.
Int'l Business Times
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Democratic Candidate Accuses Kamala Harris of Being 'Intentionally Complicit' in 'Cover Up' of Biden's Decline
A California Democratic candidate accused former Vice President Kamala Harris of being "intentionally complicit" in a "cover up" over former President Joe Biden's decline. Antonio Villaraigosa, a 2026 California gubernatorial candidate, called the claims about Biden's health in the new book "Original Sin" by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson "deeply troubling." "At the highest levels of our government, those in power were intentionally complicit or told outright lies in a systematic cover up to keep Joe Biden's mental decline from the public," Villaraigosa stated. Villaraigosa criticized Harris, California's attorney general from 2011 to 2017, and former Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, who also held the state's top legal post, for allegedly helping to conceal the former president's declining health. Both are reportedly eyeing a run for governor in the upcoming election. "Those who were complicit in the cover up should take responsibility for the part they played in this debacle, hold themselves accountable, and apologize to the American people," Villaraigosa continued, before calling on Harris and Becerra to "make themselves available to voters and the free press because there's a lot of questions that need to be answered." The 72-year-old gubernatorial candidate previously served as Los Angeles' mayor from 2005 to 2013. Previously, he was a national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and a member of former President Barack Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board. Originally published on Latin Times
