OAKLAND - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa caused a stir when he told Yahoo News the other day that he'd like to be governor.
It's a feeling the current governor, Jerry Brown, can understand.
"Join the club," Brown said when asked at a press conference in Oakland about his fellow Democrat's remark. "That's a sentiment that is not alien to me, so I wouldn't begrudge anyone wanting to be governor. But I think they should reflect on it, because it's not all it's cracked up to be.
"Not to say that I'm not happy in my vocation," Brown said, "or in any hurry to vacate it."
Villaraigosa, chairman of the Democratic National Convention this summer, told Yahoo News he doesn't want to be president.
"The job I've said to people I would like is I would like to be governor of the state of California," he said.
The timing of his ambition isn't clear. Villaraigosa, who is termed out next year, has long been considered a potential statewide officeholder. The former Assembly speaker elected not to oppose Brown in the 2010 election.
"I think I'm going to take a time out. I'll probably associate with a think tank or a university," Villaraigosa told Yahoo News of his immediate post-mayoral agenda. "I want to write. I want to read. I'll probably speak around the country. I certainly get enough invitations."
Brown, governor before from 1975 to 1983, has not yet said if he will run for re-election in 2014, though his top political adviser, Steve Glazer, has said he expects him to.
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