First in a series
[img]1662|left|Emanuel Pleitez||no_popup[/img]Undoubtedly, Emanuel Pleitez is not going to be elected mayor of Los Angeles in the spring.
While he recently has met one mandatory fundraising threshold to technically qualify as a contender, no way he is going to be in the same county as the four mainstays in the race to March 5.
But if there are stars in the heavens and grass still is kelly green, this impressive, enormously accomplished young man is going to make a serious bid for City Hall in ’16 or ’20.
Unless he becomes convinced that the City Council chambers offer the most attractive accelerated path into the chair presently held – only until July 1 – by termed-out Antonio Villaraigosa.
What Generation Gap?
Mr. Pleitez is so youthful, so promising he still may be running for office – here or nationally – when Mr. Villaraigosa’s unborn grandchildren are his election rivals.
Strapping with perfectly squared shoulders, he looks like a football player. Which he was.
Tall and athletic, he looks like a basketball player. Which he was, and not that many years ago.
He is younger than you would think, even though at a glance he could pass for a decade older, and his c.v. will back it up.
Without stretching a point any more than you could with a small rubber band, he believes he should be sitting alongside the rest of the field, and he has been invited to a few of the candidate forums.
Finally, a Showcase
Newly eligible, in the last two months of the run-up to the primary, Mr. Pleitez, a native son of the East Side, expects to be a regular participant.
Three weeks after turning 30 years old, Mr. Pleitez believes he is as cerebrally qualified as Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry or Kevin James to compete for the throne atop City Hall.
You hear 30 years old, and you may think he would be easy to tell apart from the politicians he is seeking to join, but that would not be accurate.
While his experience extends all the way to the White House, Mr. Pleitez, a fast maturing businessman, is true to his East Side upbringing, politically liberal and otherwise traditional, from his storefront campaign headquarters to his college-age, energetic optimistic staff gathered simply around tables making email and telephone contacts – shades of the glamourous but long-gone Bobby Kennedy days.
(To be continued)
