Putting Head Over Heart : Molina says no to L.A. mayor race to stay on County Board of Supervisors

Were Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina a candidate for Los Angeles mayor in next April’s election, she might well be the prohibitive favorite in an already crowded race. So it was no easy thing for her to resist the perfervid entreaties of her supporters, especially in the Latino community, that she run for Los Angeles’ most visible--but by no means most powerful--job. She made the right call.

In her 20 months on the board, Molina has managed to shake up county government and inject much-needed blasts of fresh air into a staid, cozy bureaucracy. Though her patented abrasive style hasn’t gone over big with most other supervisors, it has given her a great image with taxpayers increasingly frustrated with local government. No surprise, then, that public opinion polls on possible mayoral candidates consistently have Molina ahead of the many other candidates--all men so far--who want to replace the retiring Tom Bradley.

Molina admitted at a press conference announcing she would not run for mayor that she would dearly love to have the top job at City Hall someday. But for now, her intelligence has won out over her heart: Although the county’s five supervisors don’t have the visibility the city’s one mayor has, each of them controls more money and arguably has more power.

And now that the board will soon have its first elected African-American--Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who defeated state Sen. Diane Watson in a razor-close contest--Molina will on appropriate occasions want to abandon the confrontational style and work quietly to push county government in a more open, progressive direction. That may not be as good for the ego as being mayor, but it is very good for Molina’s constituents, and all Los Angeles.