Thread: A gun-shy Villaraigosa

uly 8, 2008
A gun-shy Villaraigosa

Think Antonio Villaraigosa doesn't want to move up the political ladder? Think again.

The Los Angeles Mayor is in Washington D.C. today to introduce Sen. Barack Obama at the national convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens, better known as LULAC.

Villaraigosa, you'll recall, was a major backer of Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primary, traveling across the country for her. Now, he's firmly in Camp Obama, helping the Illinois Democrat reach out to Latinos, who overwhelming backed Clinton in the primaries.

But the Los Angeles Times' Phil Willon has a fun anecdote from an event Monday where Villaraigosa, ever-aware of cameras, shied away from firing off a pistol to start a swim race.

At a news conference this morning, the mayor announced a new agreement between the city and the Los Angeles Unified School District to open up 15 LAUSD pools to the public during the hot summer months.To commemorate the deal, Villaraigosa was supposed to shoot a starter pistol and send about a dozen high school kids into the gleaming, Olympic-sized pool.

But Villaraigosa, his political radar finely tuned, didn't want anything to do with holding a gun, "even a fake one," especially with television news cameras and photographers recording his every move.

Instead, he picked up the microphone and counted to three.

Villaraigosa just completed a mad dash of 12 fundraisers in 11 days.
Posted by Shane Goldmacher on July 8, 2008 10:07 AM

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/ca ... 13736.html

What a wimp! He is the Latin version of Obama. They even resemble each other.