Author: Tim Arango / Source: New York Times
Tom Brenner for The New York Times
LOS ANGELES — Eric M. Garcetti, the two-term mayor of Los Angeles who has flirted with higher office the last two years by crisscrossing the country and raising money for the Democratic Party, said Tuesday he was not running for his party’s nomination for president.
Mr. Garcetti has spent the better part of two years saying he was actively considering running for president, but explained Tuesday that he wanted to continue his work in Los Angeles.
“I just feel a deep commitment to that work,” he said at a news conference. “The truth is right before me. The work is in front of me.”
Mr. Garcetti would have joined a crowded and growing field of Democratic presidential candidates — including his home-state senator, Kamala Harris — and would have done so facing long odds. No sitting mayor has ever been elected president.
[Check out the Democratic field with our new candidate tracker.]
The mayor praised Ms. Harris and said he was “proud” and “excited” about her candidacy; he did not make any endorsements, however. He also had good words for several Democrats who are now considering 2020 bids: He said Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey was a close friend of many years, and called former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg a “good friend and mentor.”
Asked if he would consider being a vice-presidential candidate, he said, “I think I got a better job than that.”
Mr. Garcetti, 47, is a former Rhodes Scholar who has spent much…
The post L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti Decides Against Presidential Bid appeared first on FeedBox.