Biden to tap Los Angeles mayor as ambassador to India
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has led the city during a period of booming development, a worsening homelessness crisis and a devastating pandemic, will be President Joe Biden’s nominee to become ambassador to India, the White House announced Friday.
If confirmed by the Senate, Garcetti would become the first L.A. mayor to voluntarily leave office before the end of his term in more than a century. He was originally scheduled to step down in December 2022, when he would have finished a second term that was extended by 18 months when the city changed its election calendar. In making the announcement, the White House will emphasize Garcetti’s sweeping responsibilities and Los Angeles’ global role, highlighting the mayor’s oversight of the busiest container ship port in the Western Hemisphere and one of the world’s busiest airports. Garcetti has also networked with counterparts around the globe to push stronger policies on climate change, including in India.
Garcetti’s nomination appears to signal that the Biden White House is willing to look past the high-profile accusations that have engulfed the mayor’s office over the last year.
Garcetti and his team face allegations that they failed to address sexual harassment by an aide in his office — which they deny — while Garcetti’s chief of staff is on leave following revelations about her involvement in a private Facebook group.
Garcetti, first elected mayor in 2013, is poised to leave office as the city continues its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed many Angelenos out of work and caused countless small businesses to close. While stores and restaurants have reopened, questions remain over how quickly the city’s tourism industry will rebound and what the future holds for downtown, Hollywood and other business centers.
An ambassadorship in the Biden administration gives Garcetti a new career path away from electoral politics. But it also opens him to criticism that he is abandoning Los Angeles as it grapples with an intractable homelessness crisis and rising gun violence.
A Democrat, the mayor has championed liberal causes, such as increases in L.A.'s minimum wage and local ballot measures that raised billions of dollars to build homeless housing and transit lines.
Still, critics viewed him as someone whose personal ambitions — he spent two years floating himself as a possible presidential candidate — at times eclipsed his focus on the city.