In S.F., Agnos, Campos back Villaraigosa

Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democratic candidate for governor, was in the Mission District on Friday, collecting cheers and support that a former mayor of Los Angeles doesn’t expect from a local crowd.

The incongruity didn’t escape Art Agnos. “People wonder why the former mayor of San Francisco is endorsing the former mayor of Los Angeles,” he said. It’s because “he’s the best one to represent ... every city in California.”

Agnos, who was joined in his endorsement by former Supervisor David Campos and Supervisor Aaron Peskin, could have added that it’s because Villaraigosa isn’t Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the former San Francisco mayor whom polls list as the front-runner in the June 5 primary.

“The economy led by Gavin Newsom, (the late Mayor) Ed Lee and others left out many in this neighborhood,” Campos said. Villaraigosa “gets it that (the rising economy) has to include everybody.”

Agnos styled Newsom as a “Davos Democrat,” more interested in hobnobbing with the world elite than dealing with local problems.

Villaraigosa “stuck to the job,” he said. “He’s the one who will remember you and the difficult issues facing the state and the cities.”

The charges prompted a quick response from Newsom’s campaign.

“San Francisco voters elected and overwhelmingly re-elected Gavin as mayor because he had the courage to make real change — enacting universal health care, jumpstarting the same-sex marriage movement and implementing universal preschool,” said Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom. “Villaraigosa accomplished none of these as mayor.”

Villaraigosa said he wouldn’t forget San Francisco and the Bay Area if he is one of the top two finishers in the primary and advances to the fall campaign.

“I’ll stake a claim in San Francisco ... so you can kick the tires of the two candidates for governor,” he said.

While he praised Gov. Jerry Brown for pulling the state out of a financial hole during his eight years in office, Villaraigosa was less enthusiastic about the governor’s unwillingness to spend the state’s growing surplus. On Friday, Brown proposed banking $7.6 billion of an $8.8 billion windfall next fiscal year.

Restoring local redevelopment agencies to help cities build housing and focusing on early childhood education are worthwhile priorities that will cost money, Villaraigosa said.

“Those are a couple of things we should do with some of that surplus,” he said.