L.A. Mayor Garcetti Calls Himself an ‘Older, Straighter’ Pete Buttigieg

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, left, speaks at a news conference in L.A. on Feb. 13, 2020. At right, Pete Buttigieg speaks at a event for his 2020 presidential campaign in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on Feb. 10, 2020. (Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times and Win McNamee / Getty Images)

by: Los Angeles Times

Posted: Feb 13, 2020 / 07:03 PM PST

Updated: Feb 13, 2020 / 07:03 PM PST

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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s dream of a 2020 presidential run may be over, but he’s still comparing himself to the field of Democratic candidates.

Garcetti, 49, quipped that he’s an “older, straighter Pete” Buttigieg during a speech Thursday, likening himself to the former South Bend, Ind., mayor because they both served in the Navy Reserve. Both politicians also are Rhodes scholars and play the piano.

It wasn’t the first time Garcetti has linked himself to Buttigieg, 38, now a top-tier presidential candidate who came in second in this week’s New Hampshire primary.

“It’s nice to have Pete be like my mayoral avatar, to show that the theory was correct and that there is, I think, a hunger for a new, outside-Washington mayoral leadership,” Garcetti told the Atlantic earlier this year.

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