California Faultline

As referenced in my interview with Eric Garcetti, last year the City Council President was on LA City View breaking down how city government works, including how bills are passed, and how the Mayor has less influence than Council itself.

Its a straightforward breakdown on how things work - a great Cliff Notes version, anyway - and good info for any LA resident wondering how to pass legislation, or how the hell some crazy laws came to be.

Click to watch (will open in a new window).

Unfortunately, like most government run websites, LA City View is sloppy to navigate and, worse, there is no direct link to archived videos. Alas, to watch as intended you’ll need to click here, then in the bottom right part of the City View page scroll down til you see Eric Garcetti’s name and click on it.

In addition to his duties as L.A. City Council President, Eric Garcetti is has also been campaigning for Barack Obama for almost a year. He told me, “I signed on April 29th of last year. The reason I remember the date it was the 15th anniversay of the LA riots. He gave a great speech at the AME church and then we rode around in his car for a half hour and talked through his campaign and what role I might play.”

As one of Obama’s five California chairpeople, Garcetti is advising the Presidential candidate on national, policy, and Latino issues. Garcetti is also one of California’s 65 Democratic super-delegates, making his vote at this summer’s Democratic convention an influential one in determining the whether Obama or Clinton will win the party nomination.

In the following interview, I talked with Garcetti about how he became a super-delegate, why he’s supporting Obama, and his own political aspirations… (photo by a35mmlife, used under Creative Commons)

How did you become a superdelegate?

I was already a superdelegate before (the state primary). So I’ve been going to those national meetings, and as such was an automatic superdelegate. It had nothing to do with who is running.

I am vice chair (and will become the chair later this year) of the Democratic Municipal Officials, representing all of the locally elected Democratic officials in the country. Its the local equivalent of the Democratic Governor’s Association. We’re the largest group of elected Democrats of any association in the country, and we get 3 superdelegates as part of the party rules: our chair, our vice chair, and then one DNC rep.

Have you received any called from the Clinton campaign to change your support?

I have not since I became formally affiliated. There a lot of people who I know are affiliated (with Obama) but still get phone calls, but I haven’t gotten any. I’ve made some calls to other superdelegates for sure.

I did sit down and had a great meeting with Senator Clinton about a month before meeting with Senator Obama. We sat down in her Senate office for about a half hour last March and had a very good conversation. But I’ve known him longer and had an ongoing relationship with him. (more…)

Busted Tees is selling this shirt, referencing a character and plot line from the Baltimore set HBO series “The Wire.”

But I doubt I’m the only Angeleno who did a double take, as the name is strikingly similar to the President of L.A.’s City Council. Besides, “Eric Garcetti for Mayor” doesn’t seem too far fetched.