"Loss of Enthusiasm" for the Mayor

Privately many of Mayor Villaraigosa's longtime supporters are expressing a "loss of enthusiasm" for the Mayor in light of the recent announcement his wife has filed for divorce and rumors of alleged marital infidelity. Duke Helfand, writing in the LA Times, says that allies of the Mayor are disappointed and angry with him that he "played into a stereotype about macho Latino males and that some of his public comments about his wife, Corina, have appeared disingenuous."

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But it gets worse for the Mayor. Columnist Mona Gable is calling on Presidential candidate, New York Senator Hillary Clinton to "dump Antonio" as one of her national campaign chairs. Gable says:

He's not all that great a mayor. He couldn't get his school reform bill through giving him power over LAUSD, even though he had several buddies in Sacramento carrying his water. The notorious May Day melee where the LAPD was caught beating up immigrants occurred on his watch. He acted like LA had the Olympics in the bag--then when it didn't come through, pouted like a two-year-old.

Hillary is under the illusion that she's getting a rising political star--a future governor of California! But she might want to do some old-fashioned reporting. Antonio isn't much liked even among LA's Latino political elite. He burned a lot of bridges in his relentless quest to become mayor.

Many of our readers have questioned where the Los Angeles Times has been in taking a critical view of the Mayor's divorce announcement. However, it now appears with the Helfand article and a column by Steve Lopez, the paper could be abandoning it's "cheerleader" role it assumed in the past.

Even with the tarnish on the Mayor with his marital woes, he can take solace in that - unless he actually does become Hillary's running mate - its at least two to three years before he stands for election somewhere.

But it's not all bad news for the Mayor - he did get a medal from UCLA Friday.