Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will not run for California governor in 2010, as announced on Monday afternoon on CNN.
Villaraigosa, in his second, four-year term with Los Angeles, said on the show that he hopes to pay all his attention to fixing the financial situation in his city.
“I can’t leave this city in the middle of a crisis,” Villaraigosa told the network’s anchor Wolf Blitzer.
According to a poll by the Los Angeles Times, Villaraigosa received a job approval rating from 55 percent of those surveyed.
The 56-year-old mayor said he had been making up his mind for a long time.
Last week, Villaraigosa was selected as second vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has already announced his candidacy for the democratic nomination.