Builder's group urges Kevin Johnson to run for third term
The political advocacy organization Region Builders Inc. has announced a "preemptive" endorsement of Mayor Kevin Johnson in hopes of seeing him run for a third term as mayor in 2016.
The action was announced Wednesday by Josh Wood, CEO of Region Builders. It follows an announcement by Johnson this week that he has hired a Democratic Party campaign director as a senior advisor.
“It's clear we need the mayor to run for a third term," said Wood. “We’re endorsing him and showing him that if he decides to run, the most powerful business group in Sacramento as far as supporting candidates and elections will be behind him.”
Officials with the mayor's office did not return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.
Wood has worked closely with Johnson for the last few years. He was a chief architect of Johnson’s failed Measure L campaign, which would have reorganized the city under a "strong mayor" system. In 2013, Wood regularly flanked the mayor in events to rally support around the downtown arena.
And more recently, Wood recently served on the mayor’s task force on income inequality, which proposed a new minimum wage for the city earlier this month.
Sacramento political observer Barbara O'Connor said she did not know whether Johnson would run for a third term, but presumed that officials from Region Builders "have talked to him and want to cancel any competition for mayor."
"It's one of two things. They anticipate his running and want an early endorsement, or they are pushing him to run," said O'Connor, who is emeritus professor of communications for California State University Sacramento.
Speculation has grown in recent months whether former Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg would run for mayor. Steinberg has publicly said he would not upstage Johnson if Johnson sought a third term, but sources have said that Steinberg continues to privately discuss the possibility of a run.
The Region Builders announcement arrives two days after Johnson announced that he hired Crystal Strait as senior director of intergovernmental affairs. Strait, who most recently served as chief of staff to state Sen. Richard Pan, has worked as political director for both the California Democratic Party and for the re-election of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s in 2010.
“Crystal’s extensive experience is huge in our efforts to continue moving Sacramento forward,” Johnson said in a statement on Monday.
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