TOWARDS the end of an amusing few hours with Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, Lexington asked an abrupt question. Many Angelenos—in fact, every Angeleno he had consulted—appeared to view Mr Garcetti’s recent hints that he was mulling a run for president in 2020 with astonishment, hilarity even. Were they right to be surprised? The 46-year-old Democrat, who has found occasion to visit Florida, Louisiana and New Hampshire in recent months, paused a moment. “Probably,” he said, “I mean I would probably have been, if a mayor had said that.”
Generals, senators, governors and a reality-television host have all become president. No mayor ever has. That reflects a political tradition in which states, not cities, are the building-blocks of the republic, the currency of presidential elections and the main counterparts to the federal government. With one or two notable exceptions, such as Fiorello La Guardia, New York’s post-Depression mayor, the characters drawn to mayoral...Continue reading
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