Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who’s been nothing short of a political whirlwind for the Barack Obama campaign, can legitimately claim the mantle of the campaign’s “go to guy” as the race comes to a close.
And he’s not stopping — until the polls close. On Sunday, he raced from Los Angeles to Florida — and he’ll be with Obama Tuesday night in Chicago.
“Our own internal polling has us up on in the margins virtually everywhere,’’ Villaraigosa told us by phone, as he raced from event to event. “But we’re slugging it out….it’s going to be very, very, close. It’s all about turnout now — and getting out the base.”
With just hours to go, the mayor is wrapping up a stint as one of the most energetic and high profile surrogates for the Obama team for months now.
It’s work that that has ramped up buzz that he will likely be considered for a high profile Obama Administration role – transportation and commerce are two areas mentioned — if the President wins a second term.
He downplays the talk.
“My only focus right now is to finish my job, and to leave this city with a bang,’’ he said. “This has been the highest honor I’ve ever had. And I couldn’t be prouder to be the mayor of the city that my grandpa came to 100 years ago with a dream. My only focus is to be finish the job strong.’’
But “I’m honored they’ve talking about it,’’ he said.
Still, Villaraigosa has earned a national profile as a star surrogate for Obama on both every English-language network and cable channel – including Sunday shows like “Meet the Press” and “This Week’’ — but also on Spanish-language TV and radio, including Univison, Telemundo and Fox Latino.
Villaraigosa, who also headed up the U.S. Conference of Mayors, won raves as he headed up the Democratic National Convention — considered one of the most successful in the party’s history.
But the mayor also gamely hit the spin room after debates and delivered keynotes at party gatherings in battleground state events, while logging tens of thousands of miles in states like Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Iowa.
Villaraigosa worked equally hard for candidate Hillary Clinton in 2008. In 2012, he said, “I put my heart and soul in it, not just because I believe in this president, but because I love this country.”
Just don’t get him started on GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
“I have never seen a candidate, Democrat or Republican, be so bald-faced in distorting a record….while so brazenly misrepresenting his own,’’ he said. In the end, the “Etch-A-Sketch” campaign didn’t work.’’
By Tuesday, we’ll know if it worked, but many political insiders suggest whatever happens, the career of Villaraigosa may take a new — and even higher profile — turn.
“When I leave (this job), if I do nothing else — and I may not do anything else,’’ he says, “I had a grand time.”