“I never say no,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said this week when asked about the governor’s race. | Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Garcetti isn't ruling out a 2018 run for governor or senator in California

Eric Garcetti started the week toying with a 2020 presidential run on a trip to New Hampshire, but the Los Angeles mayor is still keeping his options open for a 2018 run closer to home.

That includes next year’s open governor’s race, and possibly a Senate race, should Sen. Dianne Feinstein decide not to seek a fifth term.


“I never say no,” Garcetti said this week when asked about the governor’s race, which he said he’ll make a decision about in September. “I realize that I need to, because I have enough people who have said, ‘Are you in that race, or not?’ I need to definitively give them an answer. I need to definitively think it through.”

If Garcetti entered the race, he’d be going up against a full field of Democrats, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Treasurer John Chiang. A June poll showed Newsom with just 22 percent, and Villaraigosa with 17 percent. California has a top-two finisher for the general, not a primary.

For months, Garcetti had said that he’d decide only after Los Angeles' bid for the Olympics was decided. It effectively was a month ago through an arrangement that will give the games to Paris in 2024 and to Los Angeles in 2028, but the vote isn’t until mid-September.

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“We’ve won now, but we haven’t officially won" Garcetti explained. "So Sept. 13 I win and I’ll kind of turn to that decision.”

Asked about the possibility of a Senate run, he said, “There isn’t a Senate race.”

Garcetti and Feinstein share a political consultant, Bill Carrick, and the mayor is hosting a fundraiser for her.

Asked whether he thinks she’ll opt not to run and there will be a Senate race, Garcetti said: “I hope not. I hope Sen. Feinstein gets reelected. She is a dear, close friend. She is a national treasure and a California asset, full stop.”