Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Not Running for Governor
BLITZER: All right. We're about to get the exclusive announcement right here in THE SITUATION ROOM. The mayor of Los Angeles set to announce whether he will or will not run for governor of California. The mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, is joining us live from Los Angeles. Mayor, thanks very much for coming in.</s>MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA (D), LOS ANGELES: Hi, Wolf. How are you?</s>BLITZER: Good. You told me a few weeks ago that you would tell us right here in THE SITUATION ROOM your decision. I know you've been agonizing over this decision for weeks if not months. Are you going to run to become the next governor of California?</s>VILLARAIGOSA: The answer is no. And I make that decision because, as I've said many times, I love the city I was born and raised in, the city that my grandpa came to a hundred years ago. Cities all across the country are on the front lines of the challenges facing us in terms of the economic crisis. Here in the city of L.A., a 12.5 percent unemployment rate, 21,000 people have lost their home over the last two years. We're facing an unprecedented and historical budget deficit at $530 million. And I feel compelled to complete what I started out to do. I said to Los Angeles four years ago to dream with me. I said we were going to take on the many challenges that we face in the city, public schools and public safety, the issue of the environment. I said that we were going to do everything we could to come together as a city, and I can't leave this city in the middle of a crisis. It's as simple as that.</s>BLITZER: But you know, Mayor, if you're the governor of California, there's a lot you could certainly do to help not only the people of Los Angeles, but a lot of other cities throughout that state, as well.</s>VILLARAIGOSA: You're right, Wolf, and that's why this was an agonizing decision. What is going on in Sacramento currently is an abomination. The system is fundamentally flawed. It's broken. It's currently in a meltdown as we speak. But I was elected mayor and re-elected 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. But in order to do that, we're going to have to take on the immediate challenges of finding jobs, of turning the economy around, of continuing the education reform, of building on the public safety record that we've established where we're the second big city in America, crime down eight years in a row, and safer than any time since 1954. But those things are good, but they're not good enough. We've got to do more. And I've been...</s>BLITZER: I was going to say, Mayor, the other guys who are running, including Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, in all the polls it showed that you would have been very, very competitive with them. When did you make up your mind that this is something you didn't want to do, run for governor?</s>VILLARAIGOSA: I've been making up my mind for a long time, frankly. The reason why I didn't early on make a decision one way or the other was because, as I said, this city's given me so much. I didn't want to walk away. But as you said, the challenges of the state are so great, as well. I was speaker of the assembly. I have a great deal of support in the legislature and throughout the state. But this is about the city I love. And I also have a young girl, 16 years old. She's the apple of my eye, and 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.</s>BLITZER: It's always personal decisions as well as political decisions. The "L.A. Times" poll had your approval number at 55 percent approve of the way you're doing your job, 37 disapprove. There was a cover of "Los Angeles" magazine that branded you as a failure. I'm sure you've seen that cover, as well. Are you ready to endorse someone now for the Democratic nomination?</s>VILLARAIGOSA: Well, let me just say when I was asked in a press conference what I thought about it, I said great picture -- three years younger, 10 pounds lighter. You know, that's what happens when you're mayor. You're the focus of the good times and the bad. The fact of the matter is we've got many challenges in this city. In a time when the unemployment rate is at 12.5 percent, a 55 percent approval isn't so bad. But I recognize that I've got a lot of work to do. I've got to do a better job...</s>BLITZER: Who do you like for the nomination?</s>VILLARAIGOSA: And I've got to do a better job even than the job that we've done over the last four years. In terms of who I like, I'm not focused on that. I'm focused on my job and the challenges that we're facing. There's plenty of time to weigh in on that race. I can tell you this -- whoever is going to be the next governor in the state of California better talk turkey with the people of California. I said the system is broken, and it is. A two-thirds vote to pass a budget, one of only three states in the country that require that. Two-thirds vote to pass taxes, one of 16 or 17 that require super majority. Term limits is broken. The fact of the matter is we need to support open primaries. The initiative process is broken when it takes a majority vote to deny a whole group of people the fundamental right to marry but you can pass a -- you need a two-thirds vote to pass a budget. So there's a lot of things broken. I hope to participate in that conversation, but my focus will be on the city of Los Angeles. My focus will be on -- and the national stage, really making the case for cities in metropolitan areas. Just elected the second vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. We're going to be in Washington, D.C., making the case that if we're going to turn America around, we've got to turn our cities around.</s>BLITZER: Mayor Villaraigosa, we'll see you here in Washington, D.C. Thanks very much. Thanks for living up to your commitment to tell us first your decision, and the decision is you are not running for the governor's race in the state of California. Thanks very much for coming in.</s>VILLARAIGOSA: Thank you, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Jessica Yellin is our national political correspondent. She's just back in Washington from Los Angeles, her hometown. Is this a big surprise?</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, there's been a lot of debate about whether this was going to happen, and Mayor Villaraigosa has been telling his donors for several weeks now that he just hasn't been feeling the fire in his belly to run for governor. There are a number of reasons. That L.A. magazine cover that said "Failure" really not fair, because the article inside says his job as mayor is incomplete, but that played a role, the sense there in Los Angeles he has more work to do. And also, his personal life has been in the headlines lately once again, and there's more work for him to do. So a lot of folks were expecting him not to run, but it will be a tectonic shake-up of the governor's race there, an incredibly exciting race in California.</s>BLITZER: It will be exciting in California. And he's still a young guy, Antonio Villaraigosa, so he's got a long political future ahead of him irrespective of his immediate decision.</s>YELLIN: Yes. And the big question is, which does candidate does this help? Right now Jerry Brown's forces (ph) says it helps him because he has a longtime alliance with the Latino community there. But Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, thinks this really helps with younger voters. Many Latino voters are young, and he thinks he has a good chance of picking them up now.</s>BLITZER: And that's just on the Democratic side. There are Republicans who want to be governor of California, as well, and there's a current Republican who is still the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.</s>YELLIN: That's right.</s>BLITZER: Jessica, thanks very much. President Obama wants fewer people to smoke, but can he kick the habit himself? The president signs into law a tough new anti-smoking measure, but the White House is elusive on whether or not the president continues to smoke. And more of the dramatic amateur video from Iran coming into THE SITUATION ROOM. Our Abbi tatton is back with the pictures, getting reaction from the entire world.