[img]1048|left|Jim Clarke||no_popup[/img]Fourth in a series
Re “Clarke Scales the Ladder to Become Politically Influential”
“Here we are in Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States,” Jim Clarke, a principal advisor to and strategist for Mayor Villaraigosa, was saying, “but we are 3,000 miles away from Washington, D.C. There is a basic feeling that interest in what happens here dies somewhere around the Mississippi River.
“We have to figure out how do we…
“First, though, we are going to have a new challenge now with a Republican Congress. We are a Democratic state, a very Democratic city, and we have a mostly Democratic congressional delegation. How are we going to work with the Republicans in charge of Congress?”
And what is the answer, the Director of Federal Relations, Legislative & Intergovernmental Relations was asked?
“The answer is to indicate how it is about more than just Los Angeles,” the Culver City resident said. “We are 1 percent of the nation’s population. We are No. 1 in manufacturing. We are No. 1 in small businesses. We are the most diverse city in the United States. Take almost any topic, and we are No. 1.
“For good or bad, we are No.1. You want to deal with a gang violence issue? Do it here in Los Angeles. But we also are doing very innovative types of programs nationally.
“We are to say to folks, ‘Here is a good place to come and invest federal dollars, state dollars in solutions.”
Is Los Angeles a difficult sell?
“It is — because of geography and now because of politics.
“Frankly, and the Mayor talks about this all of the time, there was a noticeable change when we went from George W. Bush as President to Barack Obama. In the course of two years, the Mayor probably has been in 10 meetings with Obama.”
For your office, is the nature of the Congress more important than who is in the White House?
“Could be both. Things can be driven from either direction. We have a big (regional transportation) initiative that we are looking at called 30-10, the acceleration of 12 major transit projects into 10 years where it normally would take 30 years through a sales tax increase, Measure R, for which the Mayor deserves great credit. He was able to get that two-thirds popular vote through in November of ’08 when we were starting to go into the recession.
“We have the ability to pay for these projects. But what we are saying to the federal government is, if we could find a way to partner with you, to accelerate these projects, we can get them done obviously quicker. We can put people to work sooner, clear up the air quality a lot quicker. And the costs go down because you are paying for things sooner rather than later. So we are able to save money.
“This is something we are working on with the Congress, but we also need to get the administration on board with us.
“We do have a Washington office and a Sacramento office staffed by a couple people. We are facing budget cuts we have to do in the city. As a result of that, I used to travel almost all the time when the Mayor would go back to D.C. Now we rely on the office there. I still go back three or four times a year.”
(To be continued)
