First of two parts
[img]1915|right|Mehaul O'Leary||no_popup[/img]For the new Mr. Vice Mayor, Mehaul O’Leary, it definitely will not be over when it’s over.
On these warm spring afternoons, Mr. O’Leary is confiding to pals that when he is termed out in two years on the City Council, he is considering moving a short distance, over the line, into Los Angeles.
After all, a guy has to live in the city if he is going to run for an office inside Los Angeles City Hall.
In some scenarios, he zeroes in on the office held for the past 10 months by Eric Garcetti at the crown of tall, distinguished City Hall.
At 48 years old, with his most productive, prolific years north rather than south of him, the vigorously energetic Mr. O’Leary has no intentions of slinking into shadows when he reaches 50.
For the Irishman, Sacramento does not pack nearly the sheen, the magnetic appeal, that downtown does.
“I am going to leave all of my options open,” the second most equal City Councilman said this afternoon.
Competing for Mayor Garcetti’s chair that is barely warm at this point?
“I am not ruling out any office,” Mr. O’Leary said.
“I have reduced my ambition from President of the United States,” he said with a chuckle, and that was the only fiction-flavored line in the entire interview.
Obviously, he means to continue in politics after his 2016 farewell.
“I believe politics won’t leave me.”
As for downtown, “any and all options are on the table,” although no one has heard him mention a seat on the Los Angeles City Council – yet.
“I have told people that if I see Mayor Garcetti is faltering, and there is an opportunity – remember Mayor Villaraigosa was elected after Mayor Hahn’s first term – we will see how that plays out.”
