California already buzzing about a future Villaraigosa-Newsom race for gov

LAT: Mayors of L.A., San Francisco So Alike, They Deny They May Be Rivals
Villaraigosa and Newsom have a lot in common, perhaps including a future competition to become governor.
By Mark Z. Barabak, Times Staff Writer
July 31, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO — If opposites attract, what of two men as similar as Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa: bold, charismatic and young enough to aspire beyond the cities they run and reflect?

The result could be a novel contest pitting the state's two marquee mayors in a fight for governor. Never mind that San Francisco's Newsom and Los Angeles' Villaraigosa both disavow any thoughts of future office, insisting they are utterly consumed with their jobs at hand....

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A birds-fly, fish-swim sense of inevitability surrounds the two Democratic mayors and their political futures, placing them, if not exactly on a collision course, then on a path that has produced a certain tension among several of their more eager and aggressive advisors. "It's very much on everyone's radar screen," said one political strategist who occasionally counsels Villaraigosa.

Each side accuses the other of being obsessed and stirring trouble just to draw attention. The Newsom camp suggests that Villaraigosa is trying to lure the city's beloved 49ers football team to Los Angeles. (Untrue, the word from Los Angeles.) Allies of Villaraigosa grumble that Newsom crossed his southern counterpart by allowing education aides to weigh in against Villaraigosa's school takeover proposal. (Not so, the response from San Francisco.)

The result has been more than one staff-level telephone call to unruffle feathers, along with rampant speculation about a race that could highlight a north-south cleavage — cultural, political, demographic — like no other in California's history. "Two different cities," said state historian Kevin Starr. "Two different kinds of people."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gavintonio31jul31,0,3002153.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Phil Angelides? No.

has done some dumb things. The gay marriage thing in a national election year was absolutely foolish and shortsighted. But he's a bona-fide progressive. He's still very raw. So is LA dude. They'd need 8 years in Sacramento before they'd be ready for anything but blue California.