Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a long-time favorite of voters in Los Angeles, announced through his blog post today that he will not seek the Mayors Office in 2013.
He's done. He's out.
This is cause for great joy in the camps of Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry, and Kevin James. One of the heavy hitters expected to join the Mayoral race is going to retire instead. Zev said that 40 years in elected office was enough. (His pension must be gigantic!!)
I did a pretty good job of handicapping the Mayors Race back in January of 2011.
I said that Zev was one of the overwhelming favorites if he decided to run.
I had him as the second favorite at 6-1 behind Eric Garcetti's 3-1 odds.
Now, those numbers will need to be shuffled again.
Here is the new line-up:
Caruso 5-2
Garcetti 3-1
Greuel 4-1
James 7-1
Perry 10-1
Rest of field 1000-1 (Sorry, ZD!)
Yes, that's right.
Your next Mayor of Los Angeles will most likely be one of those five names.
You will notice that I have Developer Rick Caruso actually listed as the favorite.
Why?
Oh...I have a few billion reasons.
They are all green and reside in Mr. Carusos bank accounts.
This announcement by Zev tilts the field considerably.
I believe it makes it more enticing for Rick Caruso to run. Garcetti, Greuel and Perry all have their own built-in political constituencies, but they don't have the financial firepower of Rick Caruso.
However, billionaires don't like undressing financially to run for office. You have to reveal how much money you have and where it is invested. This is why Donald Trump will never run for President. Billionaires become a bit shy when it comes to the financial revelation part of a campaign.
People who are serious about being Mayor are already in the race. Only Caruso has the luxury of taking his own sweet time. Except for Caruso, I believe we are set for candidates.
Garcetti is leading, but Greuel is coming along just behind him and Kevin James makes things interesting if Caruso doesn't join. Perry should drop out and run for Controller. She won't beat Eric or Wendy... even if she was lucky enough to make a runoff election.
So it is Garcetti, Greuel, James and Perry all waiting on Mr. Rick Caruso to see what his next move will be. I assume he would have to decide soon. The deadline for filing candidate paperwork is in the first week of November.
