L.A. Mayor Garcetti predicts Hillary will beat Bernie
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is predicting that Hillary Clinton will beat Bernie Sanders in their race for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. (Photo: Nick Ut/AP)
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told Yahoo News on Wednesday that he is not worried about public opinion polls showing Bernie Sanders leading Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and that she “will absolutely, ultimately prevail” in the 2016 election. Garcetti also offered to play “matchmaker” between the Los Angeles Rams and Silicon Valley executive Lara M. Sasken, whose Twitter handle is @LaraMS.
The NFL franchise had been using @STLouisRams, and its impending move raised the question of whether it would try to adopt @LARams. But Twitter’s handles are not case-sensitive, so the team would need Sasken to turn over the name.
Garcetti, asked in an interview broadcast on SiriusXM whether he’d act as go-between, chuckled.
“I had dinner with Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Rams, two nights ago, and I mentioned her account, and it was the first he had heard of it,” the mayor said. “But I think he has the deep pockets. I think, I think she’s got a great moment for a business proposition, and I’d be happy to be the matchmaker.”
Garcetti, in Washington for a meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, said he understands the heartbreak of his St. Louis counterpart, Francis Slay.
“My heart goes out to him, ’cause my heart broke when the Los Angeles Rams left my city 20 years ago,” he said. The move back “is really a coming home.”
Turning to politics, Garcetti said that he was not worried about polls showing Sanders running well ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire. (Garcetti endorsed the former first lady last year).
“Good competition and vibrant primaries, I’m never scared of,” he said. “I think anything that shows that the Democratic Party or the Republican Party has a diversity of views is good for those parties.”
In the end, though, “I think that Hillary will absolutely, ultimately prevail. I think she’s got a really strong infrastructure. I respect the supporters of Sen. Sanders a lot who are out there standing up for a lot of Democratic values too, but that doesn’t worry me, no. I love this part of democracy.”
Asked whether partisan infighting that sometimes stalls action in Washington affects America’s major cities, Garcetti replied: “It affects us profoundly. We need Washington to be a good partner.”
While mayors no longer expect to come to Washington, cap in hand, to obtain full federal funding for infrastructure projects, they still need federal help.
Los Angeles, he said, is investing heavily in public transportation and “we can’t do 100 percent of that alone.”
