BUSINESS, LABOR, ENVIRONMENTALISTS, DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS ARE STANDING TOGETHER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT:
The mayor is a consummate coalition builder who helped create a bipartisan business-labor-environmental coalition of leaders willing to stand together — even though they’re usually at odds — on the need for job-creating business-boosting transportation infrastructure investments. He did it in Los Angeles around passage of Measure R, and then did it again around the America Fast Forward proposal in Washington DC. There was, amidst the bipartisan strife, a remarkable kumbaya moment caught on video, with the mayor, Democratic U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer — the Congressional champion of LA’s cause — as well as Republican John Mica, then chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, U.S Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue, and Republican leaders including Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa, Arizona, who told the press: “We have Democrats, Republicans, House, Senate, Labor, business, lambs, lions, cats and dogs lying down together. But there’s no apocalypse on the horizon. There’s a new dawn.” The mayor’s coalition-building skills were earlier evidenced when he helped broker unanimous agreement at LA Metro on the 2009 Long Range Transportation Plan, which was based on the Measure R project list. And he worked with Assemblyman Mike Feuer and the state Legislature to get both Measure R and Measure J, which would have extended the Measure R sales tax to leverage additional financing, authorized to be placed on the ballots in 2008 and 2012.
The mayor is a consummate coalition builder who helped create a bipartisan business-labor-environmental coalition of leaders willing to stand together — even though they’re usually at odds — on the need for job-creating business-boosting transportation infrastructure investments. He did it in Los Angeles around passage of Measure R, and then did it again around the America Fast Forward proposal in Washington DC. There was, amidst the bipartisan strife, a remarkable kumbaya moment caught on video, with the mayor, Democratic U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer — the Congressional champion of LA’s cause — as well as Republican John Mica, then chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, U.S Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue, and Republican leaders including Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa, Arizona, who told the press: “We have Democrats, Republicans, House, Senate, Labor, business, lambs, lions, cats and dogs lying down together. But there’s no apocalypse on the horizon. There’s a new dawn.” The mayor’s coalition-building skills were earlier evidenced when he helped broker unanimous agreement at LA Metro on the 2009 Long Range Transportation Plan, which was based on the Measure R project list. And he worked with Assemblyman Mike Feuer and the state Legislature to get both Measure R and Measure J, which would have extended the Measure R sales tax to leverage additional financing, authorized to be placed on the ballots in 2008 and 2012.
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