Progressive City Leaders

The ranks of progressive officials at the municipal level are growing, as activists run for and win mayoralties and City Council seats. Here are eight local leaders who have already jumped beyond the boundaries of their communities to address state and national issues. They've done so with an effectiveness that has drawn attention and talk about their seeking higher office.

Antonio Villaraigosa: Mayor, Los Angeles

The first time Antonio Villaraigosa ran for mayor of America's second-largest city, in 2001, he did so as the candidate of a progressive coalition of Latinos, labor and white lefties. But a key element of the coalition was missing: African-Americans, most of whom backed Villaraigosa's opponent, James Hahn, a moderate Democrat, who won the election. Over the next four years Villaraigosa worked to earn the confidence and the endorsements of key players in the African-American community, such as Representative Maxine Waters, who had supported Hahn in 2001, and City Councilman Bernard Parks, the firing of whom as police chief soured many African-American voters on Hahn. On May 17 Villaraigosa ousted Hahn, and already he's planning to toss lobbyists off city boards and commissions; implement the LA-Rx prescription-drug discount program, which he initiated while serving on the City Council; and promote a massive initiative to develop affordable housing in a city with one of the lowest home ownership rates in the country. Villaraigosa's experience at the local and state levels of government (he's a former speaker of the State Assembly) and at the street level (he's also a former union organizer) holds out the prospect that he will emerge not just as the country's most recognizable Latino mayor but also as its most prominent spokesman for progressive ideas about governing.

Rocky Anderson: Mayor, Salt Lake City

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