LOS ANGELES, Calif.–Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says he has no interest in becoming president of the United States, but would like to be governor of California.
Asked by a reporter to speculate on a run for president in 2016, Villaraigosa said, “The answer is no.”
“The job I’ve said to people I would like is I would like to be governor of the state of California,” the mayor told Yahoo! News.
Villaraigosa will chair the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in September, and he is a national co-chair of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. He was also president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors for most of the last year and has appeared regularly on cable news and popular Sunday morning network news talk shows this year.
The growth of Villaraigosa’s national profile has caused some media speculation in recent weeks about the mayor’s ambition for higher office.
Villaraigosa was widely anticipated to run for governor in 2010 but chose not to, citing unfinished business as mayor.
