LOS ANGELES _ Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Tuesday that he will not run for president, declining to take a long-shot gamble that Democrats will pick a little-known local official to challenge President Donald Trump.
After nearly two years of flirting with the idea that he could leap from City Hall to the world's most powerful job, the mild-mannered mayor reached a decision in keeping with his reputation for avoiding political risk. He passed up a chance to run for governor last year when the odds seemed stacked against him.
Garcetti's announcement came after settlement of a teachers' strike that upended the daily life of hundreds of thousands of people for over a week. The mayor of L.A. has no authority over public education, but Garcetti took a high-profile role in facilitating contract settlement talks at City Hall.
Garcetti's decision also followed disclosure of a search warrant seeking email and other records that involve two of his appointees for an FBI investigation of possible bribery, extortion and money laundering at City Hall.
Authorities have not charged anyone with a crime, and no one has accused Garcetti of wrongdoing. But the mere existence of the investigation marked a serious setback for a mayor with little name recognition beyond Southern California.
The mayor's options for advancing to higher office are limited.
Under term limits, Garcetti must step down as mayor at the end of 2022. If newly elected Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat, runs for a second term, Garcetti could effectively be blocked from seeking that job until 2026.
Another path might open for Garcetti, 47, to capture one of California's two seats in the U.S. Senate, but he faces obstacles.
Sen. Kamala Harris is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. If her campaign falters, Harris would be up for re-election to the Senate in 2022, and it could be tough to unseat her in a primary.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, another Democrat, was re-elected in November, and her term won't expire until 2024. If Feinstein, 85, leaves office early, the governor would name a successor. Other Democrats, such as California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, would probably vie for that appointment too.
Historically, L.A. mayors stumble when they seek higher office. Antonio Villaraigosa, Richard Riordan and Tom Bradley each ran for governor and lost.
"There's just something about being mayor of a megalopolis that dominates a state that is a turn-off to voters elsewhere in the state," said Democratic consultant Garry South of Los Angeles, who described Garcetti as "bright, engaging and talented."
"It doesn't mean that history is determinative," South said. "But I think a mayor of L.A., no matter how good they are, just starts out with one strike against them in running for higher office."
The last mayor of Los Angeles to run for president was Sam Yorty in 1972. He failed to win a single delegate in his quest for the Democratic nomination to run against President Richard Nixon.
The trouble that mayors face in seeking bigger jobs is not unique to Los Angeles. No mayor has ever vaulted straight to the presidency without serving in higher office.
"There's just no evidence that you can run credibly for president as a sitting mayor," South said.
Garcetti, who served 12 years on the City Council, including six as council president, won a second term as mayor in 2017 with 81 percent of the vote in a race with token opposition. He campaigned on raising the minimum wage, cutting business taxes and backing ballot measures to expand public transit and house the homeless.
The surge in homelessness on Garcetti's watch would have posed a huge challenge in a presidential race. Tent encampments have sprouted across freeway overpasses and underpasses and along sidewalks, alleys, beaches and river banks.
For more than a year, Garcetti has been making frequent trips outside California, including visits to Iowa, New Hampshire and other states with key presidential contests. He formed a political action committee, the Democratic Midterm Victory Fund, that paid for his travel and donated money to more than half a dozen state parties that could be useful to him in the future.
In speeches, he cast Washington as corrupt, inept and divisive, suggesting mayors have been more effective at tackling concrete problems like climate change by cutting carbon emissions.
