"Mayors Get The Job Done"

Hello Everyone:

It is a cold and windy afternoon in the blogosphere. The rain has cleared out (for now) and all is back to rights for Yours Truly.  The annual State of the Union is this evening and there does not seem to be a lot of excitement swirling around it. Maybe it is because comes close after the end of the longest government shutdown in American history and ten days before another potential shutdown. We will have more about it in tomorrow's post. For now we turn our attention to mayors.

Will 2020 be the year of the mayor?  Already one mayor, Peter Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana (theatlantic.com: Jan, 23, 2019; date accessed Feb. 5, 2019?, has thrown his hat into the presidential nominee ring.  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is on the fence and the favorite to run Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti opted out.  Blogger speculates that Mayor Garcetti may be eyeing Senator Dianne Feinstein's seat or challenging newly installed Governor Gavin Newsom in the next gubenatorial race.  

Mayor Garcetti, fresh off marathon negotiations to end the six-day Los Angeles Unified School District teacher strike, spoke at the winter convention of U.S. Conference of Mayors about the lesson he learned about compromise.  His remarks came after he was presented an award for addressing childhood obesity in L.A.  His remarks came at he end of the partial shutdown but could be inferred as a campaign speech,

I did what mayors do: We see a problem, and we jump in and solve it. (citylab.com; Jan. 25, 2019; date accessed Feb. 5, 2019). 

Easy to do, even in a city the size of Los Angeles.  In an interview with CityLab, before presenting his own speech, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel described the situation succinctly,

Think about this: Washingtin is on day what of a government shutdown?  Eric Garcetti had a strike, it was over in six days.  End of story.... We have dysfunction versus function; no progress versus results. And I think that's what a mayor offers.  (Ibid)

The former Clinton White House chief of staff has been the subject of presidential speculation, emphatically stressed that he had no such ambitions, despite rumors to the contrary (cnn.com; Oct. 23, 2018; date accessed Feb. 5, 2019). However, plenty of other mayors are considering a run at the nomination.  The former mayor of San Antonio, Texas JulIán Castro (nytimes.com; Dec.16, 2018; date accessed Feb. 5, 2019) is a candidate.  Speculation is also circling around the mayors of Denver, New Orleans, and other cities.  It is entirely possible that by the time primary season starts, there will be as many as seven current or former mayors in the race (citylab.com; Jan. 25, 2019).

For the first time, since 1812, when New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton unsuccessfully ran for president, mayors are tossing their hats into the ring, based on the strengths of their records (Ibid). 

We are a year away from the start of primary season and the field of potential Democratic nominees is getting crowded; a little like The Hunger Games. So far, we have nine confirmed nominee candidates and 20 more on the fence (nytimes.com; date accessed Feb. 5, 2019). Many of the candidates have emerged from the gridlocked tribal national political realm. "In this environment, an established record as a leader of a growing, economically vital city may distinguish a mayor as more than dark horse" (citylab.com; Jan. 25, 2019).

Popular former Denver, Colorado Mayor John Hickenlooper, a possible nominee contender, teased,

I'm not quite at that point announcing I'm going to run for president of this country,... But I do think that having been a mayor provides wonderful training and experience of finding ways to bring people together and achieving goals and accomplished through that unity. (Ibid)

Mayor Bloomberg (and possible nominee aspirant; cnbc.com; Dec. 27, 2018; date accessed Feb. 5, 2019) made reference to the shutdown, told CityLab, Mayors could never get away with closing the government (citylab.com; Jan. 25, 2019).

