Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he plans to open the group’s first meeting by listing three objectives: "helping Americans build their future," "helping Americans find their dreams" and "helping Americans live well." | Buda Mendes/Getty Images Garcetti, possible 2020 hopeful, launches innovation group

Prospective presidential candidates tend to launch PACs to pump money into campaigns of people who might prove helpful. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is starting a nonprofit with other mayors, union leaders and business executives to fund what they call innovation investments around the country.

Called Accelerator for America, the group will hold its first meeting Nov. 7 and 8 in South Bend, Indiana, timed to coincide with the anniversary of last year’s election. The second meeting is already booked for February, in Columbia, South Carolina.


Garcetti announced on Sunday that, as expected, he wouldn’t run for governor of California in 2018, writing on Twitter, “I am passionate about my city and my family; both are here in Los Angeles.” But skipping a statewide run now clears him to continue his exploration of national politics. He was reelected earlier this year, and his second term will last 5½ years — through 2022 — because of a change in the election schedule.

The mission of Accelerator for America is to provide strategic and educational support in cities, counties and states where there are ballot initiatives for infrastructure funding. Leaders of the group will also look to invest directly in existing organizations that promote jobs and skills training that they believe can be scaled out around the country.

They begin with $1 million in funding, half of which comes from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. More money is expected.

Garcetti, who’ll be chairing the group’s advisory council, said the inspiration for it came from the success of last year’s Proposition M in Los Angeles, which authorized $120 billion for infrastructure investment over the next decade. Its passage contrasted with the failure of the Trump administration to provide any details — let alone launch a legislative push — for its promised $1 trillion infrastructure plan.

“America’s cities are here, with all due respect, to help save D.C.,” Garcetti said. “We’ve all seen so many panels and plans and promises, but what we’re missing is quick action.”

On the stump, Garcetti has used a line about wanting “a Democratic voice in local politics, a local voice in Democratic politics,” and he says, “I realized the same thing could be said in a nonpartisan way — a local voice in national politics, a national voice in local politics.”

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Garcetti said he plans to open November’s meeting by listing three objectives: “helping Americans build their future,” “helping Americans find their dreams” and “helping Americans live well.”

When it’s pointed out to him that this sounds like presidential rhetoric — especially in the context of a politician who this year has given a speech in the swing state of Wisconsin, spent a day campaigning in New Hampshire and made frequent appearances at national Democratic events — he said, “I hope it’s not my platform — I hope it’s a platform for local leaders.”

Garcetti, whose jobs group will happen to take him to Indiana and South Carolina, added, “I’m certainly not waiting for the next presidential election to get started.”

Longtime Garcetti aide Rick Jacobs will serve as CEO of the group, which is in the process of being incorporated as a 501(c)3.

Each member of the advisory council is being asked to make three suggestions for initiatives to back, and they’ll look to take applications as the group develops.

“The more we can do to link up the capital and expertise that’s on the coasts with the needs in the middle of the country, the better,” said South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who helped develop the concept for Accelerator for America with Garcetti following conversations at meetings of the U.S. Conference of Mayors over the summer.

Doug McCarron, general president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, pointed out that Proposition M is expected to create 465,000 jobs over 40 years.

“We take that show on the road, and we show different cities and counties what can be achieved locally,” McCarron said. “There’s got to be an uprising of spirit at the local level. It’s really easy to point fingers at Washington.”

The other advisory council members are Mayors Megan Barry of Nashville, Tennessee, Steve Benjamin of Columbia, South Carolina, and Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio; Washington state Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib; James Callahan, general president of the International Union of Operating Engineers; Cheryl Dorsey, president of Echoing Green; Michael Dubin, founder and CEO of Dollar Shave Club; Angela Glover Blackwell, CEO of PolicyLink; Swati Mylavarapu, CEO of Incite.org; Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of Social Capital; and Rob Slimp, president and CEO of HNTB.

All the elected officials involved so far are Democrats, but the group does expect to add Republicans to its advisory council.

