• Mayor Villaraigosa blasts Republicans on immigration

    By NBC's Jamie Novogrod

     

    DES MOINES, Iowa – Speaking to Democratic activists at a fundraising dinner here on Saturday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lashed out at the Republican Party and said a Mitt Romney presidency would halt progress won under President Barack Obama.

    "Today, between the Tea Partiers, the climate change deniers, the birthers and the flat-earthers, I hardly recognize the Republican Party anymore," Villaraigosa said, telling the crowd that as a mayor he has sought to work across party lines. 

    "Republicans used to stand for something,” he said. “And now they just stand in the way." 

    Villaraigosa was in Des Moines to headline the Iowa Democrats' Jefferson Jackson dinner, the state party's annual marquee fundraising event. 

    In an interview, he called the invitation a great honor. Past keynoters have included other Democrats on a national trajectory, including a turn in 2007 by then-candidate Obama.

    But if it seems like Villaraigosa is eyeing a White House bid, he wouldn't say.

    "My aspiration right now is to get the president elected," he told NBC News. 

    Villaraigosa will be term-limited next year in Los Angeles and said he wants to "finish strong." 

    Though he supported Hillary Clinton for president in 2008, he has since emerged as a visible surrogate for President Obama. 

    In September, he served as chairman of the Democratic National Convention, helping to raise the profile of the Hispanic community at a time when both parties are battling over the country's largest-growing demographic.

    Villaraigosa said during the interview that he predicted Obama would win more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote in August – a time when the president, though still enjoying an advantage, was polling in the low 60s. 

    "I still maintain that when it's all said and done, Latinos will vote overwhelmingly for President Obama," Villaraigosa said Saturday.

    He cited Republican opposition to the DREAM act, which would provide a path to citizenship for children who moved to the United States illegally as children, and which he said Republicans say is a "handout."

    Asked about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the rising Republican star who makes frequent references to faith, family and free market principles – ideas that some conservatives say will lead Hispanics to the Republican Party – Villaraigosa was polite but said the GOP has "gone so far to the right."

    "I have a lot of respect for him," Villaraigosa said of Rubio. "But that's not the point of view reflected in the Latino vote."

    (Rubio has said the Republican Party needs to soften on immigration, and has proposed alternative legislation which would not include the DREAM Act's pathway to citizenship.)

    While Villaraigosa called for moderation from the right, he was outspoken in his defense of the broad reforms enacted by the Obama administration that Republicans have called divisive and have pledged to undo.

    During his speech, he called the election a decision on the country's "fundamental direction."

    "What people don't realize about those first two years with Nancy Pelosi and Democratic majority in the House and Senate, and President Obama," he said, "it actually was the most productive congress since the Johnson administration."

     

  • Villaraigosa: Republicans 'can't just trot out a brown face'

    By Michael O'Brien, NBC News

     

    Updated, 1:30 p.m. - TAMPA, Fla. -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said that Republicans "can't just trot out a brown face" to make inroads with the Latino community, an increasingly important growing bloc.

    As the GOP prepares to showcase some of its rising Hispanic stars during the next two days of its national convention, the Democratic mayor dismissed Republican overtures toward Latinos as insincere.

    "You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate," Villaraigosa said at a press conference here organized by the Democratic National Committee.

    Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., joins The Daily Rundown to talk about the convention and diversity in the GOP.

    "People are going to vote just like Anglos do, just like African-Americans do, and virtually every demographic group. They vote for people based on what they say, what they've done, and what they're going to do," he later added.

    Among the Latinos speaking in Tuesday's Republican National Convention programming are Rep. Francisco Canseco, R-Texas. Sher Valenzuela, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Delaware, Republican Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Texas GOP Senate nominee Ted Cruz.

    But, other staunch opponents of illegal immigration -- like Iowa Rep. Steve King, who's speaking as well on Tuesday -- will also be among the featured voices in the day's program.

    "I don't think it's going to do much for him, frankly," Villaraigosa said of the GOP's overall message.

    The Los Angeles mayor predicted that President Barack Obama would win "close to 70 percent" of the Latino vote in his re-election effort; Romney advisers have set a goal in the upper-30th percentile in targeting Hispanic voters.

    Latino voters are of particular importance in swing states like Colorado, Florida and Virginia -- a sign of shifting demographics that Republicans have worried would put them at a long-term political disadvantage unless they were to become more welcoming of Latinos.

    Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Romney, said in response to today's Democratic bracketing event: "Today, as we learn that more than a quarter of Democrats believe President Obama does not have a clear plan for creating jobs, his surrogates in Tampa continued to launch false and baseless attacks against Governor Romney.  The facts speak for themselves – with 23 million Americans struggling for work, nearly one in six Americans living in poverty, and median incomes declining, the Obama campaign cannot defend a record of broken promises and failed policies.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have a plan to strengthen the middle class by creating jobs and turning around our economy."