JulIán Castro, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama, is  perfect example of a former mayor with federal experience.  Mr. Castro led San Antonio between 2009 and 2014 during the "Texas Miracle" (Ibid; Sept. 15, 2011) when the city experienced tremendous growth. This fact will no doubt be a one of Mr. Castro's platform.  Nominee candidate and former Newark, New Jersey Mayor, now Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) told CityLab,

Being a mayor is he hardest job in America,... You have to compromise, you have to bring people together and build consensus. Some of the best innovation in government going on right now is going on in the cities. (Ibid)

When Senator Booker announced his candidacy in the Newark Veterans Court, he spoke about his work as mayor.  He told the energetic audience, "Mayors manage budget of hundreds of millions or even billion of dollars,..., and the results are often immediately apparent to voters." (Ibid)

Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke highly of Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley's successful campaign to cut opioid deaths in her city by half (nytimes.com; Nov. 25, 2018; date accessed Feb. 5, 2019) and  Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown work to transform the Rust Belt city into a 3-D manufacturing innovation hub vindy.com; Oct. 31, 2018 date accessed Feb. 5, 2019) to fill in the vacancies left in te wake of Genersl Motors' retreat. Never at a loss of enthusiasm, Senator Booker said,

It's wonderful that Democrats are going to have such a vibrant level of choice as having people coming from the Senate,governors, and mayors ((citylab.com; Jan. 25, 2019).  He declined to say if he would be one of them (Ibid). 

Recent presidential election cycles have included mayors.  For example, former Burlington, Vermont mayor, now Senator Bernie Sanders was serious contender for the 2016 Democratic nomination. Former Maryland governor and onetime Mayor of Baltimore Martin O'Malley ran a tepid campaign for the 2016 nomination. In both cases, neither gentlemen highlighted their tenure in city hall. The lone exception is former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani who tooted his own city hall horn.  We all know where he ended up. 

Amazingly, only three former mayors went on to become president: Andrew Johnson (mayor of Greeneville, Tennessee; millercenter.org; date accessed Feb. 5, 2019); Grover Cleveland (mayor of Buffalo, NY), and Calvin Coolidge (mayor of Northhampton, Massachusetts). The big issue is experience.

It is one thing to deal with the everyday issues of running a city: filling potholes, homelessness, and so on but how does that translate into D.C. deal making, national policy or foreign diplomacy. This is the question that Mayor Peter Buttigieg has already faced.  South Bend, Indiana is much smaller than New York and Los Angeles with a population of about 100,000 people.  Really, Mayor Buttigieg has not face any large scale crisises (nytimes.com; Jan. 23, 2019; date accessed Feb. 5, 2019).  Mayor Buttigieg echoed Mayor Rahm Emanuel's sentiment about mayors solving problems, 

The bottom line is we've to deliver safe drinking water, pick up trash, and also figure out an economic future for communities (citylab.com; Jan. 25, 2019).

Another thing in favor of the mayors is the electorate.  Urban politics are the big tent antidote to all he partisan fighting going on in the federal government. This is partly due to the Democratic lock on voters in the big cities (Ibid, Oct. 15, 2017).  Even within the Democratic big tent there is a myriad views of every conceivable subject like: education and criminal justice reform and the deciding factor in the primary may just come down to a candidate's position on legalizing cannabis.  Mayor Garcetti told CityLab that if you follow cable news, you hear, 

...we hear we're red states and blue states, rural and urban, immigrant and non-immigrant. Those of us who live in and govern in cities that that's patently false" (citylab.com; Jan. 25, 2019).

As for experience, well, the Trump era re-adjusted the bar. Mayor Garcetti continues,

I don't think it's about the resume that fits into somebody's preconceived notion,... International trade? I know,nbecause we run the largest port in the Americas,... Want to talk about energy policy?  The largest municipal utility in the country is run by our city. (Ibid)

Confidence in city governments has increased in the past two years. In 2016, a Gallup poll (news.gallup.com; Sept. 19, 2016; date accessed) found that American confidence in city governments was 71 percent, compared to state governments' 62 percent. This has only increased over the past several decades (citylab.com; Dec. 12, 2017).

Finally, mayors are more hands on then elected state and federal officials. Often, they come from community organizing background, like Latoya Cantrell the current mayor of New Orleans. This means they are not removed from interacting with their constituents and seeing the results of their work. This seems to be the biggest thing lacking in the experience of state and federal office holders. Mayor Garcetti has this final thought,

I mean no disrespect to the United States Congress, but that is a very different job,... And I would argue that our country right now would be a better place if Congress looked more like the community of Anerican mayors, and not the other way around (citylab.com; Jan. 25, 2019).