Portal:Hispanic and Latino Americans/Selected Individual/17

Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa (/ˌviːəraɪˈɡoʊsə/; né Villar Jr.; born January 23, 1953) is an American politician who served as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013. Prior to being elected Mayor he was a member of the California State Assembly from 1994 to 2000, the Democratic leader of the Assembly from 1996 to 1998, and the Speaker of the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2000. After leaving the State Assembly due to term limits he was elected to the Los Angeles City Council from 2003 until he was elected Mayor in 2005.

Villaraigosa is a member of the Democratic Party, national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, a member of President Barack Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board, and Chairman of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in September 2012.

He ran for Mayor in 2001 against Los Angeles City Attorney James Hahn, but lost in the second round of voting. He ran again in 2005 in a rematch against Hahn and won. During his tenure as Mayor, he gained national attention for his work and was featured in Time's story on the country's 25 most influential Latinos. However, in June 2009, Villaraigosa made the cover of Los Angeles Magazine, titled "Failure," with an accompanying article written by Ed Leibowitz, which claimed that Villaraigosa often confused campaigning with governance, wasted 22 weeks in his first term trying to take over the school board, and did little to help education in the City of Los Angeles. He was the third Mexican American to have served as Mayor of Los Angeles, and the first in over 130 years. He was term limited and could not run for re-election in 2013. Villaraigosa is open to running for Governor of California sometime in the future. (more...)